lumens question

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cause thats the american way! .....lol. just kidding.

really i think cause i am still in denile that i have actually already gone full blown i just have to wait for my brain to realize it...lol. :)

and HICK thank you for that useful info on the ballast, the fire department thanks you....lol.
 
ya a 400w hps will do the trick.your plants will reward you very well.
 
A pair of 150's will give you better coverage and growth, but a 400 will absolutely give you an awesome grow.

I have a 3.5 x 5.5 foot area and use two 430 HPS. The growth rate is phenomenal, and the bud produced in my hydro system is the best I've ever had in my life. My lumens are at just over 6,000 per/sq.ft.

Good luck to you in your grow.
 
well we just got done with our xmas and i now have a new digital camera, so now everyone can actually see my little growing operation....lol. and when i say little, i mean the one plant i have.:)

ok here is the closet that got designated for the project, this is a extra bedroom at our house thats not occupied. you can see the fans i have for now, one at the top blowing air out the top cracks of the closet and a much larger more cfm one that sits outside blowing fresh air under the door, not the best i know but it works for now.

here is the light setup, i was doing some re-vamping in here last night and broke three of my CFL lights so we are short a couple lights in here.

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here you can see a little better the top of the closet, i have a light in the very top fixture shinning down on the starting plants in the little black container.

here are what lights we have going now, i think if i replace my center light with a 150w hps one that it will do nicely, also i forgot my garage is loaded with floresents so i have two 48' ones that will be going on the sides of the walls for added light.

kinda the same shot but a litte different angle.

its reading around 80 degrees, but its usually around 78 with both the fans going. i gave it 2 hours of darkness today, it has been on a full 24 hour cycle cause the first two months of its growth it sat in my bedroom window starving for light.

and here she is, nothing to brag about but i wish i had shots of it when it was in the window, the two months it sat in my window it got no bigger then two inches, first two nights in the closet double it in size.

one thing i did notice today, i was looking at it up close to see signs of sex, this was right after i turned the lights back on after its 2 hours of dark. it was the first time i got a smell from it, i leaned in and i could smell nothing but skunk, up to this point she has given off no odors. to me this is a good sign i would think.

so what do you guys think??? anything else i should be doing other then having more lumens per square foot, that will come very soon i think, that wif i cought of it today made my mouth water thinking about smoking it.

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Looking good so far bro... I do think you need to get the flouro's closer to your plant.. If you are going to use flouro's you want them as close to the plant as you can get them. Put your hand close to the bulb and leave it there for a few minutes; keep moving your hand closer until it feels very warm, then back up about an inch and that is where you want your plants. Also, is that aluminum or mylar you are using for your reflectant... I have found that using flouro's it helps to use mylar because it is much more reflective then anything else... Just my seventy four cents worth..

I grow with the 8 bulb flouro system from www.Sunleaves.com this is the T5 grow bulbs.. One set up is the same as a 400w hps tow systems equal the same amount as a 1000w hsp. The cost is about $250 for one so, for $500 you have the same as a 1000w hsp. You can actually use the T5 grow bulbs for flowering as well.. They make a bulb for flowering but the red scale is the same on both.. :bugger:

These photos where taken last weekend.. I have done a bit of work to my grow area since then.. I will try to get some new photos to post... P.S. another thing about this system is that you won't have a heat problem, I have one small fan that blows on the plants and the only reason I need that is because I have my lights about 1-2 inches from the top of the plants...

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That aluminum foil reflects light worse than the plain white walls, FYI.
 
Yes, IMO it would be better to have white walls then foil... Mylar is by far the best but it does cost a few bucks... I use the 2mm stuff because it holds up better..
Heres a couple photos from today.. These have been veging for one week..

