Oh boy, cfl questions. Please help

[icupkn3]

Well I'm in a jam now. I have a 4x4x6.5 grow tent, a 600w MH light with reflector and a 5000btu air conditioner. My seedlings are ready to go into vegetation in a bubbleponics setup but inside my tent it's 102degrees with the air full blast. I certainly will have to switch to cfl's now before I start vegetation. My question is what is the most wattage I could use/purchase to compare to the MH I have. I have six plants and was really excited but now I'm worried as my girls need to get into vegetation. Would 5, 42 Watt 6500K be suffice? or a T8 or what? Need to find out fast. Thanks

icupkn3 Reviewed by icupkn3 on 02-13-2010. Oh boy, cfl questions. Please help Well I'm in a jam now. I have a 4x4x6.5 grow tent, a 600w MH light with reflector and a 5000btu air conditioner. My seedlings are ready to go into vegetation in a bubbleponics setup but inside my tent it's 102degrees with the air full blast. I certainly will have to switch to cfl's now before I start vegetation. My question is what is the most wattage I could use/purchase to compare to the MH I have. I have six plants and was really excited but now I'm worried as my girls need to get into Rating: 5

[headshake]

CFLs will work, as would t-5s. neither will compare to the MH no matter how many bulbs at any wattage that you add. if you have A/C running you shouldn't be getting to 102F in the tent. are you exhausting air?

the 5x 42W CFLs will work, but it will be much slower growing than under the MH.

are you using a MH conversion bulb? 600W is not a common size of MH...in fact, i can't recall ever seeing or hearing of one.


-shake

[icupkn3]

Maybe I need a bigger air conditioner like 10,000 btu. I an exhausting, it 's just too hot. I even have a fan on. I guess I better go with the cfl's, I know my grow rate and yield will be greatly reduced. What if I decided to use my room as it is bigger than the tent and the air can circulate better? Will I have to Mylar all the walls like inside of my tent? I know I can do it with the cfl's but I paid $230 for the MH, HPS, and reflector.

[Vancefish]

Sounds like your using an open face reflector and very little air is actually being sucked through the tent, or maybe isn't leaving through the top?

Point is, If you are using an A/C reflector with a glass seal. You pull air from the top of the tent, through the hood and out. This allows you to keep heat down not only in the tent, but the hood stays cooler and thus you can get the light closer to the plants.

Like this one:

EURO AIR COOLABLE GROW LIGHT REFLECTOR HOOD cooled dome - eBay (item 400069759887 end time Feb-22-10 12:03:12 PST)

I'm not saying THAT is the best or cheapest either, It's just the first one I found.