So I’m obviously new to growing anything but I’m very confused AND discouraged at this point. I ordered my Girl Scout Cookies Extreme from ILGM and they will be here Saturday but now I’m afraid to even start. I ordered a Mars Hydro 2X2 grow tent kit a few months ago and got it set up and started some random seeds that were in some bud I got in Colorado at a dispensary. Everything went VERY well from germination up until last week when I started preparing to flip my 2 plants into flower. I started researching and watching videos about the process and this is where all my confusion and disappointment is coming from. This whole “Light leak” thing is giving me nightmares. I am confused at to why these grow tents have vents at the bottom if you can’t use them and how are you supposed to get fresh air into the tent if you have to have it all sealed up so not even a tiny pinhole of light can leak in? Also the GSCE I ordered are Autoflowers so do I top those when you normally would a photoperiod or do not top? Thank you.
With auto flowers the light isn’t as much of a big deal. I never feed air into tent from a vent the negative pressure is good and they will get plenty of air. Don’t top autos not your first time get comfy before you go all crazy
That being said I still sit in my tent with black tape to look for leaks
First of all welcome @Marvieman. First thing to do is relax and unwind. The holes in the tent are for cable access among other things and can be drawn tight using the pull cords. My tent has velcro flaps at the bottom to let air in, yours probably has the same. Can’t seal those up as we need air to pass from the bottom and out the top taking heat with it. Where are you putting your tent. If it’s in its own room then the light leak shouldn’t be too much of an issue as you can make light traps for vents. Just need to be diligent. Leds on power cords etc are more of an issue. If you need to get someone’s attention stick @ in front of their user name and it will bring them here for a chat
I wouldn’t worry too much. Just use common sense, don’t check on them during lights out.
These allow air to exchange into the tent. I typically have a vent open that’s facing away from a source of light. Another option is to use ductwork to allow air in. This allows air in, and a couple turns later no light.
With autoflowers, topping isn’t recommended, but some of the experienced growers do. Most people recommend Low Stress Training. (LST) This will give you the best yields without stress to the plant.
Welcome to the forum!
You can tag someone using the @ sign. Like @Myfriendis410
Welcome to the forum, great people around to help you, as they’re.
Light leaks typically cause revegetation. I have never seen an auto reveg in this forum.
Get some peaceful rest!
Happy growing! 
Thank you for your reply but now I’m even more confused. LOL About a few things you said… So light on an Autoflower is not a big deal but you still worry about tiny light leaks in your tent? Also…so you’re telling me that right now I have my Carbon Filter sitting verticle inside my tent and ducted out of the tent with a 4" inline fan on the outside pulling the air from inside the tent through the filter is the ONLY airflow I need in the tent? Just what’s going out? Every other vent in my tent from top to botto I need to lock up light tight? Thanks again.
Thanks so much. Yeah at first I had the tent set up in my bedroom but then was afraid that the 20-30 minutes of TV I watch at night before falling asleep might somehow leak light in through one of the air vents at the bottom so I moved everything into my laundry room and spent a bunch of time and black posterboard trying to make that room light tight as well but now I can’t get my temperature back down in that room. Sadly I’d always heard “Ahh it’s easy to grow cannabis…it’s basically just a literal weed and very resilient” and now that I’ve delved into this a bit I find that was all a lie and that seemingly any minor thing can kill your plant. Jeez!
Imo once you start growing it is really easy always check your ph and make sure it’s in your mediums range. Keep track of ppm as much as possible and pay attention to your plant they will tell you what’s going on or if they need anything. Also don’t water to much when they are young
Yeah that’s another thing that has gotten me depressed and discouraged. I Ph my water EVERY time I water and follow the feeding instructions to the letter on my Nutrients but every time I test the 20% runoff water the Ph is at least a full point higher and the EC and PPM are through the roof in the 1200s - 2600s yet my plants have shown me ZERO signs of being negatively affected and have been growing quickly and strongly. Yesterday the first one of my 2 showed sex and I’m quite confident it’s a male so he came out of the tent yesterday and is still sitting in my kitchen. I can’t bring myself to killing him. LOL! I’m also guessing I was misled by the description of the grow tent I purchased too because it says that this 2’X2’X4 1/2 foot tall tent will do all stages from seed to harvest yet I’ve already had to move my carbon filter from hanging up above and put it on the ground and I don’t have much more room to raise my light so there’s no way I’m going to be able to keep 18" between my light and the top of the plant canopy. IMG_20200719_135317|375x500
I have been growing autoflowers for over a year now. I dont even zip up the tent.