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I'll tell you what.I found a real good deal for a 400 HPS for $109 plus s&h that came with the light,ballast,reflector.hooked up ready to go at HTGsupply.com and thats the same thing i am running now and never had any problems with it or HTGsupply. Just in time for christmas :grinch:
 
thanks for the info i will check that out, i really would like to have one for the flowering cycles
 
ok i took down the foil, and i found out in the garage while looking for some white paint, a whole roll of white plastic so i just threw that up there for the time being.

and as recommended i moved the plant as close as i could to the lights, and i angled them all down towards it and added another splitter over top of it so its got four bulbs totally surounding it. there are three 26w and one 40w, so there are 7550 lumes directly on the plant, if that light dont penatrate it nothing will....lol.. :)

that little yellow pot is a seed we planted at around 11pm last night, and while i was taking the foil down i knoticed it had already poked out thru the soil so i put her there with all the light on it. the smaller planter to the left in the above pics was a seed that was in a bag in the closet downstairs where the plants used to be before being moved upstair. i had forgotten they were even in there and i was getting something out of that closet and knoticed them and low and behold one of them had sprouted, peeled its shell and was already turning green, i couldnt get it into soil fast enough.


and i picked up new soil last night while i was out, the one thats growing now got put into MG potting mix 21-07-14, the stuff i got last night was MG Seed Starting potting mix 05-01-05, i got that cause i was told the other was probably to strong of a soil for starters. but its doing pretty good i think in that first soil.

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Try to keep the little one from stretching to much.. You don't want her reaching for the lights.. Keep the lowest temp lights as close as you can to her...Also, try to get soil that doesn't have nuts already in it.. Sounds *** backwards but from what I have learned from this site is that soil with nutes is not good.. I guess that time release will keep you from being able to monitor your nutes because the soil is already loaded with the stuff... I have one in MG and it's doing great so go figure... lol...

If I am full of crap would someone please chime in.... Don't want to lead you a stray...
 
Looking better, hope that plastic doesn't pose any kind of fire hazard.
 
i am going up and checking on it watching to make sure nothing is melting, so far all the plastic is cool to the touch all around where the bulbs are.

today it has shown some awsome growth, new leave are sprouting off the stalk.

i also rescued the one from my sisters, its maybe three inches tall and maybe a month and a half old, its just been on her porch in a window in the freezing cold. i put it in fresh soil and sat it up with the rest of them in the closet.
 
here is the poor little plant where it was sitting, we will see if we can put some life back in it.

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does this look like it might be a little too close to the lights? or is it something else making the top legs curl like that cause its only the top ones that are doing it.

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IMO if its just the tops then you may want to move them a couple of inches away and see if that takes care of it... If that does is, move them just a little bit closer and then that should be about the right distance....
 
ok i think this weekend we will have some extra $$, and we have decided that we should upgrade to the proper lights now while we have the cash.

we are thinking about a single cabinet with two sides, one for veg and one for flower. we have been reading and reasearching and this is what we have come up with.

we have decided on a 250w mh for the veg side and 250w hps for the flower side. each enclosed side of the grow room will be just shy of 4x4 square.
this gives me the following numbers per square foot.
250w 23,000 lumens MH = 2875
250w 33,000 lumens HPS = 4125

thats just a hair shy, but much closer numbers then we have currently, given the better light output these have i think they will work great for our small amount of plants we will be growing.

our idea is to be able to have maybe two or three full grow fems in veg stage ready to flower as we need them.

here are a couple pics of the lights. they plug right in to a regular wall socket so we wont need any special wiring to make them work, they can be plugged straight into the timer. cost is about $140 us dollars a peice so a total of $280. ( i can talk about the price of lights cant i ?? if not i will remove it )

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berserker71 said:
I'll tell you what.I found a real good deal for a 400 HPS for $109 plus s&h that came with the light,ballast,reflector.hooked up ready to go at HTGsupply.com and thats the same thing i am running now and never had any problems with it or HTGsupply. Just in time for christmas :grinch:


I got the exact same model when they were $99 plus shipping. STRONGLY recommended. Nothing refurbished, all 100% new including bulb. Only concern I had was that the hood was a little short (14-15") and pretty flimsy, but you can always replace it with a better one. The best hundred bucks I've spent in a while.:)
 
good glad to hear someone has used them and had good results. these were the ones i thought we be best suited for my needs.
 

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