Could use a little guidance

Hello everyone. I'm not new to growing but this time around I'm going to be trying a few tents out. My wife is giving me 4 grand to spend max. But my brother will be sharing space with me so I'm trying to fit us into 2 tents. My list so far as I'm looking is.
2-Apollo 8x8 tent
2-600w Apollo Cool tube HPS
2-1000w Apollo cool tube HPS
(Extra) 2- Hortilux HPS bulbs 1000w
Complete set of Fox Farm nutes. Liquid and soluble
Fox Farm Ocean Forest potting soil.
2- iPower Carbon filter 6"
5- Apollo 440 cfm inline fan
My veg tent will have CFL or MH. Not sure yet.

That's not a complete list. I've got all the odds and ends I think.... Hose end chlorine filter( claims to lower chloramine, thought only RO did), humid monitor, truncheon( or another nute meter), gonna try a Co2 boost bucket, got a mini Co2 monitor.

Now I would love any and all advice given. My main questions are
1. Are them 4 HPS too many lights for that 8x8 tent?
2. Are the Co2 buckets even worth trying out? Never used before.
3. Are the more expensive nutes worth it? I've only ever used Fox Farm so I'm comfortable with it.
4. The 1000w are mine. 600w are my brothers. Are the 1000w over kill on the tent? I'm worried about heat.
5. What do I need for my water filtration wise? I used to use tap and let it sit 24hrs. But I'm going to try Recharge and it says that chloramine and chlorine negate any benefits that Recharge would give you.
6. Is that 440cfm fan enough to cool all 4 lights? Or will it be best to try and run 2 fans on them? Or just a larger one? And will I need a larger intake fan?

Im sure I have more questions that I'll add later. When I set up I'm going to start out 10 or so Autos in the flower tent. Then going to start a few strains in veg. What I want to do once I veg them up 3 or so month, (or until mature enough) is get 1 plant per light. Possibly 3 under 2 lights. But I don't want to short them on any light.


Do I have any takers? Anyone want to give me some guidance? Thanks in advance guys.

2 1k's would be fine for 8x8.

i think fan too small too. 8 inch ducting and inline fan with speed controller.

never heard of co2 buckets.

1. No
2. No
3. No.....Look into Jacks or some similar dry salt
4. Probably
5. Most likely nothing
6. No

Might want to rethink your strategy on one plant per light. Takes a lot of veg time, and uses a bunch of water/soil making them not the easiest to transition in and out of tents.

- Jiji

^^^^^^^^^^^^^What she said ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Okay so if I get bigger fans( fans I picked had the variable controller), and bigger filters. how many plants could I put in a 4 x 8 area? With 2 lights in that half of the tent. If the 1000w are too much I'll put 2 600. I can see where it's going to be a pain to move 10 gal pots in and out.. . I've never tried hydro. I can see where it is more suited for tents. I just remember how bad my whole house smelled before and the wife told me I have to do tents. Should I get smaller tents? I can see where it would be easier to keep something smaller a cooler temp

co2 in a negative pressure set up is useless, your fans will blow it out of the room as quick as it comes out of the bucket.

i don't think you need anything over 600 watts, especially since you're talking 2 lights per tent.

i would use one fan on the input end pulling through a carbon filter and the other one on the exhaust end.

i would think you could easily run 10 plants per tent, if you intend to let them grow a little. if you plan on SOG you could probly run 20 per tent.

3 to 5 gallon smart pots ought to be plenty big enough for good size healthy plants and still be able to move them easily.
2 600 watt hid lights should be plenty for a 4 X 8 tent. either mh or hps.

Okay 600s sound good. 2 in each 4x8 tent. I was going to get the cool tubes. Is it worth it to get them and run a 3rd fan per tent and exhaust that separately? Heat may not be an issue at first until I get both lights running in each. Just wanted to be prepared for later. The Co2 was expensive so its good to know that it wouldn't have worked.

i was saying run all 4 lights with the two fans, but if you're going to vent the tents separately, one fan per tent ought to be enough, but i would go with 8 inch fans. put your carbon filter on one side of your lights, and your fan on the other, with a short section of ducting to hook the two together, like this but with another light between the first and the fan. a good 8 inch fan ought to be plenty to keep 2 600 watt lights cool.

cool tubes are fine, as is a vented hood like the one in the picture. i've discovered that while the vented hoods are larger all together than the tubes, the tubes are longer, so keep that in mind when picking, the long axis of the hood is actually 6 inches or so shorter than the tube

I looked at some reviews on products and revised my list. Scratched the Apollo fans. Picked out some more expensive Hydro Farm fans and controllers. 8 inch. And will probably go with the vented hoods. I was a little worried about hanging weight in the tent. But they seem the way to go. I didn't even think about hooking the filter to the lights exhaust. That seems cheaper and more efficient. Won't cause any dust to get on the bulbs will it? Should I match the intake fan to be an 8 also? I was reading about fans in tents and they started talking about negative pressure? Not too sure until I have them in front of me, up and running.

