Al . i know its not a hydro question but i have posted it twice and can get no answer and hoped you could help ...
i just bought an agrostar 1000 watt hps ballast to replace my cheap growbright ballast.
the new agrostar seems to be twice as loiud as the cheap one and its hot ... hot enough i have it reasting on concrete blocks because im afraid its going to start a fire ... question is .
is this normal for the 1000 watt ballast to run so hot or might i have a defective unit ?

hi albf
I have a question for you, I use RO water at 0 ppm then i add nutes to get about 800ppm.
You say tap water is fine, and my tap water is about 300-350ppm, Do i add 800ppm amoutn of nutes to get 1100-1150ppm to get the same as before? Or do i still add enough just to reach 800ppm. Thanks!

Gnats are bloody everywhere. You'll almost always have a few. Use yellow sticky card traps. That'll trap most adults before they can lay eggs, but if things get really bad, where plants are affected (root probs), find some Gnatrol. Keep them hungry by killing the fungus they eat with H2O2.

Google and ye shall find. Lots of results, filter it by your town name (unles you live in Bumfuckegypt, of course), you'll find it.

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Get a harvest every 2 weeks - A batch of clones in rockwool - Al B. Gone

yellow and curling and maybe nute burn??/pics

heres some additional info i dont have ph run off, humidity, or temperature.sorrryy:

recently trasfered plant from mg organic 10-5-5 to jiffers seedling starter mix
distilled water ph of 7.5
soil ph 7
no nutes at this time
lights 2 120 watt floro cfl spirals for capopy
2 80 watt floro cfl spiral for sides (18-6)
fan for circulation
i water once every three days with no runoff

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for the record everything i say under this account and or on these forums, is false and or fictional, and in no way shape or form represent me and or real life.

Should run pretty hot (case temp might be 60-70C), but should be dead silent. If it buzzes, you got a shit ballast. The bzzzzzzzzzz noise is caused by a poor quality or defective inductor with loose or insufficiently secured iron laminations. Loose laminations will cause inefficient running and hotter than normal operation, too.

Return it, make sure they are all not like that before accepting a replacement.

As long as the out of the tap EC is being caused by Mg & Ca and not NaCl salinity, it's fine to use. The plants will use the Mg & Ca as nutrients but won't want much NaCl (150ppm or 150mg/L max sodium). Check your water utility's website for water analysis data. If your tapwater is 300 from Ca & Mg and you want 1100, mix for 1400.

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Get a harvest every 2 weeks - A batch of clones in rockwool - Al B. Gone

ah, soil.

Sorry, I'm just not a soil guy. Won't be able to help you much.

Purpling stem (P def), N deficient leaves... could be root probs, overwatering, pH error. The pH requirements for soil are different to hydro so I can't get you any closer than that, sorry.

Ask potroast.

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Get a harvest every 2 weeks - A batch of clones in rockwool - Al B. Gone

thanks yeah both have really purply stems but one is fine while the other is not... thanks

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for the record everything i say under this account and or on these forums, is false and or fictional, and in no way shape or form represent me and or real life.

Yep, the plant has a couple of deficiencies, can be caused by actual absence of nutes but more often is caused by root damage from disease, overwatering is a good way to bring on root disease. A pH error can lock out certain nutrients. The purpling stem is a worry.

See if you can flag down potroast, this is his forte.

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Get a harvest every 2 weeks - A batch of clones in rockwool - Al B. Gone

So, I was getting some high-quality data about lighting from a w33d b4R0n in some other thread and I'm told pointedly it's all about GRAMS PER WATT (all caps apparently necessary to make him righter ) and how HPS lighting is good doorstop material...

I'd never mathed out what my op does in those terms, didn't know what a 'good' g/W figure might be... so I crunched the numbers.
Apparently... pretty friggin' well.

hmm, ok. Any consensus on that 1g/W figure being 'great'?

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Get a harvest every 2 weeks - A batch of clones in rockwool - Al B. Gone

bugsrnme sez in a +rep msg:

I don't play the rep thing much, but that seems a lot. I hit Stoney McDoper with some +R (the only one he's ever gotten ). He says it was worth 28 points.

If I haven't +r'd you recently, let me know. I'll pop you some and you can chime in with how much it was worth. I'm not sure there's much rhyme or reason to it.

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Get a harvest every 2 weeks - A batch of clones in rockwool - Al B. Gone