I run the lights 12/12 and never have any problems.
So welcome to the forum and enjoy the ride. We will all help you out,
So is your tent then placed inside some other completely blacked out room with no light coming in?
dint listen to these cretins, ok do listen to em… i. Suoer high right now, and I dont grow dope in a tent so I dont know what the fluck Im talkin about … enough said. Just take some big O solid drain pipe, stuff it in the lowest hole ya got! Tighten the draw strings or tape the shit off… like whatever… my kids say that. And make an S shape out of that pipe or… bend 2 corners like around the back and then around the other side. If you make those S or corners its an efdective light trap. I would try to draw air close to the floor though as its obviously cooler, especially if your house is on fire!
My tent is in the house. The door to the room is a 15 pane glass door with a skylight 6 feet from that.
Lights on at 8 am off at 8 pm. I may go in the room and flip on the lights for a bit, the light in the rest of the house go on and off at times. I just don’t sweat it. A little light doesn’t seem to bother autoflower plants.
Awesome thank you! That makes me feel better!
Welcome.
And GSCE is very nice. You will love it.
Grows very frosty plants
look, I am a full blown stoner hillbilly so take this for what its worth.
Every piece of advice you have been given so far on this thread is solid so don’t take this as instruction to ignore them, they are all awesome. My advice is a little different tho…
They are autos, great to start with cause they do alot of the work for you. I don’t like auto dope but it will still fuuuuck ya up. Autos are great to begin and practice with tho.
Don’t sweat the lights too much, plug any obvious light leaks and tape cardboard boxes with dividers over your big bottom vents. Then fooooorrrrget about light for rest of the grow.
PH, PH, PH, PH, ARE THE TOP 4 PROBLEMS YOU WILL HAVE! get a decent ph pen, cal solution and a backup drop reagent test.
Water water water, are the next 3 things to worry about. Get fabric smart pots! They will protect your plants from you drowning them.
Next is the lught issue as addressed above. .
At the end of the day they are weeds, just grow the dawn things, relax and have fun. If you see what you think is an issue, don’t fix it! Come here fill out a ticket and you will get great info. Ilgm is like having a staff of horticulturalists, botanists, electricians and engineers at you beck and call.
Welcome to the obsession, just listen, learn and realize that every mistake you make will help improve your next grow.
This is because there is a lot of nutrients in your soil already. You can’t take out what you didn’t put in so it must’ve been there already. Just use plain water and watch for those PPMs coming down. PH being off will affect your plants nutrient uptake as some nutrients can’t move if your PH is out so address that one quickly.
If your plant isn’t worried then you shouldn’t be either. They will tell you really quickly when they’re not happy, trust me on that one. Listen to your plants and learn to hear what they tell you 
A couple FWIW thoughts.
Re ILGM GSC Extreme. I have not grown this so looked up description on seed bank. It is supposed to be a compact plant. So hopefully it stays true to form. EditoIrial note: I wish the site gave specific definitions as to sizing. Is compact <24" Is medium 24 ><30" etc. My recommendation is grow one plant to start. Be prepared to train it (LST) if it looks like it may outgrow your tent. Train it to grow as horizontally as possible rather that straight up.
The reason I bring up training your GSC X is you may want to experiment with training on what you are growing now. When you flip, it may very well double in size. So before you flip is when you need to take corrective action. This may be a combination of topping and LST training to get it to a manageable size. Note: a 2x2 for 2 photos is a tough ask. You may want to think about sacrificing 1.
I also checked out the tent on amazon. It has 2 passive air intakes and one power cord port on the bottom. The bottom is where you want to be drawing in fresh air. If the tent is in a location that is guaranteed to be 100% dark during the 12 hour lights off cycle - no worries. Otherwise you may have to MacGyver something to block light from entering the screened passive intake (a cardboard box or something) or put an elbowed tube through the power inlet port.
Good luck
Unfortunately the Mars Hydro 2X2 tent I got has ONLY the 2 rectangle vents at the bottom and no inlet ports.