Ceramic Metal Halide (CMH)

[Azeotrope]

whazzup - Nice to have your input as well. What you say is what I experienced in my switch to the Philips 4k many years ago the week they hit the commercial market. That is what I think is ringing from deep within me wanting to give the 942 a run. Think I will end up ordering one in the next week or two. In my smaller cab (orca film on order) the light will never travel far and saturation in 4sqft will be very high. The extra blue may be the ticket to lots of hash making material and stalkier growth.
I do understand tenthirty and rives points and agree to some considerable degree. If I had more space, I would run probably 1:1 930 to 942 and that would be great.

Thanks again for your input.

setaemies - I appreciate the tip on those sites. I will check that out. I haven't taken the moment to hit that link but will as soon as I am done typing this. I have long thought that the growing community has undervalued blue light and kind of given green a bad name. I wish I lived where I could use the big old bulb in the sky!

Regards to everyone!

 

[rives]

Ok, I couldn't stand it anymore. I had been waiting to get my 315w equipment working in the new area I'm putting together, but decided that I had to try it out. Now, the question is, should I just leave the one by it's lonesome in this tent, or slap another one in along side of it? It is all wired and ready to go, but damn, there are only two plants in there!

Incidentally, until about an hour before these pictures were taken, these plants had been vegging under the VolksLED for the last 6-8 weeks. Roughly 105 watts. They had been in beer cups for literally months, and topped about 6 times, probably more, maybe less. Rootbound badly. Serious case of plant abuse, they looked like shit when they went under the Volks and were only about 10"-12" tall. They are now 22"-24" from the dirt.

 

[setaemies]

Vegging under 105 watts? Dauymn, Impressive! Those should blow up nicely under the CMH or two

 

[tenthirty]

Rives,

My 315 covers the 3x3 well, but a second one would be better??
Real pretty light too.
If you can, put that bad boy up!

 

[rives]

I think that I will. My new area is going to run @ 75w/sq ft, so I can dim these down to about 75% and get a preview of what the future will hold. A couple more btu's running around the house wouldn't hurt anything, either.

 

[StoopheadFred]

rives I'm very interested in this 315w cmh you've got going! Your pic link seems to be broken now though :-(

Here's a link to my friends setup, currently running 150w of 4k CMH lighting but we've got plans to expand the flowering chamber and add another 150w of CMH.

Stealthy Stacked Tubs

Everything has been working awesome so far, and the plants are LOVING the spectrum. Super green and healthy, plus the nodes are nice and compact. Can't wait to see how this setup performs when we pump up the power!

 

[rives]

Odd that you can't see it - anyone else having trouble? I checked the album, and it is marked public.

*edit* Figured it out. I jockeyed the pictures into a new album, and thought that the link changed dynamically because my cache was doing it's job. You should be able to see them now.

 

[Nader]

i want to use the elite agro t12 315w as drop-down side lighting, but it looks like the only place I can find the bulb under model # 415216 is here: http://lightbulbhut.com/elite-315wt12agro-p-7324.html ... is that the price of one?!?! Two of those or a 6-pack of the 830w CDM's at fastenal... hmm... The other 930's and 942's are normally priced

 

[whazzup]

Here's a 2x315 Agro test, amnesia haze (soma). 1 plant in scrog. The plants do stay much shorter under the light than under HPS at comparable light levels. I already saw this with the Indica I grew under it, so I think it's safe to assume that in general your crop will stay more compact. Not that you would expect any different of course but still . That speaks for using it in small cabinets too.

She's in week 5 now, 7 to go.

 

[tenthirty]

Wassup,
That's good to know. I'm not really interested in growing stem.

Thanks.......

 

[Azeotrope]

I have had a little hang-up getting a CDM 315w on line. I received a Mitronix socket and a new (made in 12/2012) 315w 930....... The bulb would not fit??? Turns out that Philips found a large manufacturer doing something they did not like, so sometime in the last year, they adjusted the height of the ceramic at the base of the bulb to alter the fit of the bulb. They did not publish this change publicly. So, my Mitronix socket will only accept older bulbs! I called Mitronix and they explained all of this too me and sent me a new socket (new design) that should be here in a couple of days. The on-line retailer I originally purchased from refunded my money and now I should be good to go. What a PITA!

