PLL Club. (if you don't know, now you know)

[NotAllThere]

hey everyone,

New member here, Ex overgrow member some 8+ years ago, iv taken a long break from growing (not that i grew much myself due to the past 6-7 years moving every few months due to education, work and going out on research trips)

I was very keen back on overgrow with discussions about CFLs and trying some crazy bonzai micro scrogs before they were really widely considered and accepted as a decent way to grow. Soil to tip of top cola record for finished plant was 16cm! was a blackberry x blueberry hybrid crossed with a random indian landrace known for its resin! an old OG friend sent them to me from his warehouse grow / breeding house in india. (one of the reasons why i havnt been online much as i lost too many friends when overgrow went down and no other forums seemed to have the knowledge base or decent members to keep my attention! however after looking through alot on here seems like this coudl be my new home!)

And now im basically looking to get back into it! the problem im having now is as always i want to maximize output and turnover whilst minimizing cost and space!

This is where these PL-L beauts will come in! The problem im having is where to find these in the UK, i cant seem to find any ballasts that are not incredibly overpriced aquarium lights and the 55w size seems hard to find in the right colour (lots of 3000k 4000k where as i want the 2700k and the 6400k)

If anyone has any ideas where good places to look are (i would rather avoid ebay due to the high number of fake products that seem to often get sold there unless someoen has a seller / shop on there they can recommend?)

Im planning to either remake one of my old stealth hidden compartment cupboards or chest of draw conversions to blend into my furniture! im being very picky and would rather get these PL-Ls instead of using normal wasteful CFL's even the envirolight types due to the fact the top tubes are often double the distance from the plants compared to bottom tubes....thats just poor design!

LED's Look very interesting as an addition but i think that they seem to be jumping forward in technology and down in price too rapidly for me to bother investing in them at the moment

So if anyone has any tips would be awesome and if not keep your eyes out for my first grow log on here once i find and make everything!

Strains i have ready:

Shining silver haze
Night Queen
Afghani #1
Fruit spirit
Power Flower
and i should be getting a cutting of cannatonic from a friend

Peace out my energy friendly growers! and hopefully i can keep you entertained with a grow soon!

 

[NotAllThere]

Scrap that last post, got 2 2x55w ballasts on the way and 2 55W 2700k + 2 55W 6400K.

Just need to order some 2G11 sockets, and try and work out how to wire the ballast for UK plugs...All the guides i can find either have no pictures up anymore or are for american and im not too keen on losing power / giving myself a personal defib!

 

[rives]

Is anyone else having problems seeing NotAllThere's posts? When I look at "My Posts", it shows him as having a post here, and when I go to his page it shows two. The last post that I can see is #760 by Vinnie. I think that I will get in touch with Skip.

*edit* weird - now that my post is here, I get a new page added on and see NAT's posts.

 

[NotAllThere]

Hey Rives,

Good to know im showing up and not stuck in some sort of internet limbo!

Just had a read through your hybrid PLL/LED and im very impressed! I think after getting a new cab set up a similar project will be my next plan and ofcourse once iv read up a fair bit about the current LED market!

Looking forward to this grow been looking through some impressive results with PL-L's, I just have to wait my time for the delivery now and ocupy myself with collecting the rest of the goods. The fans and filters and then finishing my design for the cab...only problem with that is untill i have the ballast and lights its going to be tough to make my mind up!

depending on whether i find a different cab before i start my dimesions are going to be:

W63cm x D28cm x H75cm

Its an old shelving unit im going to add either a door too, or a door / fake drawer fronts, or possibly for a laugh a fake bookcase door...always wanted one since i was a kid and now im old enough to not need one i can actually have one..haha)

I was thinking triple chamber cab with the bottom chamber the 2x55w 2700k PLLs for flowers in a scrog, then the 2x55W 6400ks for veging and LST area + mums + clones, above that (smaller space) then a small third chamber to house the ballasts, DIY carbon filtered exhausts + possible drying area. Possibly switch the vege and flower around so that the heat from vegeing will keep the flower chamber warmer at night + flowering away from intake should hopefully help reduce any leaking of smells!

