New Digital Ballast, Have some Q's

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MeNtAlPaTiEnT

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Hey guys! I recently got a 600 watt digital ballast with dimmable options for 100% 75% and 50%. Its from a company called Light EnerG and they call it The Ace.

I was wondering if running my 600 watt bulb set to any of the dimmed options would damage or do anything negative for the bulb either short term or long term.

I was also wondering if running the ballast at 75% which would be 450 watts, would it be safe to run a 400 watt hps? I'm not concerned about the well being of my 400 watt bulbs.
Maybe the ballast will know its only a 400 watt bulb and wont give it the extra 50 watts?

Any help is glady appreciated, smoke on fellas! :vap-Bong_smoker:
 
I also use dimmable ballast. I have trouble with light burn and bleaching so I use the dimmer feature often.

I have heard stories about less than full wattage from the ballast affecting the spectrum of the bulb but I have not seen any proof of this and there's nothing on the bulb manufacturer's sites about it. I often run my 1000 watt light at the 700 watts setting.

As for using a smaller than maximum wattage bulb, I'm not sure about that. You might find that the ignition spark upon startup might be too much for the 400 watt bulb. Or, the continuous 450 watts on a 400 watt bulb might have some effect on burning the bulb out faster. I'm not sure I would do that. Does the ballast manual say anything about using other then the rated bulbs?

My socket won't fit anything but a 1000 watt so I have never tried my 600 watt bulbs in it.
 
I also use dimmable ballast. I have trouble with light burn and bleaching so I use the dimmer feature often.

I have heard stories about less than full wattage from the ballast affecting the spectrum of the bulb but I have not seen any proof of this and there's nothing on the bulb manufacturer's sites about it. I often run my 1000 watt light at the 700 watts setting.

As for using a smaller than maximum wattage bulb, I'm not sure about that. You might find that the ignition spark upon startup might be too much for the 400 watt bulb. Or, the continuous 450 watts on a 400 watt bulb might have some effect on burning the bulb out faster. I'm not sure I would do that. Does the ballast manual say anything about using other then the rated bulbs?

My socket won't fit anything but a 1000 watt so I have never tried my 600 watt bulbs in it.
Thanks for your input. I was having light bleaching myself also. I read that the more light equals the plant to take up more water which in turn also means more nutes which means possible nute burn which I was starting to get. Yikes, my poor ladies!
Don't think I'll be using my 400 bulb at the 450 setting, just gunna dim my 600 I suppose. The ladies seem to be appreciating the lower light more than having tons of light.
 
It's not the light your plants have a problem with ... it's the heat.
 
It's not the light your plants have a problem with ... it's the heat.
Not in my case! The temps outside got to around minus 20 C, I had my light (600 watt hps) maybe a foot away from my young ones. The temps directly under the bulb were a cool 20 degrees C lol! After a day or three of that I could tell that the girls directly under the bulb were not as happy as the ones further away in the corner.
 
Or maybe I am missing something... Always open to debate and discussion, willing to learn! Still a newbie <---
 
There is such a thing as too much light. If I understood what I read properly. Given the limited amount of other factors in an indoor grow room, you can have too much light for a given space.

I remember a decent read on it somewhere. I'll see if I can find it.

Something about too much light causing more photosynthesis than the plant can handle in terms of taking up water and nutes to keep transpiration balanced. Under too much light, the plants transpired too fast and cause nute burn, etc. I don't recall the entire scope but it was a decent read, if I understood it properly.

EDIT: Here is the article. About 2/3 of the way down it talks about it.

http://www.growweedeasy.com/too-much-light
 
Thanks hackerman, this is what I was reading about afterthefact.. They were only about 3-4 weeks old when I was dosing them with the massive amounts of lumens. We all hear about how light is good for plants, but too much can be detrimental. Live and learn!

One of the weaker ladies took a turn for the worse and started growing extremely light green leaves and weak stems, etc. Been two weeks and still waiting for her to make a comeback especially with the light raised. Gave her a good top dressing of worm castings and such few nights ago. Her new growth is a good shade of green but definitely deformed. Might give her away to a friend.

I want to take clones, but having the light so close wasn't exactly making things stretch and growing branches, rather the foilage was so thick nothing under the main shoots had a chance to grow! The problems of having too much light!

Only reason I had the light so close was mainly for the heat. Meanwhile I had a radiator sitting in the back room doing nothing. Ugh!
 

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