I ordered a socket from another on-line retailer and they had to order one in, so I hope it is the new design, because I just ordered a 315w 942 tonight. Couldn't help it!

I am now tempted to buy one of the Gavita 600 SE reflector replacements and fit it with one 930 and one 942, but I think that would be overkill for 4sq feet.LOL

 

[whazzup]

Go for a Hortistar, just replace the lamp holder

The replacement reflector alone will be hard to mount.

 

[Azeotrope]

Thinking the tripple star 600 looks good...... Adjustable footprint and not too tall.

 

[whazzup]

true, but the HortiStar is a bit more efficient - and you were looking at the HR96 reflector

 

[Azeotrope]

rebeleye - Run it all the way through if you are just running one light..... Or at least that is my very predictable vote!

 

[Azeotrope]

315w 930 up and running in a PL Lighting Midi. Looked at the bank account and decided to give it a break and stick with old reliable for now. May switch out hoods down the road. Still have the Orca film to put up, a 942 bulb and additional socket on order, worm farm expanding, new compost tumbler to complete and so on....... Going to veg a few more days and flip. I'll get pics up soon.

Thanks again to everyone for their extensive contributions here.

Azeo

 

[Nader]

what is the best "pulse start" magnetic ballast to run the 830W cdm? (http://lightbulbhut.com/cdm830vo4k-allstart-p-7418.html)

 

[frankenstein2]

Good, no cuts, you have a future in sheet metal.

unthing, one advantage is no mixing of different colors of light from different locations.
The standard deviation and intensity differences are going to be considerably different between a 400w HPS and a gaggle of 5 or 10 watt diodes.
It would make it difficult to get the mix and locality problems to work well.
Reves should have some input on this, from his hybrid fixture experience.

I just don't see how you would get consistent and homogeneous light from mixing led and HPS.

As of right now i have 400 hps, and a 180 watt no name led from ebay. They sit in a 6' wide x 2' deep area . For the most part the hps provides the light they need, however on the far side of my table where the hps doesn't shine too bright is where the led hangs. The two plants directly under the led are jammin', tons of flower sights , and nice nugs all the way thru. Also since the lights are almost even in terms of light the plants use, there is no stretching towards one fixture or the other. It's like the plants are saying we love this shit, all the spectrums your giving us. I also rotate my plants, it seems under the led they get denser, and under the hps they get bigger. So i get them to a nice size then give them there weekly rotation under the led.
This run finishing is only about half of my total flowering area(I always have to have a perpetual system). From the looks of it i'm gonna get half an lb. I'm sure with some dialing, i could get my yield up to 1gpw, of course what i'm running has alot to do with my yield, some strains just won't push those numbers. My fav strain to run right now is deadhead og, and for an og it yields. This in part is due to the mixed spectrum of lights. I also use t5's to make sure there are no shadows anywhere on my girls.
Also i have experience from my past set-up, where i had an eight bulb t5 fixture hanging on the wall, with alternating 6500, 3000k bulbs. This system had a 1000 hps on a mover. The plants that were in the row next to the t5 fixture always had the biggest calyx's and most resin.
So to sum this rant up, i don't think you can ever have a bad mix of light or spectrums. We are after all trying to replicate the sun. The more wavelengths the better, imo, so jam those led's with hid's, your gonna love it.

 

[Azeotrope]

Time to flip under the 315w 930

Time to flip under the 315w 930

Under the 315w a few days now. Time to flip... Was hoping to have the Orca film upby now, but hydrogalaxy is beyond slow getting orders out! Had also hoped to hit them with the 942 spectrum, but that is a couple days out so for now the 930 315w CDM it is.

Organic mix (very richly ammended and ACT waterings). They are growing like mad under this bulb. I defoliated (new technique for me) 36hrs ago and you could see more stem and dirt than green. They blew the hell up and are going mad! Will turn off the sun in about ten minutes for 24hrs then it will be 12/12. Wish me luck!

 

[StayBlazinDawg]

A friend told me to check out CMH and just looking at pics of plants the spectum looks alot soft then the HPS. Is Phillips the only company making to bulbs got extra money to buy new equipment and if CMH is better I will get it.