Hi guys, longtime member totally enjoy your show even though I can’t be there every day. I’m happy to pay the membership so you guys can keep on helping people learn how to grow and the small amount of five dollars each month makes it worth it to me. Anyway I just graduated to a new 4× 4×6 grow tent and have been working on the ventilation with one intake fan and another exhaust fan. So my question now is what kind of things do I need to do to light proof these two ventilation ducts? Can you give me any instruction of how to do this? That ducting I’m planning on putting it out the window in the summer to keep the heat out of the room. Wintertime that’s not a problem. It’s really the intake vent that I may need to be creative to keep the light out. Or is there some kind of a light blocking “do Hickey” in the fan? Thanks a lot you guys and keep up the great work.
You want the fan on the top pulling out not on the bottom blowing in
Opps, then you really should not need an intake fan.with one exhuasting Just open the vents up at the bottom. now you do have fans inside for circulation?
Short answer is yes
You do need to light proof your indoor flower room for the dark cycle
I recommend going into your grow room during lights out for at last 10 mins and fixing every light leak including all equipment on small red or green lights. You are shooting for ‘can’t see my hand after 10 minutes’ in there
Growgyver it the fuck out of i
CWN
I wrapped my output duct with a full long black oversized garbage bag with a couple twists in the duct which eliminated any light. That was after fixing that same fan that it look like in your pic
CWN
One is these will be good. I used one in a window, gapped with a wooden board with a 6″ cutout.
https://www.lowes.com/pd/IMPERIAL-6-in-dia-Galvanized-Steel-R2-Exhaust-Intake-Dryer-Vent-Hood/4598558
That window will be a problem, consider how you will block light from getting in through all sources. You will need that room to be completely blacked out dark in the middle of day.
Could also run your lights during the day and off at night and that will eliminate the light from the window. Not sure what area you’re in but where I am “winter is coming” lol and the day cycle is just so much shorter
Here’s my solution, buy a few 24 in. x 36 in. x 1 in. Permaire Pad Air Filter by Flanders PrecisionAire. They are cut to fit filters for furnaces or something like that. I bought mine as Home Depot. Another brand of a similar product would work too.
Cut pieces that will cover your vent holes, I double it up by cutting a strip 2x as long as the opening then folding it back on itself. Then secure these filters, I used some command strip Velcro to keep the filter in place then taped the hell out of the edges with gorilla tape. I’ve used them for 3 cycles without issue. I generally take them off in between cycles to clean the dust and crap out of them, they are filters after all. Obviously its very important to insure that the tape doesn’t unstick or the light proofing will be ruined but its worked so far for me.
Here’s a picture I took so you can see it in action. If the lights are on in my tent I get a little light bleeding out through the filter but that’s because there’s bright LEDs in there shining like the light of 1000 suns. The considerably weaker ~60w led replacement that is in the overhead light in the room cannot penetrate the filter from the outside. Always test your lightproofing by zipping yourself inside your tent with the lights on outside of it. You will be able to see any pinhole leaks or other issues after your eyes adjust to the dark.
Hope this helps.
Link to picture: https://imgur.com/a/ZM7SUCb
Also you don’t need 2 fans. Having one correctly sized outtake fan will pull air in through the bottom intake holes. Put you outtake fan up high to it gets the warmest air when venting.
On a tent that size, an intake fan is unnecessary. In my 4×4 gorilla grow tent, I have one ac infinity cloudline t6 that runs as an exhaust fan, connected to a temp/rh controller and pulling through a 6 x 24 Phresh carbon filter. For my passive intake, I used 10″ ducting through the duct port diagonal from my carbon filter, I put the ducting through two full bends and strapped it to the side of my tent, which keeps the light out, and then I used a pair of panty hose on the end of the intake duct to prevent dust from getting in.
After you get your ventilation all done, have someone zip you up inside the tent with no light on, and anywhere you see light seeping in, you can cover it with a piece of black gorilla tape. My gorilla grow tent is completely leak free on its own, but I’ve seen cheaper tents before that needed a patch here or there.