Confused about lighting

[Zah]

Hi guys, needed some advise, I want to start a small grow maybe 2-3 autos in a 30cm x 100cm grow cabinet. Not sure of what light to get that's around the 2k mark that will give my plants enough light. Seen the qb70 on growopz, was thinking that 2 of those might be enough, another option is to get the roleandro galaxyhydro 1000w off amazon which falls within my budget but I'm really not sure about these lights.

 

Thanks for the help!

 

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[SkunkPharm]

Go for the growopz lights. I would only do 2 plants in that area. They get to big for that area. Especially if you grow in 20l pots.

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[CreX]

I would rather even only do one plant in an area that small. 

30cm is barely enough for one plant

What is the other dimension?

1m high is sufficient 

30cm across is minimal. 

If it's more than 60cm deep, then maybe 2 plants. 

Is there not another option you can go for? Maybe one of grow ops lights, and a small tent? 

It's gonna sound a bit critical, but you came here for advice and I'm gonna give it to you. I think you are setting yourself up for failure trying to grow in that small space. 

If you are trying growing for fun and as an experiment then I think you will be disappointed... If you are growing to move away from buying, or are growing because danky dank is expensive... Then you will be further disappointed brother. 

If your light budget is 2k, I would get a grow ops light and a small tent, 80x80 and set yourself up for greater success. 

[Bakstein420]

@Zah I am busy with a micro grow and finding space to be a bitch. I rate 40cm x 40cm to be ok per a plant, 50cm x 50cm even better.  Otherwise they starting growing into each other and any training, defoliation or moving of pots becomes a PITA.

[Bakstein420]

@CreX is 100% right.

Check my grow diary, I started with 3 plants in a shorter but slightly wider area than you.  I have slowly removed plants due to space and I am currently left with 1.

Also you can DIY really good LED setups if you up to the challenge.  Take a look at the DIY section in the forum for LED builds.  

[Zah]

Thanks for the feedback guys, a grow tent would be ideal but impossible due to the fact that I'm planning to build the cabinet on a small open balcony, I can push the dimensions to 50cm x 100cm but that's the maximum I can go, I was thinking to do 3 plants in 12L pots to fill up that area nicely. I'm glad to hear that a 1M high cabinet will be enough which means that the height of the cabinet will not exceed the height of the balcony railing so it wont look too bulky.

Will 2 x qb70 lights from growopz suffice for the entire grow?

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[Zah]

@CreX is 100% right.
Check my grow diary, I started with 3 plants in a shorter but slightly wider area than you.  I have slowly removed plants due to space and I am currently left with 1.
Also you can DIY really good LED setups if you up to the challenge.  Take a look at the DIY section in the forum for LED builds.  

Will definitely give it a look, I love diy and know the bear minimum of electronics that will allow me not to blow my head off lol

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[SkunkPharm]

Thanks for the feedback guys, a grow tent would be ideal but impossible due to the fact that I'm planning to build the cabinet on a small open balcony, I can push the dimensions to 50cm x 100cm but that's the maximum I can go, I was thinking to do 3 plants in 12L pots to fill up that area nicely. I'm glad to hear that a 1M high cabinet will be enough which means that the height of the cabinet will not exceed the height of the balcony railing so it wont look too bulky.

Will 2 x qb70 lights from growopz suffice for the entire grow?

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Yes

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[Bakstein420]

It is @SkunkPharm and @greenkush that have really nice DIY lights.  Check their build threads.  That's what I'm planning on doing. 350w of pure LED (samsung) goodness.

[Zah]

Yes

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Sweet!

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[Zah]

It is @SkunkPharm and @greenkush that have really nice DIY lights.  Check their build threads.  That's what I'm planning on doing. 350w of pure LED (samsung) goodness.

I have seen them, awesome stuff!

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[CreX]

10 hours ago, Zah said:

Thanks for the feedback guys, a grow tent would be ideal but impossible due to the fact that I'm planning to build the cabinet on a small open balcony, I can push the dimensions to 50cm x 100cm but that's the maximum I can go, I was thinking to do 3 plants in 12L pots to fill up that area nicely. I'm glad to hear that a 1M high cabinet will be enough which means that the height of the cabinet will not exceed the height of the balcony railing so it wont look too bulky.

Will 2 x qb70 lights from growopz suffice for the entire grow?

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Alright bro! If you can make your space a bit bigger then you will be okay... If the sun never shines... 

A grow cabinet, outside, on an open balcony... You are going to have major heat issues, especially now when summer comes along... Any direct sun hitting the cabinet will push your Temps in the cabinet sky high.... Likely upper 30's...which is way way to hot. 

Is there no space to somehow keep the grow space inside? 

Alternatively... It is legal to grow at home unless the lease specifically says you cant...so If 3 autos is your goal... I would put them straight on the balcony and not give a single fuck... 

You will grow a decent 3 plants that way and he happy with the results. 

 

[PsyCLown]

I agree with @CreX and feel you are most likely going to end up with some issues.

 

Generally there are a few things required for a grow to work well:

• Good lights
• Extraction (need to get rid of stale air and ensure there is fresh air, as well as air circulation)
• Environment control (Temperature & humidity)

 

When growing outdoors, there i no need for the above as nature takes care of everything. You have the sun as your light source, wind as air flow and the weather will do it's things in terms of environment.

