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indoor DIY Grow Tent - not DIY anymore

So, I scrapped the DIY and bought a BudBox! A couple of questions. I mounted a fan in the corner and rund 2x250w 6500k cfl with two reflectors. The ambient temp in the room is around 20 degrees celsius, and the temperature inside the tent when its closed with no went open gets around 35 - 37 degrees celsius. 
 
Questions: 
 
Is that temperature too hot ? (95-100F)
 
How much more water is consumed in a tent than outside?
 
Cycle, currently running 12/12 schedule. Should it be more?
 
 
 
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My experience is peppers don't mind the heat if they have plenty of water and air movement. Is your temperature measurement at the top of the box or down by the peppers? I hear 18/6 is good for lights. 
 
Finally :D
 
The temp is measured in hight of the tallest chili plant. So it might flux some degrees down where fresh air is coming in. The fan provides good circulation, leafs are dancing around.  Plenty of water you say ? 
 
18/6 is what I also what I've heard, but I think thats a cycle taken from cannabis growers and especially in budding process??
 
I would do 16/8 for peppers. 18/6 is for the other stuff-
U may want to get t5 bulbs if the can fit in there. Get like 4 blue/2 red bulbs.
Or 3 blue/1 red etc.
 
Then when they start to throw pods, go get a HPS bulb.
 
Now I have to ask, so bare with me. 
 
Why T5? Whats the point? They produce less lumens
 
I have two 200w 2700k cfl too. 
 
HPS is too much, or what? If so I would have only needed to run on one reflector. Another con for HPS for me now it that I need to get a ballast. Thats 100 bucks, and a bulb around 70bucks! But the heat output is way more is it not (radiant)? The dude at the crop shop was pretty convincing that it will do both in veg light, however, the blooming will take longer to achieve. Any thoughts on that ?
 
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And even hotter with HPS! I did open up both lower sides and one went funnel at top. That lowered the temperature to 33-35 Celsius. ( 91-95 ). If more needed I have more funnels and also a secondary fan for intake of ambient airtemp. How's that?
 
t5 you get more lumens per watt and you have to use tons of cfl's to get the coverage u can use with a few t5's. For spotting cfl is fine but not for coverage.
Light diminishes as it travels so the plants directly below the CFL will receive ~3klumen and the plants on the outskirts will receive practically nothing - way below 500. T5 will work much better as it evenly distributes the lights so all plants get their share. This isn't to mention flouros peak efficiency between 50-70w so 150w+ cfls are fairly inefficient.
 
There is a reason why t5's are used for veggie and hps for flowering stage by top growers and not CFL's.
If cost of the bulbs are a concern than stay with your CFL.
 
Ok, but not having measured anything, only observing, I get way more light now than I did with T5's. and not to mention, the tent is 75x75cm and the reflectors are 60x40. With a tweak I managed to make them 37 ish. So they cover the whole tent area. The bulbs are 48.5cm long. I know the penetration light is poor, but from what I read the penetration light from flurocient lights are poor in any given form?! HPS will come later in a bigger apartment in march with a way bigger tent and setup

End note, the HPS ballast is the expensive part in a HPS setup, whilst cfl run ballast free. Not to mention exhaust vent fans etc
 
My peppers flowers at 6400k T5 and I'm pretty sure they will with this setup too. As for what I can tell, it's way more light. HPS would require exhaust fans and tubing, too much sound and so on. I'm thinking of installing 1 140mm silent corsair fan on the exhaust and two for intake. They run at 26db and push 67cfm each. Anyone with experience!?
 
Nice growtent! I think 2 CFL's for the surface you grown on is to much, 1 is more then enough. I've got 6400K (blue) lamps also and didn't experience any problems with flowering of the plants, I wouldn't bother to add more lights (just read the reply from Jeff H, he's totally right on that part). Ventilation is key in a growtent and especially with these higher temperatures, that way you can lower those a bit. I use a 16/8 cycle as well, they need their rest to you know ;)
 
Good reply meatfreak :) that's more or less how I have grasped the subject too. Well, since I have two, ill use two. More is better when it comes to lighting? I have installed two intake fans, 200mm now, running silent as can be. They move quite a bit of air considering the 20db. And one high performance one on the exhaust of the tent. With ambient temperatures around 23/24 I have the temp inside to 28/30. The plants seem to like it. 4 has started to produce flower pods, two flowering pretty good. Or what ? Thanks for your input and correct me of needed. I'm on a learning basis on the tent and cfl
 
I saw your thread the other day and was looking at some of these in the hydro store today.  I was thinking about getting one but I might just do the DIY for now, emergency blankets and PVC pipe are a lot cheaper than those, but they sure do look nice.
 
Jeff H said:
 
Peppers are not pot. Please stop propagating this silly rumor that peppers need red light to flower. It just isn't true.
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Of course peppers are not pot, so you stop your rumor that im spreading a rumor. Im sure you can grow a pepper with a candle or a bic lighter if u wanted. The caveat to my post is not what I can get by with using the minimum. Bottom line...Doing a T5 w/ 4 blues and 2 reds, then switch to a HPS when pods start dropping will produce a much better crop then using CFL's. The only reason I wouldn't suggest MH is its too expensive, to much heat, $$ elec, cost prohibitive.  Unless you have $$ to burn and you don't care.
 
HPS will allways outperform fluorecents, but its till the heat issue and noisy ventilation :/ Over the night 13 flowers have opened up. And these are all relative new plants. Made a DWC bucket system for one lime tree clone and one citrus tree clone to see if they root up and start growing. Cant bare the water pump noise, so hopefully they grow some nice roots quick or they will be put to rest. 
 
NuHot said:
Of course peppers are not pot, so you stop your rumor that im spreading a rumor. Im sure you can grow a pepper with a candle or a bic lighter if u wanted. The caveat to my post is not what I can get by with using the minimum. Bottom line...Doing a T5 w/ 4 blues and 2 reds, then switch to a HPS when pods start dropping will produce a much better crop then using CFL's.
Click to expand...
 
 
Who ever said anything about using cfl bulbs? Not me. I said peppers weren't pot and they have no need to switch to red light for flowering. That is a fact supported by hundreds of posts on this site as well as my experience. Lots of growers use HPS all year long and lots of growers use T5 or MH bulbs all year. The peppers don't care.
 
 
The only reason I wouldn't suggest MH is its too expensive, to much heat, $$ elec, cost prohibitive.  Unless you have $$ to burn and you don't care.
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I really don't get this part. You recommend using HPS but MH is too expensive with too much heat??? You know they use the same ballast right? and run at the same wattage? and they are cheaper to purchase and more efficient than your T5 fluorescent bulbs so they are actually cheaper and cooler to run than comparable fluorescent lighting...
 
Hm, stumbled over a offer from a dude in Norway. Bought 7 complete 20L buckets for hydroponic/DWC, complete with water level, netpot, airstone, pumps, lids, everything for 100 usd (which is cheap). So I guess I go DWC now
 
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