Ceramic Metal Halide (CMH)

[Guest]

Purple - my current 600's are only 2 months old... I could feasibly leave my existing setup and switch to 600w cmh after they come out...

I have dual spectrum 800's just sitting around though... 400w hps, 400w mh in one ballast with growzilla hoods. Thinking the cmh would work in both sockets? or change out the growzilla's for daystars and run 8 tables on 4 ballasts...

Trying to cut my power / heat.

 

[PurplePotion]

I don't think the CMH's will be out in anything over 400W for quite a while.. I wouldn't hold your breath for that. You'd be fine putting 2 CMH's in the Growzilla.. no problem. Likewise, you could do the latter and run the 400's in individual hoods.

2 400's in that Growzilla could prove to be pretty interesting.. Give it a try.. I'd be very interested to see the results.

 

[simba]

strainwhore,
Good Q,
like xxx said you are using multi lamps ballasts fixtures etc.. and that has a higher cost for those items but remember the bulb is 50ish so thats 30-40off each lamp.. that there on few lamps will give you at least one free reflector..
penetration well i wont deny you wont get the same as a 600hps but you dont need it.. and from the heat you have to have the 600 higher any ways.. and that looses alot of energy..

as far as heat cmh is allot easier to cool.. they dont heat up the room in a AC hood..

the 600's and 1kws are too big for us.. multi 400 impo will be better than a 600 Obv there is 200 more watts..

as far as lumen's.. far over rated... even current Par watt ratings are over rated (ill admit its the best we got so far but not for long) as both rates 500-600nm as if its usable.. 90% of horti lamps are actually giving you less energy..than a standard hps
they say
"Increased yellow output to enhance chlorophyll synthesis and lumen's rating"
but that desives you only a small percentage of that higher lumen is usable and no more than a standard hps..
the thing about lumen's i cant really explain it easily ..
low presure sodium has the highest LPW>. but has other issues for us.. its monochormatic wich means it only dumps its ouput in one color *(Yellow) and Plants can only take in and proces Miniscual amount of energy in the Yellow range and rather inefeciantly i might add.
if you took a SOX (LPS) it wouldn't grow any thing.. at all..

(take a look at a plant responce chart and plot it against a lamps output)you will notice a large % of its energy is emitted right on the edge of 10%ish usability,, and then the large amount of energy dumped in the 10-20% the lamp dumps far more than the plant could even use..
Yes cmh does dump some of its energy is in the 500-600nm but no where near the overall % as HPS. so you gain usable energy there and then with the inverse square law of light and the non shadowing (= energy on all sides of the plant)



..

ya asked "Will a 400w cmh cover a 39in x 39in area as well as a 600w - even though it has less lumens?"
no it wont cover that area as well but 2 400s covering a 30"x68" would be just about the same energy per sqf. and actually give you more space.. and at a lower room temp..

 

[NoSayHombre]

I have replaced a 600W HPS and a 1000W HPS with 2 400W CMHs. It is a bit early to say about the 1000, but I am confident that the penetration I lost on the 600 was regained by being able to place the CMH closer. Add to that the better spectrum and I think I may be ahead on that one. I have been using the CMHs since last fall and I love them. Strainwhore, I have found that listening to others' opinions can only take you so far. Sometimes you just have to do it and see for yourself. I tried the CMH for myself and it didn't take me a full flower cycle to see that this is the way I want to go. I have replaced every light I have with the CMH. A very definate improvement in final results. But don't take my word for it. See for yourself.

 

[Guest]

I have replaced a 600W HPS and a 1000W HPS with 2 400W CMHs. It is a bit early to say about the 1000, but I am confident that the penetration I lost on the 600 was regained by being able to place the CMH closer. Add to that the better spectrum and I think I may be ahead on that one. I have been using the CMHs since last fall and I love them. Strainwhore, I have found that listening to others' opinions can only take you so far. Sometimes you just have to do it and see for yourself. I tried the CMH for myself and it didn't take me a full flower cycle to see that this is the way I want to go. I have replaced every light I have with the CMH. A very definate improvement in final results. But don't take my word for it. See for yourself.

Great way to put it. I would say the same thing...try it.

 

[rabid]

Yieldmaster reflector

Yieldmaster reflector

Hey simba

Will this hood (22" x 20" x 7") create too large a footprint for the CMH 400 ???

