4000 watt 4xxl undercurrent in 10x12 grow shed pocs

Second 1000 watt hortilux bulb to blow this run replaced with a lot of effort lol, no room and had to undo the whole little run to get middle bulb out. I've decided to not run the phantom 2 in overdrive now. Rotated nutrients today in barrel in prep for full bucket clean out tomorrow. Looks like two weeks left for star 47, bubble berry and honey boo boo, three for the sweet island so it's going to be interesting managing the four strains in one system. So far no major issues so expecting something soon

Tasty! You're running Horti Platinum low freeq square wave ballasts to fire those HPS lamps, do I remember that correctly?

I wish I was but just galaxy grow amps and a phantom 2

wyomingbarber said:

I wish I was but just galaxy grow amps and a phantom 2

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Ok, nothing wrong with those! I'm working on a lil project with a buddy regarding that particular ballast and was looking for other's opinions.

ttystikk said:

Tasty! You're running Horti Platinum low freeq square wave ballasts to fire those HPS lamps, do I remember that correctly?

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GARBAGE
The higher pulse rate of the digital ballast does not represent the light of the sun better than a magnetic ballast. One is just different from the other but neither pulse rate alone fully recreates the sun. In fact I could make the argument that since there are no digital signals in nature, then a magnetic ballast is more natural to us than a digital. We live inside an immensely powerful magnetic field of the earth. Analog sine waves are all around us, the moon orbit, the earth orbit, the spin of the earth, musical tones, bio-rhythms. Many musicians and audiophiles will tell you an analog tube amplifier produces a much more natural sound than does a digital or solid state amplifier. The frame rate of a film produces a smooth movement to the eye and a sample rate of music produces a similarly smooth representation of sound to the ear. Neither come close to actually seeing a play or hearing an orchestra live yet both are forms of discrete or digital representation.
Discrete in this context meaning a single frame of a 30 frame per sec movie or a single bit sample of a 320 bit per second musical note. Likewise a single pulse of light from a Bulb being run by a digital ballast at 20,000 pulses a second can be called a discrete pulse. The Hortilux Digital Platinum series ballast boasts a low frequency or pulse 120Hz square wave. The Hortilux Digital Gold series runs an output frequency of 120,000Hz or 120kHz. The Gold has a higher average light-on time per second which provides a higher average intensity light.

If a digital ballast provides a digital voltage and current to the HPS/MH bulb then that means the bulb is seeing a square wave which will cause erosion of materials inside the bulb and failure of the bulb really fast. If you were to be dragged across a floor and you had a choice of being dragged across steel ball bearings or steel cubes which would you choose? Another way to think of it is the car crash dummy, it is smashed against an object or a wall over an over and soon needs replacing. On the other hand if it puts on the breaks and then accelerates over and over it will last much longer, like we do driving a car. In the realm of electrons, protons, and neutrons a square wave of voltage and current is harsh. A nice AC voltage and current is more like the ocean tides rising and then retreating, another example of a sine wave

Also Researching for Eye Hortilux Super HPS Enhanced Lamp, the bulb that was used in . I found that the Eye Hortilux Enhanced designated as LU1000B/HTL/EN is made by Eye Lighting International Inc. of Ohio. I researched their products and found that they only make one HPS 1000W Lamp named Sunlux designated LU1000B/EN. I could not find the HTL anywhere on the Eye Lighting International Inc. website. I don't know why Eye lighting inc. does not publish the Eye Hortilux Enhanced LU1000B/HTL/EN data sheet. You would think they are proud of it. However, perusing their data sheets I found one 1000W bulb that has the product code LU1000B/EN and the data sheet calls for Ansi S52 Ballast which is a magnetic ballast. In fact if you search for Ansi S52 on the internet all you will find is a Magnetic Ballast. No HPS bulb manufacturers are calling for a digital ballast to be used in order to get the maximum lifespan or any of the performance characteristics including PAR and Wavelength spectrum of the bulb. Why?

