First Time Grow Lots of Questions!

Hey everyone! Been doing lots of research on the forms and finally took my first steps for my first grow. At this point I am still finishing up the last touches on my small grow box, but before I go any further I wanted to pose a few questions for the experts....

I am going to be doing a small CLF grow in soil. The box I built is 30''W x 25"D x 40"H so approx 17.85 ft^3. At this point it is only a box with mylar lined on the inside. I am about to dive into the ventilation and lighting but had a few questions:

1. I plan on doing CFL with the small amount of space using some Y-joints and power strips to rige the lighting. The plan is to use both 6500k and 2700k bulbes with a ratio of probably 2:1 for veg. Now as long as I keep my temps good can I have too many lights?

2. Now looking over peoples CFL grows I have seen some using LED lights as well. Would you recommend a combination of the two? Did a few searches and couldn't find too much on LED lighting so any info or links would be awesome.

3. Along the same line I was thinking in addition to my CFL on a lowering chain that I was going to throw a couple 18" or 24" florescent tubes along the sides of my box? Would the CFL and florescent tubes be overkill? I guess this comes back to can I have too many lights as long as my temps are good.

4. To my understanding its best to circulate the air in the box 4 - 5 times a minute, so with my box circulating 5 times I am looking at 89.25 CFM. I am sure I can manage this with PC fans no problem. With a few PC fans on the top pumping out my hot air, do I need an intake fan or will a passive intake do?

5. With wiring PC fans I want to wire them up to a dimmer switch so I can lower the speed a little at night so I can sleep better and turn it up to full when im up. With this in mind do I need a 12V adapter for the fans or can I just cut an extension cord and wire it into the dimmer?

I have a connection here in town to quality seeds and clones, so I am hopping to grab clones but I don't want to get too ahead of myself cause I'm already too excited. Those questions can come later lol!

Ill try to get some pics posted of my build here in a bit to give you a better idea of what I'm dealing with. Any advice would be awesome! Thanks guys! Keep smokin

you can never have too much light, forget about LEDs and tubes.
Make reflectors for your bulbs otherwise 75 % of your light will just radiate off into space.
PC fans MUST be hooled up to a 12 adapter, a dimmer should work on it.

So reflector hood for the lights? Even with the entire inside mylar sheeted?

whats your budget for your op and ill tell you exactly everything you need and how to get 1 lbs per light

Well I used to pay $45 an 1/8th for dank and I wank to clear that with my homegrown. With that said I really dont want to drop $100+ on an inline fan or carbon filter as I dont have the worry about smell and I want to keep it kinda small and simple to learn the basics before I go bigger. The real goal in the end is to build a bigger cab and turn the one I have now into a veg cab.

With that said I have already spent $130 on materials (the sizes I chose for the box fucked me and I had to get 3 MDF boards with lots of waist), and I am willing to spend that again on lights and other stuff, maybe more. So I guess I am hoping to get this entire grow going for maybe $300ish maybe more. No real limit at this point.

the best thing for these plants are red spectrum lights, you can find and hps setup for under $200 for you i would start with either 250w or 400w. this is the most crucial piece of your operation

Well my issue with the hps is just space and heat for this grow. The hight of my box is only 40 inches, so putting a hps system seems a bit much. I was going to go CFL for my first grow.

You know that with only 40" you will have to flower them at like 9 - 10 inches depending on you container size, right?

I'm about to harvest my first grow - soil, 2 plants now 35 inches tall grown with 8CFLs and a trio of 23" T5 tubes for side fill. I used the T5s horizontally across the rim of the pots when the plants were small, so they would get light from both above and below. When they grew taller, I hung the T5s up vertically to fill in the sides better. My plants are looking to give about 2ozs each, so the CFLs can get the job done if you keep them close enough and adding a few T5s won't do any harm either... -Mandi

Sounds like your off to a good start. Don't worry about spending $$$ on HPS lights until you have the space. CFL's are great because you can keep them 2 inches away from your plant without burn... they don't emit a lot of heat, so they will most likely keep your grow box at a good temp... obviously you can use the fans to control this if it becomes an issue. Get a cheap little digital thermometer/humidity gauge for inside the box. Just make sure you use more 6500k bulbs for vegetative growth, as this stage favors the blue spectrum. Mixing in a few 2700k is a good idea... make sure you have mostly 2700k for flowering, because that stage favors the red spectrum. I also have 2 24 inch fluorescent lights accompanying my CFL's. Light=Love



These plants have only had CFL since seed... they are about 3 weeks old here. Haven't used any training on them yet.

@Captbooyah Thanks for the input! Now do the fluorescent tubes have the same kinda of ratings? Will I be looking for a 6500K bulb just like the CFLs? I looked for a second the other day and saw tons of tubes that just said plant lights, thats where I got the idea of adding some tubes with my extra space.

Another question in regards to rigging my exhaust fans. I can wire multiple fans into one dimmer switch using my 12V adapter as long as I the amps on both fans add up to less then the amps of the adapter correct?

You are very welcome. My fluorescent lights are the $10 wal-mart 24" grow lights- the box didn't give crap for information as far as color spectrum or lumen output. LOL- but as far as the CFL's... I got my 6500k CFL's 60W for $.92 a piece at Wal-mart. Brand is light of america- thats what I have in my Y-splitters. They also have 2700k CFL's for the same price. From what I have been told, fluorescents are best in seedling stages to give a little warmth and light- mine are primarily used as under/side lighting now that my ladies have grown.

Sorry, can't help you on the exhaust fan thing... have never used them myself... just a regular old fan. LOL

Here is a pic of my CFL set up for when I first started. (not current grow)

Sick man! Well I am heading out to buy my lighting, ventilation and some other odds and ends. Hopping to have the cab fully up and running tonight so I can get some base line temp ideas before I get my girls! Ill try and post some pics up tonight!

PipinYouSmokeTooMuch said:

So reflector hood for the lights? Even with the entire inside mylar sheeted?

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yeah, the light loses most of it's power bouncing that far, better than nothing though.

@frmrboi good deal I just got most my lighting and starting to design a system that I can raise and lower the lights on. With that Ill add some form of reflector to it. Well see limited space to work with but ill make it work!

Got another question for the experts. I have have a space in my cab of 17.85 cubic feet so I picked up a 4 pack of PC fans (the pack was on sale cheaper then the individual ones) for exhaust. In order to exchange the air 5 times a minute I need 89 CFM and the fans are 44.73 CFM. I am going to run these on a dimmer so I am going to go ahead and put 3 of the fans in so that when I slow the speed to sleep at night Ill still be getting enough air flow (depending on how loud they are may not even put them on the dimmer). My question is with 3 fans pulling air out of my cab do I need to install an intake fan? Or will a passive intake do?

PipinYouSmokeTooMuch said:

Or will a passive intake do?

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I would think so.
back to the reflector thing even an aluminum pie plate duct taped to the back of your bulbs would be a huge improvement.

Well I have been looking at using the the dryer vent tubing cut in half to make a fixture for the lights.

Kinda like this but way more pimped: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rs_QRorECvo

In the process of building out my lighting hood. I am using a piece of ducting and pvc piping to renforce the hood. I am about to begin wiring up the lighting fixtures but wanted some opinions. Here is what I have done so far:


My question is I have a few extra PC fans. I was thinking about wiring one or even 2 of them up into the hood to pull the air up off the lights. Let me know what you think!


Good idea?

@frmrboi thanks for all the help so far +rep

Here is a pic with the fixtures dropped in and you can see how I plan to split each socket with a Y-Joint.