 

[Guest]

Very interested in knowing as well, rabid. Thanks

 

[smoketrichs]

Quick Question. I'm in the initial stages of building an NGB Box.
Dimensions: L x W x H
Total - 30" x 22" x 40"
Mother - 10" x 22" x 17"
Flower - 20" x 22" x 23"

would using a 4" 172 cfm vortech inline fan through a 4" odorsok be enough to vent the cab? Also, do you think I'd be able to get away with a 250w CMH (non-aircooled batwing style reflector, i want those UVBs)? Or should I settle with a 150w version? I plan on doing a perpetual SOG; 6 sections, harvest every 10 days or so. So.. does this sound feasible?

 

[Sad247summer]

I want to get a new 400w ballat for my new CMH bulb, After reading 30/40 pages I think I will be safe with getting a SUN SYSTEM 1 400w HPS non switchable. Should I get the 400w or the 430w?
Will either of these work?
THX

 

[nightcrawler]

sounds like it should, being it a "magnetic" and being a "non-switchable ballast"

and u need to get the 400w not the 430(430 uses a 430 watt bulb, which u dont have)

Get one more response saying yah the sun system is good to go, then GRAB it fast, or ill steal the last one hehehe.

 

[simba]

Sup Rabid,,, Ya Reflectors i dont really like LOL.. each persons op is diff and the current reflectors are kinda bogus..
..the things we have to look at for each persons setup is either one lamp or multi.. and then the size of the opp..
the reason for this we either need a Narrow reflector or a Wide or a super wide (4+ lamps in a square pattern)
for 3x4ish i like the super sun 1 V1 (no dimpled on the side walls) (was designed by lighting science of Arizona but the new one doesn't have that nice backing so its not the same)
i have no clue on that hydrofarm...

Because of the Overpriced options out there i have personally gone back to DIY'ed Batwing and a Boxed reflector designs..
(the dimpled reflectors are cheaper to mfr cause they dont have to be as exact (in short)

smok, i have seen a few boxs but at the moment i cant remember the sizes to compare to yours for the heat of a 250..

sad, get the 400..
the 430 is for the son agro hps and the ballast will get about 30degrees hotter than normal (FIRE HAZARD) if you try to use the 400 cmh with it

 

[Iheartbud]

I am growing these Mandala Kalichakra and Satori under my HTG 400w with a Philips Mastercolor 4000k. The Kalichakra is at 61 days and the Satori are at 28 days...So far, I love my CMH...

Awesome looking plants man! Where did you get the setup?

 

[Anghellic]

Heres my two babies that have been under a 250 CMH. Week 4 of 12/12

PK -

G13 -

 

[Guest]

Day 24 @ 12/12 - 400W CMH

 

[Murphy]

I'll thow a few more in. Grape Krush day.......I don't know, I watch the plant not the calander.






and some Mandala Safari Mix

 

[MPL]

Murphy that Kush is sexaaay!

Here are some Super Skunk budshots from under my 400w CMH @ 27 days of 12/12.

 

[Guest]

Some more bud shots:

 

[BonsaiBud]

delicious cake

My 100 is on the left and, yeah, there is a little bit of yellow coming from above.

 

[darthvapor]

simba best reflectors I have tested were super sun 2 and bell. I can show you some graphs if you like. tested them with a light meter in a nother thread

 

[Mr_Micro]

I'm curious... has anyone done a documented side by side CMH vs HPS grow comparison? The sort with clones from the same plant, identical mediums, identical feeding, same wattage of light on both sides, etc. to see what difference there was in the results between the CMH and HPS results?
I know this was done to compare LED to HPS in the Micro section but I haven't seen one of these documented comparisons for CMH vs HPS.

The reason I ask about this is... well, to be totally blunt about it...
In almost all the pics I've seen from CMH grows the plants look more leafy and stretchy, and the buds look smaller and less trich coated than what I would expect to see from equal wattage of HPS light. Mind you this may just be the genetics of the plant and grower errors in mediums and feeding but it does make me wonder.
I know that on paper a CMH looks far superior to a HPS, but the results never seem to look as good as what I would expect from an equal wattage HPS in the pics I've seen.


So I'm wondering, has anyone ever done a documented grow with a side by side comparison of CMH vs HPS to see what the results are like? If so, I'd love to get a link to that grow to settle my mind about this