major problems

i cant get them to grow. i am in a closet, with a cabinet, housing my 400hps, and exzausting with a 465 cfm fan. i cant get temps any lower than 85, even with a/c pumping into the cabinet. and my humidity sucks at 20 percent. so i canceled my new grow du to no new growth. when i turned off my hps and came back 2 days later....my temp was 68, and my humidity at a perfect 45. well, if the temp is 68 with no lights, the only thing i can think of is to go to cfl's. i hope the cfl's wont destroy my temp, and humidity as much as can anyone maybe my 400 hps. so i will be looking for a waqy to strap a lot of cfl's up. any suggestions?

I wouldn't be overly worried about the humidity. The temps is your main problem right now. 85 isn't that bad, really. I wouldn't worry about it too much.

Did you start from seed? Did you germinate them? Did you plant in dirt or hydro system? Are you running your lights 24 hours or 18/6 or what? We need a lot more information before we can help you adequately. Having the temp at 85 isn't the reason that they aren't growing. I've grown outdoors a few times and the temps soar to 100 all day long and never had any problems with the plants. Tell us everything about your grow room and we will try to help you further. Keep us posted. Take care and be safe.

Smokey's right on the button its not the temps! And we need more info on the grow to give any really good feedback

ok, here we go...i have pictures of my first attempt in my new house right here....i agree with your ideas on how it may not be the temp or humidity. but i have come to that road. i have grown before in soil sucessfully in my eyes. then i started this one in a new house, new closet, and inside that closet lies my cabinet. it has a a/c intake, with a 465 cfm exzaust. also a 400 hps, glass covered, and exzausted hood. temps are from 83-89, its summer here in s.eastern us. humidity wont get any higher than 21-22. i have a tds and ph tester, good ones made my i think millwauki. i cant spell too well as you can see. so, i tried soil first. the week or old so bagseed babies just stopped growing. its crazy, so at the time i was testing my cabinet in soil to set up for my first dwc. then the same thing happened to a bagseed 10 day old dwc plant. i am lost. if you need to know more just ask. thanks also the last 2 pics are of my old grow in the other house. the only difference was this grow is in a cabinet. my sucessful one was open in the closet. bout same temps, but humidity was better on the good grow.

Whats your soils Ph? It also looks alittle over watered if you ask me, the set up looks good the only other thing it might be is the HID light might be alittle strong for seedlings you want to start your seedlings under a floresent light I find that the seedlings start much better under floro's, hope thats helps alittle bit let me no what your soil Ph is and we''l go from there and how much water your givin her as long with the ferts you have givin it!

Phatpharmer

Hi,

It sure looks like a great setup... Sorry about your problems. I doubt if the grow issues are with the temps either as I've grown in plenty of hot spaces and always had plenty of growth just not the dankness I desired when they were too high.

I don't think you need to go with CFL's or fluoros though... I've got lots of experience at tweaking ventilation for my 2x4x8 closet so let's take a look at what you have going with your ventilation. The first problem I see is the kinks/curves in your flexible ductwork. The flexible stuff puts a bit of a drag on the airflow, especially if there are curves and bends. If there was some way you could fit a rigid elbow connector at the output of your hood to make that turn it would help air flow out a lot. Even the bend that exists in the slack duct above your cab is slowing things down.

Another small thing that will help out air flow is if you used a semi rigid type of duct instead of the standard 4" dryer hose style that you have. When I was using 4" duct I found that pieces of 4" PVC pipe really help move the air much better than flex duct but even the semi rigid duct you can get is better for air flow. Even if you used 4" PVC for only the straight shot up coming out of your cab it would help and you can get angle and elbow connectors to route your air where it needs to exhaust. If you can mod your cab to go with 6" ventilation setup it will also make a big difference.

Your squirrel cage fan is another area that could be improved. An inline fan would make a big difference. Even though your fan is rated at 465 cfm that design doesn't work nearly as well at pulling air through the lights and out of the closet as an inline fan design would. I have several squirrel cage fans in a box in my crawlspace. I haven't used them in years since I switched to inline fans. Currently I'm using a 630cfm 6" Eclipse inline fan to pull air out of my closet. I have a 40 lb carbon filter followed by my 1000w hps/mh in a cool tube and then up through a hole in the ceiling of my closet into the attic. I have the fan mounted up in the attic and it pulls enough air though my gear and ductwork without an active intake to keep my closet 75º as long as the temps in my bedroom are around 72º. It pulls the air through a passive 4" intake and the cracks around the door. The cool tube also made a big difference in my temps. I tried using the same fan with a more conventional style air cooled hood and I couldn't get temps out of the mid 80's. I think too much heat builds up inside a conventional, large hood and the heat radiates throughout the closet despite the airflow. With a cool tube the heat is pulled off the bulb before it has a chance to build up nearly as much heat.

It looks like you have an air cooled hood but I'm guessing that it's a conventional glass covered large reflector and not a cool tube with a hood? I've owned lots of different air cooled reflectors over the years but when I started growing in a 2 x 4 x 8 closet I found that it was nearly impossible to keep down the temps with any of my air cooled hoods until I got a reflector that is a cool tube design. What made the biggest difference in my setup was switching to a 6" inline fan and cool tube as well as the ducting.

If you make some changes your temps should drop enough to use your 400w hps. I'm pretty sure that if you got a similarly rated but inline fan design and a cool tube and swapped out some of your duct for a smoother airflow you'll be in biz... The best of luck to you...

Peace!

phatpharmer said:

Whats your soils Ph? It also looks alittle over watered if you ask me, the set up looks good the only other thing it might be is the HID light might be alittle strong for seedlings you want to start your seedlings under a floresent light I find that the seedlings start much better under floro's, hope thats helps alittle bit let me no what your soil Ph is and we''l go from there and how much water your givin her as long with the ferts you have givin it!

Phatpharmer

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my ph is 5.5-5.8. maybe its not the light, maybe i just put them under the hps too soon?

i will try the pvc from the top of the cab to the ceiling. i really have no room for any other way to vent my hood, as you can see, its wedged in there. i have the 465 pulling air out, your saying have a fan to pull air in too? and i dont have a cool tube, just a regular open hood. i added a peice of glass to keep heat away from babies, and then have some of the 465 fan pulling air out of hood, and cab. if you look at the pictures above, the bottom picture shows i do know how to grow, its just this enviornment is massing things up somehow. i am so confused. maybe i put my babies under the 400 too soon. i dunno? but i am ready to sprout some new seeds here this weekend.

my ph is 5.5-5.8.

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sounds about one full point low to me. That and as someone else mentioned, they look pretty wet. but a recent watering could explain that.
try bumpin' yer ph up to 6.5 or o, see if it helps.
there's a sticky with some good chrts ..
hope it helps