When growing in a confined space, such as a tent or in your case a custom built area things change a bit. Without extraction it will get extremely stuffy and humid inside and that can lead to multiple issues, if the sun is shining on it, it's going to get stupidly hot. Even without the sun shining on it but having lights inside the confined space the temps are going to sky rocket.

 

You will need to think of these things as well, what are you going to do to ensure you can control the environment to a point? You could look at installing some 120mm PC fans for extraction which will help, although it needs to then suck air in passively through somewhere and this will leave you with possible light leaks when the lights turn off... although with auto's perhaps not as much of an issue.

[Zah]

I agree with @CreX and feel you are most likely going to end up with some issues.
 
Generally there are a few things required for a grow to work well:

• Good lights
• Extraction (need to get rid of stale air and ensure there is fresh air, as well as air circulation)
• Environment control (Temperature & humidity)

 
When growing outdoors, there i no need for the above as nature takes care of everything. You have the sun as your light source, wind as air flow and the weather will do it's things in terms of environment.
When growing in a confined space, such as a tent or in your case a custom built area things change a bit. Without extraction it will get extremely stuffy and humid inside and that can lead to multiple issues, if the sun is shining on it, it's going to get stupidly hot. Even without the sun shining on it but having lights inside the confined space the temps are going to sky rocket.
 
You will need to think of these things as well, what are you going to do to ensure you can control the environment to a point? You could look at installing some 120mm PC fans for extraction which will help, although it needs to then suck air in passively through somewhere and this will leave you with possible light leaks when the lights turn off... although with auto's perhaps not as much of an issue.

The plan is to build in a rectangular duct on opposite ends of the box, one at the bottom left and one at the top right with 2 fans. Hopefully this will regulate the temp to a desirable level. I could build a cover to avoid the sun hitting the box directly

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[Zah]

I have been researching leds and I'm sold on the lm561c samsung strips, if they are the same diodes on a quantum board then 2 of those 144 led strips have an equivalent amount of diodes (288). I have checked rs components and DigiKey and they have good prices as well!
Just looking for the perfect driver that could run 2 of those led strips which are rated at 46v each, want to have the option of adding in another 2 strips at a later stage without having to replace the driver, just having an issue to locate those heat sinks....



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[Bakstein420]

Google Growmau5 and watch his youtube videos on LED setup. Think it was a 6 part video. Very informative. @Zah

[Bakstein420]

Also you can DIY your own heat sink at a fraction of the cost they sold for. Heat sinks get very expensive when you go beyond the small standard sizes.

[Zah]

54 minutes ago, Bakstein420 said:

Google Growmau5 and watch his youtube videos on LED setup. Think it was a 6 part video. Very informative. @Zah

Yeah I watched the entire 6 video series ! Great information, how would you go about building heat sinks.....perhaps I was contemplating using a piece of metal off something like a car amplifier cover but that might look a bit too diy for my liking. 

[Bakstein420]

Are you wanting an active or passive heatsink?

[Zah]

I guess passive might be the simpler option, I want to use those 144 Samsung lm561c boards, I'm not sure how much of heat they generate but I'm also planning to have a fan blowing air around the light towards a large rectangular air passage out of the box 

[Bakstein420]

Are you buying a board or strips? I would just get the strips and some aluminium U channel. You have the freedom to custom build it to the size you want. You can even add in some different spectrum strips in between.

[PsyCLown]

@Zah one thing to keep in mind is the surface area which the amount of diodes is being put onto and the shape.

Strips are often longer than QB's although far narrower so depending on the area you plan to have the lights in, you may need to get a lot more strips to get the same penetration and "concentration" (for lack of a better word) as a QB. For example when I ran 200w of led strips and Co pared it to 180w on my QB's, due to the extra length of the strips and how narrow they were, I had quite a few dark patches and I ended up reverting back to QB's as they just worked better in my space.

That being said, I have some aluminium which is perfect as a heatsink for LED strips which I've been meaning to put up for sale.
If you're in Gauteng and interested in the alu for heatsinks, drop me a PM.

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[Zah]

Thabks Psyclown, unfortunately I am in Durban, going to builders warehouse today to check for those u shaped aluminium bars, I have decided to run 3 x 3000k and 3 x 4000k samsung strips at 1050mA which should translate to approx 150w true power which I think will suffice for my 90cm x 50cm area, still unsure about the height though, perhaps 1.5m should be good enough....

[Zah]

This is where I am thus far, the final dimensions of the grow cabinet is 100cm x 60cm x 180cm which will have to suffice for 2 plants. All these were made from recycled materials that I have collected from my father in law who works in construction , hopefully by this weekend I plan to finish up the box and wire the light.

I have 2 small plants which have been under 2 x 100w ( 20w actual watts per bulb) fluorescent bulbs currently in my biltong box and they seem quite happy. Using seeds from biltong and buds, 1 white widow auto and 1 big bud auto which are currently 9 days old still in small cups which I will transfer into 1L containers before moving to their final home, 2 x 22L pots.


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[PsyCLown]

Looks good, what you gonna use to cover it?

 

You won't be able to lower the lights though?

 

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