New some help, inherited a bunch of stuff

C

chickenhead420

Member
So a friend bought a ton of stuff and never really used it and passed it on and I'm trying to figure out a few things.

I have:

1x MLC-4XT Master Lighting Controller
2x Lumatek lk1000 ballast
2x hoods with HPS and MH bulbs with what looks like vent tubes on them. I think they are 1000w bulbs but could be 600w.
1x 240w Secret Jardin Tent
1xChlorofi Carbon Filter
2xStealth F6 fans

Bunch of duct work, nutrients, ph down, etc.

There is also a 150w tent and another ballast and hood, but I don't room for that ATM and rather focus on the 1 tent that two going. lol.

I also got a huge pile of autoflower seeds, so I'm going to start with them for now as they can be easy and might as well use them for my learning. I think they are autoflower new york city or something.


My biggest questions.

2 lights should be enough for the tent? Would I benefit from 3, or is the size restricted enough that 3 is just going to kill my hydro more?

The light controller says to wire 240v if your ballasts support it. the ballasts seem to, but only seem to have 120v cords with them (thinner wire I take it??) I am going to use two ballasts, so would wiring it up to 120v be fine. Each ballast draws 8.8amp, so 2 would only be 17amps, and I will wire directly to the breaker box. I am like 3 feet from it and have no problem doing electrical, just not sure if I have to 240v or is 120v fine.

The light hoods, they have fan vents. Should I vent air through them to cool them and reduce heat from the lights? I assume if I do use 120v, I could use the extra outlets on the light controller for the fans so they are all on the same timer.

Do I need intake air into the tent with a fan, and another fan to intake to cool the lights and a 3rd fan to exhaust? The tent has a zillion holes of various sizes so that's not a problem, just not sure on whats good for intake, and exhaust. I'm good with PC cooling, so I get positive pressure vs negative, etc, but I'm lost here.

Good medium to start with? Will some basic potting soil from Lowes or something work? I've read 15L (5gal) buckets are good, so I can grab some of those. I've read you drill holes in the bottom to let water drain, so do you sit them in something so the water drains out, or water them outside the tent where they can drain? Bit lost on this part as well.

With the lights I have and the tent, is 8 or 10 plants a good start with?

I think that's it for now. I have the tent setup, just trying to figure out ventilation mostly, medium and 120/240 wiring.

Thanks for the help.
 
dopeleader

dopeleader

Well-Known Member
ok so my first question is whats a 250W tent?
could you please expand upon the sizes of your tent?
5 gal buckets will be good for the final product, but you will need to start with something a lot smaller for seedlings.
i would suggest a few tiny pots, say as big as your middle finger to the start of your wrist, when you see the roots at the bottom of those you can transplant into a bigger pot and repeat a few more times before the 5gal bucket.
 
sunny747

sunny747

Well-Known Member
Start with one tent and 1 light. Figure out what wattage the bulbs are. 600w bulb will light a 4x4 tent pretty well.. You do not need active air intake. The fans will pull air from bottom vents.
 
dopeleader

dopeleader

Well-Known Member
Sunny is right.
get back to me on the SIZE in centimetres or inches of your tent, im assuming if you have 2 1kwatt ballasts the tent would be about 6ftx6ftx6ft if not bigger?
you need air intake into the bottom of your tent, and extract air through carbon filter at the top of the tent (which also ducts past your cooltubes).
first things first you need to put the tent up and set your fans and lights then you can decide how much area you have left which will determine how many plants you can comfortably fit for your first grow.
 
C

chickenhead420

Member
Tent is Dimensions: 94.5" x 47.25" x 78.75" (240cm x 120cm x 200cm). so basically 4x8, so two lights for that? They are 600w bulbs.

Everything I read about autoflowers is you don't transplant them and start in big buckets and leave them.

