My new project.

[Smoke Kush]

Hello Community!!

I am finally relocating to a home where I will have 1 extra average size bedroom. I am inspired by BlazeOne's work, and I am going to do my best to model this room after his because I think it will be the most efficient for my situation

I currently own 1x600hps, 1x400hps, 2xreflectors, 1 blower. I am planning on buying 1x 1000 or 1x600 and a track system. I also will buy a carbon filter and obviously enough blowers to cover it all. I plan on covering the entire space with black/white sheeting. Hopefully my intake will be enough to cool the room as I am moving to a fairly cool climate ( I may have to buy a AC in which i would try to seal the room). I want to have the entire room devoted to flowering and maybe veg in a separate area maybe with a tent. I may just section the room off for the veg chamber if I HAVE to. Maybe if not right away, i would also like to run a 220v timer

I am still debating on media.... blazeone's basic mix, maybe fox farm (pricey) maybe coco. Open to any suggestions on this matter.

My goal is low cost, easy maintenance and high output. I also have a chiller and a little bit of hydro experience but I still feel going soil will be cheaper and easier then dealing with hydro for the time being.

I am completely open to all suggestions... anyone's ideas to improve efficiency or anything at all are greatly appreciated. I am moving in by the first of this month and want to get started ASAP. I think I am going to order and start from seed to hopefully get more reliable results.

Thanks everyone! Be Safe. Hopefully some time soon b-loads on me.


SK

 

[darwinsbulldog]

nice stuff mate, best of luck! will be watching

 

[Smoke Kush]

Thanks for stopping by darwin.

I forgot to mention that I have also considered getting two lamps instead of 1x1000 and the track. Im not sure what would be more cost effective and better for me in the long run. Again thanks for any suggestions...

sk

 

[darwinsbulldog]

mmm well if it were me, and you've more space than a single 1000 watt will cover, ie more than 4ftx4ft i'd go 2x 600watt and spread them apart by about 2-3ft but have them slightly closer to the plants, this way you'll get 1200watts and it should cover up to 7ftx4ft which is 28ft sq instead of 16ft sq so for a little more money and power you've effectively almost doubled the growing space size with available light. for me i'd always go more lamps at less wattage than 1 lamp at more wattage, they just allow you to do more. you could also have one MH bulb in one and an HPS in the other which will really give you good light spectrum coverage and so long as you move them or the plants a little each week you won't have to change them over come flowering/veg periods. also suss out CMH bulbs, they're like hps and mh in one and have AMAZING spectrum coverage. also if you can get regular ballasts not digital if you're planning on switching bulbs, if you buy digital they're bulb specific and you can't switch MH, HPS or CMH into whatever ballast.

 

[Smoke Kush]

thanks for all that db. Your right about the 2 lamps versus one, the price of an extra reflector is well worth it. I didn't think about the digital vs magnetic for switching bulbs because I was planing on having mh and hps bulbs in. Ive never really looked into the cmh bulbs but i will now for sure. thanks again.

 

[darwinsbulldog]

no problem at all mate. here's what someone showed me when i was looking into the subject a while back

http://advancedtechlighting.com/cdmed18.htm

here's the staggering difference between cmh and hps, it has MASSIVE spectral coverage.

anyway best of luck

darwin

 

[Smoke Kush]

that is a significant spectrum, on that website they only go up to 400w. I may pick that up for my 400 but i will more than likely get 2 600's and just run a couple conversion bulbs to switch up the spectrum. Maybe use the 400 for my veg area and get 3 600's if i can... so it would be 2 mh 600 and 2 hps 600 in the flower room. I think I would have to wire for 220 if I was pulling that much amperage.

 

[darwinsbulldog]

yeah sounds like you're on top of things. i'm unsure as to whether or not other brands get bigger wattage for cmh, i'll have to suss it out at some point because yeah i too want to get 2 x 600w lights for a 2mx2mx2m grow tent.

 

[Smoke Kush]

I found this...

Some basic info:

Ceramic Metal Halide lamps are currently not available in sizes over 400 watts. Philips is working on it, however there is no ETA.

The CMH lamps 150w and lower should work with digital ballasts.

250w and 400w CMH lamps will NOT work with ANY digital ballast EXCEPT the ones SPECIFICALLY made to fire CMH lamps.

250w and 400w CMH lamps will work with most good quality 250w (ANSI S50) and 400w (ANSI S51) HPS ballasts.

Read the second post in this thread.

This is the spectrum for a CMH bulb:

 

[darwinsbulldog]

ahh didn't realise they were ballast specific. ah well, might have to unleash a few extra bucks on a 400w light and ballast. but yeah hps and mh have been doing growers well for many years

 

[Stoner Chick]

also if you can get regular ballasts not digital if you're planning on switching bulbs, if you buy digital they're bulb specific and you can't switch MH, HPS or CMH into whatever ballast.

I do not understand. I have a Phantom Digital Ballast, and i can put a 1000w MH or HPS or Dual Arc in it and it auto-detects the bulb and does whatever it does to make it fire up. So, when you say digital ballast are bulb specific, implying that regular ballasts are not (which they are, unless you get the magnetic kind with the switch on the back for going between MH and HPS), what am i misunderstanding?

 

[darwinsbulldog]

i'm just going off what i was told by a senior grower, who said that digital ballasts aren't great for switching between bulbs, he said that were specific. if he's wrong and then i am too, sorry for the misunderstanding.

 

[Stoner Chick]

i'm just going off what i was told by a senior grower, who said that digital ballasts aren't great for switching between bulbs, he said that were specific. if he's wrong and then i am too, sorry for the misunderstanding.

Maybe he means the digital 600w HPS, which has no MH bulb to run. But there is a digital which will run a 600 and a 400 hps.

I had a 1000w magnetic ballast a few weeks ago, and it had a switch on the back for changing between HPS and MH. I sent that back, got a digital ballast, it automatically detects between HPS and MH - no switch to flip needed.

That's all i know.

 

[angel4us]

make blaze 1 up proud

make blaze 1 up proud

ok kush lets see some action !!! you picked a hell of a mentor /grow room/thread to be inspired by!!!! show the teacher much respect ...

 

[Smoke Kush]

ok kush lets see some action !!! you picked a hell of a mentor /grow room/thread to be inspired by!!!! show the teacher much respect ...

You are very right... hope I can come close to his results.