Sorry I keep coming up with more questions. When my lights are off how long and often should I run that scrubber? And are the Phresh filters worth the price tag on them? I seen other people saying that the $90 work just as good. Thanks for all the help and responses guys.

I POWER Carbon filters will not do a thing. Invest in Phresh or CanMan filters.

Airwalker16 said:

I POWER Carbon filters will not do a thing. Invest in Phresh or CanMan filters.

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Very good to know. That's exactly the 2 I was going to get and what I was afraid of.

Grendel Targaryen said:

Very good to know. That's exactly the 2 I was going to get and what I was afraid of.

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Yeah, please save yourself the headache. Once they start stinking late into veg and you throw that Phresh on your exhaust, it's like MAGIC.

Airwalker16 said:

Yeah, please save yourself the headache. Once they start stinking late into veg and you throw that Phresh on your exhaust, it's like MAGIC.

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I'm hoping so. I grew when my wife and I met. She said I can start again as long as we can have family over. So I figured once Ive got my plants veg up and start taking clones I would just run one filtrr in each the veg and flower. I also am ordering some of the Ona gel for when I open the tents and trim. Hopefully it works!

Anyone have any good producers they like to grow? I used to do good with Blue Cheese and super lemon haze. I'm sad to see the SLH isn't in stock. But Ive ordered
Blue cheese
Martian Mean Green
Sharks breath
NYC Diesel
Lemon Bubble
Exodus Cheese
White walker Haze
I ordered 15 dedoverde haze Auto . every other strains 3 each. I grew the sharks breath before. Loved the taste. I know I can't start them all at once. But it'll be nice to have extra in case some are duds. But I'm going to order another 3-5 strains and probably another 15 auto seeds. Just so I can fill up the flower tent while I'm waiting to take clones. If anyone has something they swear by let me know! Thanks in advance

a good filter should be dust free when you get it, but i like to hook them up and run them for a couple of minutes with the lights off so i can clean anything up if it does just happen to have a little.
negative pressure just means you have enough air going out of the tent to SLIGHTLY bow in the walls, guaranteeing you dont have any smell leaking out into your house., when the lights go off i'd turn the fans down to about 25 % to keep the air going through the filter, then turn them back up when the lights go on. i doubt you'll have to run them at 100%, just run them hard enough to keep your tent under 80 degrees. the more air you have running, the easier it is to hear, and the more it dries out your room, you may end up having to get a cheap humidifier to keep things comfortable for your plants
i doubt you'll need an intake fan, just open the lowest vents on your tent and put a oscillating tower fan or two in the corners

Roger A. Shrubber said:

a good filter should be dust free when you get it, but i like to hook them up and run them for a couple of minutes with the lights off so i can clean anything up if it does just happen to have a little.
negative pressure just means you have enough air going out of the tent to SLIGHTLY bow in the walls, guaranteeing you dont have any smell leaking out into your house., when the lights go off i'd turn the fans down to about 25 % to keep the air going through the filter, then turn them back up when the lights go on. i doubt you'll have to run them at 100%, just run them hard enough to keep your tent under 80 degrees. the more air you have running, the easier it is to hear, and the more it dries out your room, you may end up having to get a cheap humidifier to keep things comfortable for your plants
i doubt you'll need an intake fan, just open the lowest vents on your tent and put a oscillating tower fan or two in the corners

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I just run mine 100% always.

So I may as well ask. What brand ballasts do you guys use? I'm looking at the Apollo. They have a warranty. But if I'm spending a considerable amount of money already I will buy something more expensive if the brand I'm looking at is crap. Has anyone used Apollo?

unless you get into the really high dollar gear, you're probly looking at exactly the same ballast in a different case. so ipower, hydrocrunch, hydropower, yieldlab, vivosun, all probly have exactly the same components inside them. i think apollo is a little better than the basic units, at least it comes with a guarantee, but unless you want to spend twice as much (or more) theres not a ton of difference

Oh okay. I have my list looking a lot better. I'm still torn between the cool tubes and vented hood. You said the tubes were longer. So I'm leaning towards hoods. But do they vent as well? Being that they're square? But yes I definitely can't spend double and pay 400 a light. I'm getting 2 MH for the veg. 600w would be appropriate there too? I vegged with 300w CFL before. Well 62w or whatever they are. They worked fine. But I want faster veg growth. Should I go with a 400 and 600 in the veg? And 8 inch fans and filters all around

veg doesn't require the same intensity as flowering does, you could probly get away with 2 400 watt mh to veg, and 6 inch fans, save a few dollars, save little on the electric bill, and still get nice results
another possibility is dimmable 600 watt ballasts, you could dial them down then work your way up to the lowest setting that gives good results