600 or 1000 Watts?

JayDoe71

Well-Known Member
Hi All,

So I'm graduating from a pc grow box to an actual grow room, well a corner in a room..LOL. I'll get some pics up when my supplies start arriving.

By law I'm allowed to grow 6 plants, but there's no stipulation as to how big they are. So I've decided to stay within the law and grow just 6 plants in my little corner grow room. Obviously, we'll be going for maximum yeild per plant.

According to everything I've read a 600W HPS light will cover the 11 sqare foot area I'll be utilizing. But would I get a heavier yeild if I used a 1000W?
 

Hairy Bob

Well-Known Member
You most likely will get a bigger yield with the thou, as long as you can control the temperature. Those bulbs give out a hell of a lot of heat, so need to be a good way off the top of the plants (a rule of thumb is to put your hand at the top of the plant, if it's uncomfortable the light is too close) unless you have an air cooled hood/cooltube. Given the choice, go for the hood as they reflect light better than cooltube reflectors, the light doesn't have to pass through the glass encasing the lightbulb more than once, and it's a flat pane as opposed to a tube, so refracts the light less.
You don't mention how much headroom your growspace has, this will be a major factor in deciding which light to go for. If you try growing plants more than 3-4' tall, a 600 won't penetrate the canopy as well as a 1000, so the lower parts of the plant wouldn't get as much light, and produce a few airy popcorn buds at best.
Hope you can make sense of that, I know it's early but I'm wrecked!
 

GrowDog

Active Member
600 watts is good, 1000watts is better.. go for the better one!! especially for an 11 ft area. Hairy Bob pretty much said everything else...
 

JayDoe71

Well-Known Member
My space will be in a 4.5 X 2.5 in the corner of a boiler room. The room is kept around 63-66 F in the winter and 65-70 F in the summer. I have 91 total inches of head space, 7.6 feet. I'm going for max yeild per plant so I'd like to grow them out to 5 feet tall.

The space has a large crawl space opening where I plan to put a big exhaust fan. There's plenty of air circulation as the room is connected to my home office where I always have plenty of fans blowing in and out, I'm a cigar smoker. I'm hoping to get away with just a cheap box fan as I'll have plenty of air pushing it through from the other way. Any thoughts on this?

No windows in this room so controling light shouldn't be too much trouble.

I don't have enough room to split the space for a veg room so I'll be using a digital ballast from Galaxy which will run both MH and HPS. In the future I'm sure I'll set up some kind veg/mother space but for right now I'm focusing on just one set of plants.

The hood/reflector I'm looking at has the 6" holes for air cooling. Should small fans be placed in these holes? Are there hoods sold with the fan? Will the hood fan(s) be nessessary if my room is between 63-70 F and there's plenty of other fans blowing on the garden?
 

JayDoe71

Well-Known Member
Thanks, man

You most likely will get a bigger yield with the thou, as long as you can control the temperature. Those bulbs give out a hell of a lot of heat, so need to be a good way off the top of the plants (a rule of thumb is to put your hand at the top of the plant, if it's uncomfortable the light is too close) unless you have an air cooled hood/cooltube.

By "air cooled" do you mean a fan in the hood? I can't seem to find one.

Given the choice, go for the hood as they reflect light better than cooltube reflectors, the light doesn't have to pass through the glass encasing the lightbulb more than once, and it's a flat pane as opposed to a tube, so refracts the light less.

I'm sold on the hood.

You don't mention how much headroom your growspace has, this will be a major factor in deciding which light to go for. If you try growing plants more than 3-4' tall, a 600 won't penetrate the canopy as well as a 1000, so the lower parts of the plant wouldn't get as much light, and produce a few airy popcorn buds at best.

I have 5 1/4 ft of height.

Hope you can make sense of that, I know it's early but I'm wrecked!
Got it, thanks
 

JayDoe71

Well-Known Member
I'm going to pick up two or three 25 gal Rubbermaid plastic store bins and make my DWC. I've done this on a much smaller scale with success, but the volume of water with this project presents a new problem(s).

Should the bins be placed directly on the floor or should they be raised so they don't get so cold? Or is cold good?

What is the best way to airate a 25 gal bin? I get the feeling that one 12" airstone is not going to do it.

Also, I plan on running 2 or 3 bins, what's the best way to do this? Must I have an air pump for each bin? Or do I need to have a pump for each airstone? Do they make pumps that will run 6 or more airstones?

Should I be using something other then pumps and airstones?

My vision is three 25 gal bins, two plants each. Where going for max yeild per plant as this will keep me legal. It would be great to be able to run all three bins with one pump.

What size net basket should I use for a 25 gal bin with only 2 grow sites?
I'm thinking 4".

