Second grow don't want another failure

I had one problem after another with my first grow and i really don't want to have another nightmare like that.
Right now the biggest problem i have is heat in my tent.
I'm starting my first week of flowering in a 4x4 tent with a 600 watt cooltube. For ventilation i'm using 2 160 (250 booster flow) cfm fans one intake blower (outside of the tent attached to the left side of the cool tube with ducting) and one using as an exhaust fan (attached to the right side of the cooltube with ducting going outside the tent. Before i had the exhaust fan outside of the tent hooked up with ducting to the right side i noticed how dumb that was so i attached the fan to the cool tube but i'm only getting a 2 degree difference!
I have 2 oscillation fans circulating air and 1 6" clip fan these fans are barely doing anything to control the temp. I had the light running for an hour and in the middle of the tent it was 93 degrees at the top of the plants probably close to 98 degrees. I can't grow in these circumstances.

I can't afford a portable air conditioner.. the last option i have in my mind is buying a hi velocity exhaust fan but how much would the temperature actually change?

Not enough information to help you, sorry. We need the air flow schematic for your tent, or images.

I'll take some pics tomorrow but they won't be very good quality, hopefully we can solve this soon.

Yeah not sure need to know much more. Where is tent located, how hot are ambient temps. I run a 400 in a 2x4 closet with 1 inline fan same cfm. Have nothing pulling air in put the pressure. Ducted to attack (outside room) Closet in a larger room which is about 70 to 80 on average. Closet temps with light on 95 without air cool hood and exhaust. With it 75 to 85 depending on temps outside/in room. Not sure if I am understanding your,first description. Are you pulling out the hot with one inline fan connected to your hood and the other pulling in fresh air to the tent (not connected to the hood)?

You need at least a 300 cfm exhaust fan for the outlet on your tent. The booster fans are for the inline they don't pull the heat out like exhaust fans do. I can recommend a 6" max or vortex fan they both will get the job done. If your ambient temps are are 65-69 you should be good to go.

Thanks guys!
Basically i have 1 intake fan blowing outside air into the light and another one of the same fan as an exhaust pushing the air back outside.

I'm gonna get a vortex, i can tell the cheap inline fans i'm using aren't pulling heat out.
the ambient temp right now is 77 degrees. in the night time 60-70 i'd guess and in the day time it gets to 85. At night time with the lights on the lowest temp i get to is 83 degrees after a an hour or two with the lights on it gets to 87 and once the sun rises it gets up to 90 and when it climbs past 95 i turn the light off and air out the tent.

Hun-- for that size light- (Glassed-in, yes?) you should be running a 750cfm fan to cool it....

Then intake/exhaust need to be equal- usually- a good exhaust and a passive intake works well on tents as long as you ensure there aren't any light leaks into the tent...

And an oscillating fan for air movement....

that should fix your heat issues-- however- keep in mind the temperature of the air you are using as intake must be low enough too!

mrjamestown93 said:

Thanks guys!
Basically i have 1 intake fan blowing outside air into the light and another one of the same fan as an exhaust pushing the air back outside.

I'm gonna get a vortex, i can tell the cheap inline fans i'm using aren't pulling heat out.
the ambient temp right now is 77 degrees. in the night time 60-70 i'd guess and in the day time it gets to 85. At night time with the lights on the lowest temp i get to is 83 degrees after a an hour or two with the lights on it gets to 87 and once the sun rises it gets up to 90 and when it climbs past 95 i turn the light off and air out the tent.

Click to expand...

i had this same problem but the only fix I found that was feesable was a portable ac unit I would work on cooling that light down like LadyZandra suggested! it might be your only shot! Also I started running my girls light at night and keeping them asleep during the day so the ambient temps worked in my favor.
Hope this helps good luck!

I taped up a hose to my old window unit had temps in 90s wen I did my first grow. Ide use cfls or tubes till u fix it if ur plants are cooking as we speak

N same my timer is set 10pm to turn on n 10am on so its cooler outside

Idk about a 750cfm for just the light. Unless I misread. I have a 270 on my 600w 6" cooltube and it's perfect. Also if you are pulling your cool air in from the same room(outside the tent) that you are exhausting to you'll never run cool temps. How's your humidity? Humidity can play a big roll in cooling the room down. I was at 20% and 88+ degrees. Added a humidifier and increased it to 60%+ and run under 80 steady.

Also make sure you aren't reading any direct light temp readings.

Thanks for the info guys!
Here is an update!
I bought a vortex 400 cfm exhaust fan i just installed today!
Temps still running pretty high mainly because the exhaust fan is hooked up to the light and not taking air from the tent.
I installed an intake fan to blow cool air in the tent. My humidity has never been very low usually around 50%. I already have a humidifier so depending on how the humidity changes with the 2 new fans i might have to put it in the tent.

I will give an update on the temps to see if i need to do something else to get the temps just right.

I cannot afford an protable ac at the moment, but i will in the future.

Sorry it took so long to reply. I had a spider mite infestation and had to quarantine my 6 hydro plants. my 2 soil plants are doing just fine. but this pushed me back 4 weeks. I was surprised my plants never went into flowering due to me having to open the tent to air it out. I guess too much light was getting in.

You can suck air out of the tent then thru the light.

Heat problem solved.
Installing the intake fan on the bottom right side of the tent provides it with cool air keeping the tent from getting hot. Now I also have 400 cfm exhaust fan but, atm it's too loud so im getting a controller to lower the speed to keep it from being so noisy.
I no longer have heating issues every time i checked the temperature with lights on 8 pm - 8 am it's been at a constant high of 86 degrees and a low of 80 which is perfect for where i live.

Thanks for all the help everyone, this grow will not be like my first one!

I had never thought of that, with the resources i have atm i'm not sure if i could pull that off right now the exhaust fan is hooked up to the light and i keep the top of my tent open for extra air to get out. I will try that out in the future but right now the only place i can put the exhaust fan is on top of the tent and not inside it

if it's cool outside, why not pull the air in instead of pushing it out? secondly, you might want to ditch the glass on the hood, that shit causes nothing but hotspots and only increases temps.

I just got my controller set up, and I don't like my set up, i don't think i want to ditch the glass even but I think it'd be best if i take the ducting off the exhaust fan so it can pull air from the whole tent and just the light.
anyone else think that's a good idea?

If I understand correctly..yes. tent > light> duct'> fan.

My tent just got to 91 degrees it was hot in the room today, so i'm kinda pissed off i was hoping i finally solved this problem, i'm going to take the ducting off the exhaust fan and see what temps that get to....

dude, it's simple, if the temps are cool outside go with fan, duct and light. have the fan sitting by the window, pulling in the cool air to cool down the light.