Researching for data on HPS lamps/bulbs in general I found Lucalux (GE) data sheets specifically calling for lamps to be used with so called "choke (reactor) ballast" in order to get the same results they have in their manufacturing process test results. A choke reactor ballast is a magnetic ballast, it is just another way of saying it. This can be found on their November 2013 Standard data sheet for Lucalux bulbs. That is recent data yet no digital ballast was used in the performance tests. The same Ansi S52 ballast is called out for use with Osram/Sylvania, Philips, Growlite Real Red, Solis-Tek HPS High Frequency and more. Digilux brand is an enigma inside a paradox and shipped as a puzzle. Digilux is branded by a company called C.A.P. Custom Automated Products which exists only as a website corporation they do not manufacture anything, they have no data sheets for any HPS bulbs in existence. Why? And, this is not the only company that buys wholesale from a manufacturer and puts their logo on the box with a bunch of unsubstantiated claims.

A lovely flood of information I had never considered, always good to learn something new . Btw, you sir, have way too much free time lol

wyomingbarber said:

A lovely flood of information I had never considered, always good to learn something new . Btw, you sir, have way too much free time lol

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All of that and yet he's still wrong asf.

Low frequency digital square wave ballets have been proven to improve HID performance substantially, both for CMH and HPS. So far, the 860W CDM Allstart is doing well on the Horti Platinum.

Few more weeks and I'm already getting impatient to harvest

Well shit I found a few bananas on star 47...what should I do folks? Normally I would just let it stay since its so close but sweet island skunk is at least a week behind.

Did some autopsy in a few buds and don't see any sign of seed development yet

Tough call. If it's only a few, you can just pick them off manually. Otherwise, spray with water as it deactivates pollen.

i have switch but I'm afraid of it so I think your right and I'll have to just spray and pick. Time to spend a quality evening with the ladies.

I can always trust you to respond timely with quality advice thanks much

wyomingbarber said:

Well shit I found a few bananas on star 47...what should I do folks? Normally I would just let it stay since its so close but sweet island skunk is at least a week behind.

Did some autopsy in a few buds and don't see any sign of seed development yet

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i just remove them manually. also, i can corroborate ttystikks water spraying advice. i have one strain in my rotation (casey jones, ~9 wks flower) that likes to throw bananas no matter what, so i just start spraying everything down with water once or twice a day in week 7 when i run it.

Two hours later I'm pretty sure the nanner cluster was a solo affair but still sprayed her down

wyomingbarber said:

Two hours later I'm pretty sure the nanner cluster was a solo affair but still sprayed her down

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It happens, often in an isolated spot.

Yeah I really wish I had trimmed more before flower these girls are really out of control and I can't get too a lot of the garden. Annoying and reducing efficiency. Spent a few hours on my back and I'm getting old it looks like

pH at 6 and EC down to 1.2 from 1.8

I am having issues with high co2 concentrations near the floor causing leaves to die off but really not that concerned as those areas are butter for sure already.

Changes for next run: just for me to keep track of the dream ya know

*Definitely need to upgrade to double ended lamps and only run two horizontally
•will run one single ended 1000 watt cool tube vertically in middle of four bucket sites vented thru floor and ceiling in one vent run.
•Will need to create a new cage to keep plants away from light but I think I can pull it off and still have space to work in the middle.
•new electrical runs thru the walls with hard wired receptacles for always on devices
•install second ac in electrical room
•tile the grow room floor and paint electrical room
•permanent door for electrical to grow area instead of poly and tarp zips.
•need to upgrade dehumidifier,ac, drip lines thru shed walls.
•additional water chiller for reservoir cooling
•new co2 controller with fuzzy logic mode
•upgrade locks and security cameras
•paint outside of the shed same as the house
•research the shit out of LEDs and create massive led side lighting and replace my current T5 and led panels with new tech