Experienced DWC growers I need your help!!! What's the most effective and simplist way to airate my setup?
 

Hairy Bob

Well-Known Member
This is an air cooled reflector http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/SuperNova-Air-Cooled-100mm-Outlet-Reflector-Hydroponics_W0QQitemZ150183092752QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_HomeGarden_Garden_PlantsSeedsBulbs_JN?hash=item150183092752&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72:1301|66:2|65:12|39:1|240:1318 they don't come with a fan, you need to attatch the fan via ducting to remove the hot air from your growroom. You could attatch the fan directly to the hood, but then it's more weight to support, it would be better to mount the fan to a wall/ceiling imo.
With the height you have I would def go for a 1000w, especially as you're going for maximum yield. 600s are good, and are technically slightly more efficient (90,000 lumens versus 140,000 for a 1kw, or 150 and 140 lumens per watt respectively) but as I said before, they simply can't penetrate a canopy much further than 3 feet.
Sorry but I can't help with your DWC setup, I know nothing of hydroponics, I'm an organic soil grower myself and can't see me making the switch to hydro, so I've never bothered doing any research on it. Check out the hydroponics/aeroponics forum on this website, I'm sure there are folk there that know what they're talking about.
 

greenleafhigh

Well-Known Member
hmm with the space your saying i would go with the 600 watt because with the 1000 watt it has to be farther away from your plants which mean in the long run less hieght for plants
 

GypsyBush

Well-Known Member
My tent is 36x20x54 inches, and I use a cooltubed 600 watt HPS... with no heat issues...

I would recommend the most amount of light you can manage, temp wise...

I would choose the 1000 watt HPS and since you want to grow big plants, I would add T-5 Fluorescents from the bottom and sides....

Light looses a LOT of intensity for every foot it travels... like 75% or some shit... so your 6 foot tall plant is being neglected at the bottom... regardless of wattage....

Spread the light and she will spread the love...

Best of luck...

Gypsy...:joint::peace:
 

jayrock32580

Well-Known Member
definately go with atleast the 1000 with an inline fan. I have one it stays 10-12 inches from my plants without trouble or go cooltube.
 

jordisgarden

Well-Known Member
600 watts is perfect for a closet grow. you dont need more. 600 safe, wont use enough electricity to have you noticed. but 1000 watt grows are the line where you start to make the ges /elect. guys looking into you.i have a 4 ft 2 tube floro above and 3 100 watt hps lamps surrounding them i plan on adding 2 more 100 watt mh lam;s and thats gonna be plenty light. 1000 they start to notice and it doesnt make that much of a difference i used to grow in my ma s house with 2 400 mh a 250 hps and a 100 hps. the stairs they were under were so hot my mopther was like what the fuck are the stairs burning for. she went and chopped em down. so i grew with some hps about . no exactly 400 and did just fine, i supplemented with flor and it ruled and used way less energy. good luck homie......man 400 watt mh are sooo f ing hot it was rediculouse/ let me know how everything goes br
 

jayrock32580

Well-Known Member
that water cool is cool but to much work and I dont think they have it perfected enough yet. Dude I have a sunsystem 7 with yieldmaster 2 air cooled hood. I have a 432cfm doughnut style fan to draw air across light. I have 2 250 cfm squirel cage type fans. A 250 hps and 4 2' fluro fixtures. Everything cost $32.67/month
 

JayDoe71

Well-Known Member
definately go with atleast the 1000 with an inline fan. I have one it stays 10-12 inches from my plants without trouble or go cooltube.
Any links of examples how to hook an inline fan to the light? It sounds simple, but I'm not familiar with even how it looks,,Thanks
 

GypsyBush

Well-Known Member
Any links of examples how to hook an inline fan to the light? It sounds simple, but I'm not familiar with even how it looks,,Thanks
As stated before... my sig has some info on this stuff....

here is what I have to offer... copied and pasted from the FAQ...

Cheers... :joint::peace:

How do I build my own Cool Tube?


