Setting up my first grow right now. Been studying for years, and was very sold on COB lights a long time ago, but these QB and bar light styles are enticing. I enjoy doing my own DIY stuff, and won't be bothered too much if I have to assemble some of my own stuff. Currently, I'm looking at this for a setup:
Location:
- My basement. Unused room, no windows, but has a return register to my furnace/AC system. External room, so 3 of the walls are concrete/unfinished.
Tents:
- Gorilla 4x4 LITE - Veg/the occasional autoflower
- Gorilla 4x8 LITE w/ 1' height extension - Flower
Climate control:
- Either Mars Hydro Smart Vent or AC Infinity Smart vent systems - 6" fan, dual 6" filters (cannot have smell at all), with the veg and flower tents placed in series hydraulically to vent both with one fan. Thoughts on one vs. the other? Should I go 8" to vent a total volume of 344ft^3? 6" fans are rated for that volume, but with lights and additional flow resistance from the series setup, I feel like I might be riding that line a little hard.
- Should I run a hum/dehum? Should I just wait to see when I get the ladies in there and going, and make a decision then?
Medium:
I'll create my own soil, I have an excellent source of organic compost locally.
Lights -
My options:
- 3x AC Infinity EVO6 500w bar light (1 veg, 2 flower), add UV/IR bars for flower
- 3x Mars Hydro FC-6500EVO 730w (1 veg, 2 flower), add UV/IR bars for flower
- For flower: Custom 10x CXB3590 PRO9 4000K 90CRI 72v @ 700-1400ma (probably 1400, dimmable to get some of that efficiency back) with 60deg. lenses. This gives a total wattage rating of somewhere around 500W @700ma, which I could turn up a bit, if needed. These will be on DIY bars, spaced evenly around the top perimeter of the tent (height of ~6.5-7ft), and only 6-12" from the wall of the tent. From there, I'd like to add in something akin to the Mars Hydro SP6500 to run directly down the center of the area (looking for something more rectangular than square with 500w+, open to ideas), and give nice even light in the center of the tent. I'll run two (hopefully spectrum-controllable) UV/IR bars parallel with the long side of the tent. The idea behind this build would be that the COBs will be fixed at the top of the tent, and give high intensity beams of light to the ground for penetration, while the 301H/B diode light will be used for diffuse light in the center, in an attempt to alleviate hotspots and distribute light evenly across the entire canopy, including the edges of the tent where it seems no one gets great light. This would also allow me to place plants into flower and not have to move lights, as the plants should grow up into the 800-1000+umol area of the tent on their own. Just control the dimming, if required, to achieve results. I really like the new Samsung EVO chips, which are available on several lights. However, with the bar lights, it sounds like you need the lamps very close to the canopy to get the kind of light you need. I'd really like to get some of that hardcore COB beam action going on, and use the bar light style in the center, so there's plenty of penetration and well-dispersed light around the edges of the tent, as well as a central light providing even distribution across the center. For veg, I would either do a custom COB build and add supplements to it (say, 4-6 COBs (4000-5000k), with an HLG QB or similar fixture in the center), or one of the manufactured units with the EVO chips. Definitely interested in the EVO chips for veg, for sure, just dunno if flowering out autos will be worth the time to build out the COB array.
I'd like to get overall feedback on the setup, but if the question of the light would be better posted somewhere else, I can do that.
Thank you, in advance, to all who speak up!