Matt white paint job inside, il make some custom M-shape hoods for each light. Ventilation will be passive intake with 1-2 light baffled fans inbteween the sperate chambers and one or two small carbon filters with both an intake and outake computer fan.

Il posty some design up later for you guys to critique me on as this is my first non rediculous experimental grow in a while and first time with these awesome ne PLL's!

Peace

NotAllThere

 

[lof3x5]

Hi, a new member and grower here. I'm running a HTG 4tek setup which runs 4 55w bulbs. I have paged through most of this thread and was wondering what kind of distance from the plants you guys are running your lamps? From some pictures it looks like the lights are right on top of the plants and others seem to have some space. Thanks

 

[gtgio]

Hi, a new member and grower here. I'm running a HTG 4tek setup which runs 4 55w bulbs. I have paged through most of this thread and was wondering what kind of distance from the plants you guys are running your lamps? From some pictures it looks like the lights are right on top of the plants and others seem to have some space. Thanks

Hey man,
the tops of my plants are about 4 inches from the bulbs, I'm running 4 55w bulbs in a 2x2 space and the plants are loving it.

 

[rives]

Hi, a new member and grower here. I'm running a HTG 4tek setup which runs 4 55w bulbs. I have paged through most of this thread and was wondering what kind of distance from the plants you guys are running your lamps? From some pictures it looks like the lights are right on top of the plants and others seem to have some space. Thanks

They have better penetration than you would think, but I usually keep mine about 4" above the tops of the plants. With some air flow through the gap, this works out well and reaches well down into the plant.

 

[gtgio]

They have better penetration than you would think, but I usually keep mine about 4" above the tops of the plants. With some air flow through the gap, this works out well and reaches well down the plant.

My plants are about 15" tall and I get penetration all the way to the medium, with 12 plants in a 2x2. These lights really work better than I expected.

 

[lof3x5]

Thanks guys for the quick response's. I have my lamp at about 4" but I'm having some heat build up issues under the lamp and I'm looking resolve the issue with a better oscillating fan.

 

[rives]

Thanks guys for the quick response's. I have my lamp at about 4" but I'm having some heat build up issues under the lamp and I'm looking resolve the issue with a better oscillating fan.

If the lamps are new, they cool down quite a bit after the first 2 weeks or so of operation. I use a couple of clamp-on fans set up to blow through the gap, and it works well.

 

[lof3x5]

Cool, thanks rives for the info

 

[Hydro-Soil]

Thanks guys for the quick response's. I have my lamp at about 4" but I'm having some heat build up issues under the lamp and I'm looking resolve the issue with a better oscillating fan.

Found the best results when the bases were mounted closest to the exhaust.

The bases put off the most amount of heat. When you get the cool air flow running past the lamps and then the base, just before exit, you can keep them surprisingly cool.

Stay Safe!

 

[bombadil.360]

just thinking about wiring the bases and the ballast for these bulbs gives me neck-pain.

lol...

do really want to try them out though!

 

[Blaz3]

HTG Supply pll lighth..2 bulbs..55w each

 

[lof3x5]

My setup... HTG Supply 4Tec over 2 Barneys Farm Pineapple Express Autos... This is my first grow and everything seems to be going alright... Girls are at 2 weeks today

 

[bombadil.360]

how 'plug & play' are those HTG supply pll lamps? do they need any wiring? if so, how difficult is it?

also, looked at their web-page trying to see if they ship outside U.S, but seems not? could not find info...

thanks!

 

[lof3x5]

Straight plug & play, all you have to do is install the bulbs and plug it in

 

[bombadil.360]

lof, thanks for the info! that makes them lamps really appealing

 

[Blaz3]

veryn easy to use..very high quality lighth from htg supply..they get all their shit custom made..so they jknow their shit man...very nice,heavy,powder coated steel...their pll lighths are bad ass....also their 400 hps's are very good quality...they have the lighth game on deck..but theres cheaper places for nutes,etc....but as for their pll's and hps''..good shit

 

[kc2r]

Hi guys, if I wanted to run 8x 55w pl-l's.

Should I run two workhorse 8's with 4 on each ballast. or get 3 workhorse 8's so it's 3-3-2 on each ballast?

Do workhorse 8's come in a 240v version? I can't seem to find anything and need a setup which will work fine on a 240v circuit