Original Concept Credit: johnstone, NIMBY
Written by: Don'tTreadOnMe
Additional info by: sanclem
Compiled & edited by: Smokey D Dope
johnstone- Hurricane tube NIMBY - Baking tube
Configuration
This type of fixture is very versatile. There are many different ways it can be configured:

*hanging or mounted on a chamber wall
*open-ended drawing air from the grow or ducted to a separate intake
*passively or actively cooled

Tools Needed:
*Power drill with 1/8" or 3/16" drill bit
*4.25" hole saw
*pop rivet gun (optional)
*flat head and Phillips head screw drivers


Materials:
Keep in mind that the full list of materials you will need depends on the type of glass you get and the configuration you're looking to build. Here's the materials list with some pictures and approximate pricing:

· $3.99-- Glass, either 4" Pyrex tube (approx. 12" long, 4” diameter) or "hurricane" lamp glass ($3.99 at Hobby Lobby, is 11 3/4" long and 4 5/8")
· $2.99-- 4" H/C venting starter collar
· $4.50-- 5" to 4" venting pipe reducer (for use with hurricane glass only)
· $3.00-7.00-- High-temp foil tape
· $5.00-- Thermal pipe wrap (looks like woven fiberglass tape with no adhesive)
· $8.00-- 4" aluminum "dryer" ducting (hanging configuration)
· $2.00-- 1/2 wood screws (box wall mount only)
· $3.00-- pop rivets or small sheet metal screws
· 4" (dryer ducting and/or Pyrex tube only) and/or 5" (hurricane glass only) hose clamps
· "S" hooks (for hanging)

a. Hurricane glass tube

When working with the hurricane glass "chimney," the irregular shape needs to be overcome so that it can be attached it to a reducer collar that will make up one end of the fixture. You may attach a reducer collar to a single end if you want an open ended design, or you can attach one to each end if you will be running ducting to both intake and exhaust ports.

The graphics concentrate on the exhaust end to which the bulb socket is also anchored. On this end of the glass (at the narrow "throat") numerous wraps of thermal pipe wrapping are wound around the glass and secured with a couple of wrappings of foil duct tape. The wrapping should build up the throat to the same diameter as the opening in the glass - where it snugly fits inside the larger end of the reducer.



This will allow us to use a 5" hose clamp to secure the edge of the reducer collar to this tape wrapped "cushion." (Note: you can use foil tape alone for building this "cushion" but the thermal wrapping makes for a neater seal, and is less susceptible to heat. Also, if a hose clamp isn't available, the reducer can be secured to the glass with foil tape.

If you use a hose clamp, you will need to make some 1" slits in the edge of the reducer collar the glass fits in to allow the hose clamp to compress it enough to hold the glass securely)

Mounting the socket inside the tube
In the graphic, a length of pipe strapping bent in a "U" shape is used to hold the socket far enough inside the glass to place the bulb roughly in the middle of the glass. This glass, $3.99 at Hobby Lobby, is 11 3/4" long and 4 5/8" at each end. Notice this glass is symmetrical. Don't try to use the asymmetrical hurricane lamp "chimney's" available at Lowe's or HD; they're too small and aren't shaped in a way that permits good air flow.

The socket is either screwed or pop riveted to the bottom of the pipe strap "U." My light was made from a 150w HPS security light which used a "medium" base socket; this socket has two little screws in it that more or less lined up with the holes in the strapping.

As for the mogul base sockets used with bigger lamps, I don't know what they have on the bottom of them so you may have to improvise a solution for mounting them. The ends of the strap are bent around to "clip" over the edge of the glass and then secured with a couple of wrappings of foil tape. If you'd like, a more permanent mount can be had by drilling a couple of small holes in the tapered throat of the reducer and attaching the ends of the strap with a couple of pop rivets.

Running the wires
The wires from the socket can be either run through your 4" ducting which will attach to the other end of the reducer or you can drill a hole in the tapered part of the reducer to run the wire out of the fixture to the ballast.

Here's how I actually have it done in my box. There's no venting, it just mounts to a 4.25" hole in the side of my flowering chamber via a starter collar which fits snugly inside the 4" side of the reducer collar. I've got them held together with four pop rivets for a permanent connection. The tabbed end of the starter collar fits into the hole where the tabs are bent around the edge of the hole and anchored with wood screw to the box wall. (In my box, on the other side of this wall is my utility room with a 4" 115cfm computer case fan sucking out the back of it.)

One could just as easily connect another reducer collar onto the other end of the glass exactly as the first side was with "S" hooks for hanging from above. This fixture could then have both intake and exhaust from outside the box.

Originally this is what I would have preferred to have, but as my flowering chamber is only 2'Dx2'Wx3'H, the wall mount actually did better for me.

johnstone- Hurricane tube NIMBY - Baking tube
b. Pyrex baking tube

(NIMBY) "Using a Pyrex (borosilicate glass) tube obtained from a glass blowing supply house or using a "Bake a Round" (eBay had a dozen for sale the last time I checked) one utilizes either one or two (pictured) 4" starter collars instead of the 5" to 4" reducer collars. They are 14" long and 3.75" in diameter."



"I stretched the aluminum ducting out and measured 16". I then snipped the metal "ribs" and cut the ducting open. The glass tube will now just drop into the long run of ducting. The electrial wires run to the remote ballast through the intake part of the duct (exhaust could also be used depending upon the location of the ballast). I measured 2" from each side of my original cut and snipped the metal ribs again but this time didn't cut the aluminum foil. This allows me to open the ducting up like a "wing"."