So use 1 fan to bring air across the lights an exhaust out, and another as an exhaust into the carbon filter and then wherever I'm going to vent it?
 
dopeleader

dopeleader

Well-Known Member
close, however.
1 inline fan (outside the tent) ducted into the bottom of the tent to bring in your fresh CO2.
Hang the carbon filter inside the tent, then run a piece of ducting from the flange on the filter to the flange on the cool tube and then on the other end of the tube to the next hood then repeat and poke the ducting out the highest hole in the side of your tent.
bang another inline fan onto the end of the ducting running from the top of the tent (make sure the fan is facing the right way to pull air through.
 
$bkbbudz$

$bkbbudz$

Well-Known Member
dopeleader said:
ok so my first question is whats a 250W tent?
could you please expand upon the sizes of your tent?
5 gal buckets will be good for the final product, but you will need to start with something a lot smaller for seedlings.
i would suggest a few tiny pots, say as big as your middle finger to the start of your wrist, when you see the roots at the bottom of those you can transplant into a bigger pot and repeat a few more times before the 5gal bucket.
Click to expand...
This would have to be a pretty BIG tent to use that much light. For a grow medium I always use soil. Personally, I have never seen nor heard of God planting a seed in a piece of rock wool. Anyway I use Fox Farms Happy frog 3:1 w/perlite, and the Fox Farms nute system. Also, sorry to disagree w/ this poster...I do start seedlings in a small pot and do 1 and only 1 transplant into the final pot, I usually go into 5 gallons.

The best suggestion I can offer is to read, study, and research. A little bit of knowledge goes a long way, a little bit of ignorance can kill a plant.

Good Luck and Great Grow!
 
sunny747

sunny747

Well-Known Member
Yea, don't transplant the autos. Just put in 3 gallon pots and let them be.

I still say one light.Start small and learn as you go. Fit as many plants in a 3x3 section under one 600 HPS and enjoy the show. Run lights 20 hours per day. In ten weeks you will harvest some nice buds.
 
$bkbbudz$

$bkbbudz$

Well-Known Member
sunny747 said:
Yea, don't transplant the autos. Just put in 3 gallon pots and let them be.

I still say one light.Start small and learn as you go. Fit as many plants in a 3x3 section under one 600 HPS and enjoy the show. Run lights 20 hours per day. In ten weeks you will harvest some nice buds.
Click to expand...
OOPS did not see the AUTO seed part...I agree start an auto in the pot you intend to finish in. Just be careful about over watering and/or feeding.
 
dopeleader

dopeleader

Well-Known Member
I don't understand why you need to wire it?
im pretty sure legally for something electrical to be sold commercially it HAS to be wired properly, if it needs 240V cord then it needs 240V cord.
A 120V will not carry enough current.
 
Bose

Bose

Well-Known Member
I wish I could inherit all this stuff. Lol. Look at the ballast should tell you if it is 120 or 240.
 
C

chickenhead420

Member
https://hydrofarm.com/downloads/fc/MLC-4XTInstructions_22384.pdf That is the lighting controller. It says it can be wired 120v or 240v. 240v lets you run 4 ballasts at 1000w each. It also says it can be wired to 120v, but that would reduce the number of ballasts. I only plan on running 2x600w ballasts from it.

http://www.greners.com/i/grow-lights/ballasts/wattage/1000-watt/lumatek-1000w-digital-ballast.html Those are the ballasts. They can run at 120v or 240v. They come with a 120v power cable, but not a 240v power cable, which is really the same 3-prong standard cable, but I would assume a bit thicker to carry the extra load. They are adjustable 1000w ballasts down to 600w, which is what I would be running them at.


For air flow, this is what I came up with based of what you said?

https://gyazo.com/8912dfac75f7c21253fb1a65f9579d4f

1 fan intaking at the bottom, the second fan in the tent, blowing through the lights and then the carbon filter.


Lastly, everyone says drill holes in the buckets to drain when you water. Then you don't water in your tent do you, or the water would drain on the floor, so you take them out to water?
 
caveman117

caveman117

Well-Known Member
if the lights are wired for 120 than set up the controller for 120. something to think about is how many amps your going to be running, your lights are going to be using 17.6 amps bythemselves (which seems high to me for 600s, but I dont use 600s) so are your two fans and whatever else using more than 1.5 amps roughly? I think they probably will, which will be sketchy to run on a 20 amp circuit. so your going to need to make sure your within the limits. also ive been told that if something runs more than 3 hours a day you should multiply the amp and watt usage by 1.25 to get a safe measurement.​
 
bird mcbride

bird mcbride

Well-Known Member
chickenhead420 said:
So a friend bought a ton of stuff and never really used it and passed it on and I'm trying to figure out a few things.

I have:

1x MLC-4XT Master Lighting Controller
2x Lumatek lk1000 ballast
2x hoods with HPS and MH bulbs with what looks like vent tubes on them. I think they are 1000w bulbs but could be 600w.
1x 240w Secret Jardin Tent
1xChlorofi Carbon Filter
2xStealth F6 fans

Bunch of duct work, nutrients, ph down, etc.

There is also a 150w tent and another ballast and hood, but I don't room for that ATM and rather focus on the 1 tent that two going. lol.

I also got a huge pile of autoflower seeds, so I'm going to start with them for now as they can be easy and might as well use them for my learning. I think they are autoflower new york city or something.


My biggest questions.

2 lights should be enough for the tent? Would I benefit from 3, or is the size restricted enough that 3 is just going to kill my hydro more?

The light controller says to wire 240v if your ballasts support it. the ballasts seem to, but only seem to have 120v cords with them (thinner wire I take it??) I am going to use two ballasts, so would wiring it up to 120v be fine. Each ballast draws 8.8amp, so 2 would only be 17amps, and I will wire directly to the breaker box. I am like 3 feet from it and have no problem doing electrical, just not sure if I have to 240v or is 120v fine.

The light hoods, they have fan vents. Should I vent air through them to cool them and reduce heat from the lights? I assume if I do use 120v, I could use the extra outlets on the light controller for the fans so they are all on the same timer.

Do I need intake air into the tent with a fan, and another fan to intake to cool the lights and a 3rd fan to exhaust? The tent has a zillion holes of various sizes so that's not a problem, just not sure on whats good for intake, and exhaust. I'm good with PC cooling, so I get positive pressure vs negative, etc, but I'm lost here.

Good medium to start with? Will some basic potting soil from Lowes or something work? I've read 15L (5gal) buckets are good, so I can grab some of those. I've read you drill holes in the bottom to let water drain, so do you sit them in something so the water drains out, or water them outside the tent where they can drain? Bit lost on this part as well.

With the lights I have and the tent, is 8 or 10 plants a good start with?

I think that's it for now. I have the tent setup, just trying to figure out ventilation mostly, medium and 120/240 wiring.

Thanks for the help.
Click to expand...
Are you sure this buds a freind? Sounds like a set up.
 
C

chickenhead420

Member
Actually 600w is only 5amps each, the 8amps comes from the back on the ballast, but that's at a 1000w and I have 600w bulbs, so 600w/120v=5amps, so 10 total for the lights. I could run the fans off another circuit if that's an issue. That way too I could run them off a different timer and keep the exhaust going say 30mins after the lights go off to cool them, or should everything come on and off at the same time?
 
Dr.Pecker

Dr.Pecker

Well-Known Member
Sounds like a good deal as log as your friend doesn't want everything back after you start growing. Set everything up first. Make sure your breakers can handle the load and you can control the temps plus the humidity. Autos don't like to be transplanted. 120v is fine start with one light 2 might be overkill for now. About watering, use catch pans under your pots. Seedlings wont need a lot of light but you still want to get the room running to make sure it can handle whatever you plan to do.
 
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