A couple of wraps of pipe wrap sealed with foil tape on each end you want to put a collar on should be used to keep from biting the metal directly into glass with the hose clamp (pictured). The socket is mounted inside the tube with pipe strapping just as in the hurricane style fixture. It can either be "clipped" and taped over the edge of the glass or better, pop riveted to the inside of the starter collar.

Simply stick the glass inside the end of the starter collar an inch or so past the bottom of the tabs to measure how far in to drill two holes 180 degrees apart, then use two pop rivets to attach the strapping

A note about pipe strapping: don't get the thin wimpy stuff. Get the thicker heavy-duty strapping. The heavy stuff is still relatively easy to bend but holds it's shape better and will hold the bulb and socket straight without sagging. At Home Depot they even have some copper pipe strapping (also known as “pipe tape" or “pipe hanger”) that is quite stiff.

Ventilation Performance
There are many different ventilation options available, since standard household ducting is used in the construction of the fixture. For those folks with bigger boxes or rooms, ducting in and out, "inline" duct fans are probably the best option.

For my little NewGanjaBoy-style setup, using the Hurricane fixture as part of the ventilation system of my box, a 115cfm computer fan does the trick. As for actual performance specs for different blowers/fans and light wattages, I'm afraid you'll have to experiment. Here's mine just to give an example:

Box:
-NewGanjaBoy-style three chambered box
-4 20w flouros in the mother chamber
-150w security HPS in the flowering chamber in original metal fixture with holes drilled in the top

Ventilation before Cool Tube installed:
-115cfm fan exhausting box
-4"x8" intake port in the bottom of the veg chamber
-Two 2' runs of 1.5" PVC pulling air through the wall between veg and flowering chambers
-Two 1' runs of 1.5" PVC pulling air from over the HPS fixture into the utility room where it's exhausting out the back.

Ventilation after Cool Tube installed:
-Two PVC runs between flowering chamber and utility room replaced with Hurricane Cool tube fixture
-ballast moved to utility room and housed in the original security light casing
-everything else is the same

Temps before Cool Tube mod:
Ambient temp: 80°F
Flowering chamber 1 hour after HPS fires up: 95°F (in direct light)
Flowering chamber 6-12 hours after HPS fires up: 100-105+°F (ouch!!)

Temps after Cool Tube Mod:
Ambient temp: 80°F
Flowering chamber 1 hour after HPS fires up: 85°F (in direct light)
Flowering chamber 6-12 hours after HPS fires up: 90°F (in direct light)

SAFETY NOTICE:
Please note that the wire to the bulb base must be a high temp fiberglass type, or the heat will eat up the wire and cause a running short. The thermal tape is a fiberglass electrical tape from most hardware stores. High temp fiberglass wrapped wire is available at any hardware or electrical store. It is imperative that you use it, as a smoking ballast is a real bummer to relight.

Added on: Friday, April 27, 2007 Viewed: 3634 times
 

jordisgarden

Well-Known Member
if you have central a/c run a duct over your lights. that should work. ive heard good stuff about that. water cooled just the term seems so difficult. to me anyway
 

JayDoe71

Well-Known Member
9025151000w Galaxy Digital HPS/MH Ballast $380.00 1$380.00 9016751000w Universal MH Bulb - Metal Halide $45.00 1$45.00 904520Magnum xxxl Reflector $194.00 1$194.00 734100EcoPlus 24-Hour Programmable Plug-in Timer $17.95 1$17.95 SAS51212" Airstone $2.95 6$17.70 728455AIR 3 Commercial Air Pump 35 WATT $69.95 1$69.95 R205D1/2 Black poly hose (50 feet) $9.95 1$9.95 730015Reflective Mylar 1 Mil x 25' $15.95 1$15.95 7245206" NET POT $1.25 6$7.50 HYD310Hydroton 10 Liter Bag $10.95 1$10.95 722300Sharp BUFFER 4.01 220ML $9.95 1$9.95 STS500Sharp TDS Solution 220ml 1382 ppm $9.95 1$9.95 Subtotal: $788.85 Shipping cost: $61.58
Total: $850.43
 

JayDoe71

Well-Known Member
Above is my supply's list, I'm sorry it didn't copy in the right format so it's hard to read. For under $1000 I put together a operation that should produce somewhere between 12 - 18 oz every 8 weeks.

I did opt for the 1000W as the advantages seemed to out weigh the disadvantages. I'll start posting pics when my supply's arrive, should be late next week!!
 
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