Is 1200w too much?

I've got a 2x4 gorilla lite tent. Planning to run a fresh,outside, air loop to cool bulbs and my tent is in a 68-70 degree room with a 4" inline w/speed controler exhaust. I have 2 hoods that will fit but I don't want to bleach my girls. I think i can control the heat, but was wondering about the lights just being too much? Any thoughts?

Forgot to mention, I'm growing in 3 gal smart pots w/organic soil. Planning a 4-6 week veg then flipping, hoping to harvest 3-4 ft plants. I have 3 started with two more in paper towels, so I could have as many as 5 ( If all are female ) in the tent.
I know it's overkill, but I've got everything to do it - if the plants can handle the light. Pure Afghan & Kandy Kush x Skunk are my strains. Any opinions?

you are nuts. 1200w in 2x4 would fry the hell out of them. That is about 3x the max that you will want in that space.

Nuts?? i like to think of it as pushing the limits! i know its more than needed - last time i had 400w and felt like there were shadows. the dual set-up is really for my next grow, but thought i could try it on this run. so should i do one 600w and maybe turn my vegging lights into side lighting after i flip - i want an excess of light but not so much as to cause bleaching problems. thanks for the reply!

upnsmoke13 said:

Nuts?? i like to think of it as pushing the limits! i know its more than needed - last time i had 400w and felt like there were shadows. the dual set-up is really for my next grow, but thought i could try it on this run. so should i do one 600w and maybe turn my vegging lights into side lighting after i flip - i want an excess of light but not so much as to cause bleaching problems. thanks for the reply!

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I would recommend you use the 400w you already have and add florescent side lighting if you want to eliminate shadows.

Also when adding florescent you can supplement the colors that are weak in your main light. For HPS 6500k and UVB would be my recommendations.

Last grow, i used a iGrow 400w cooltube in a 2x4x60" tent. i used ffof w/ molasses water & fox farm's trio. i thought i done really good by harvesting & curing almost 9 o's! my next grow, i wanted to upgrade things to try to beat the first. now have gorilla lite 2x4x6'11" tent, (2)600w gavita e-series hydrofarm phantom hoods with ushio bulbs, phresh filter w/4" inline fan on a variac transformer. going to have a 6" vortex fan on a dedicated loop to the hood. also mixed up some organic soil per Ganja Girl over on Grasscity. will be moving to a room after this grow, hence the pair of lights. i have the 400w (would have to buy a bulb) but thought even if the 600w was too much, i could raise it. i want to push, without torching them. know what i mean?

8000 lumens per sq ft is as far is you want to push it without adding CO2 and climate control. Over that and you will have heat issues and light burn issues without the increased CO2 and humidity.

Even a single 600w HPS at 92,000 lumens, puts you to 11,500 lumens per sq ft. Your 400w put around 6,250 lumens per sqft, so adding a few florescent is the perfect solution, it puts you up to max and give better light spectrum than HPS alone.

With all the stuff you have I would finish the 2x4 space with florescent and use your 1200w to fill about 24 square feet or more with supplemental added.

i need to research some light consumption topics! glad i asked, before i smoked my smoke! ill dial back one of the gavitas and grab another bulb. as far as the floros, im vegging with 4 4' 6500k spectralux's. care to "shine some light" on a good uvb bulb. Thank you for the info, man!!
any other suggestions would def be researched!

Also if you are going to push things to the limit, remember it's all about your bottle neck issue.

Your plants need: Light, Water, Nutrients, CO2, O2

At any given point you will be limited by the supply of one of these or by another issue (heat/humidity/insects/mold/bacteria/virus.) Whatever that limitation is, it is your bottleneck. Going past 7500 lumens per sq ft makes your bottleneck issue be CO2 if everything else is GTG. Nutrients bottleneck out in soil before CO2 however. If you are going to max things out, time to leave soil behind. Pick your form of hydro.

upnsmoke13 said:

i need to research some light consumption topics! glad i asked, before i smoked my smoke! ill dial back one of the gavitas and grab another bulb. as far as the floros, im vegging with 4 4' 6500k spectralux's. care to "shine some light" on a good uvb bulb. Thank you for the info, man!!
any other suggestions would def be researched!

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10% UVB reptile bulbs. Brand won't matter much.

oh great! l'm worrying about this new soil mix, now! my gf says im ocd, but "i just want to be sure!"
trip to the pet store is in order.
i've only grew that one grow. i lost about .25-.5 due to a thick (20 oz bottle) bud getting molded and i didn't catch it! so i need some practice. didn't know if i could mix something better than ffof, but thought i'd try. the soil did well, except a couple defs, but was able to correct with the help of this forum and a couple others. im starting in solo cups this time, last time i started in the 3 gal pots, going to try some lst, and thought about topping half (don't know about that yet). i know im going to run out of room, but i want to try some stuff! i've got a 11x9 room, with 2x4 walls, that ill be insulating & moving my grows into, after this time. i'll have a window ac and either electric (expensive) or gas (have to run 150' of pipe!) heat - thought about recirculating light heat, in the winter.
i've done a little reading, about hydro, and i'm interested. i've snuck around in the hydro section and like some of those set-ups. saw a 3 rail gravity-return set-up that looked too simple!! im thinking about "making the switch" after i move. you hydro?

To answer your original question, yes too much light]

yeah, it sounds like i could've titled this thread "will 1200w nukem".

Since you seem to go overboard, let me note, 5w per sqft max for the UVB 10% bulbs. That will put you to levels as high or higher than anywhere on earth for UVB.

When you get into your larger space look at tanning bulbs, also available in 10% UVB, but will require you to do a DIY fixture.

no probems there (assuming they're 54w), i only have the one 4 bulb set-up. i'll be looking into them - one question. would the girls benefit if uvb was introduced earlier, lol i can't help it - there's always room to tweak!! i've been buying, for a while, and i'm ready to get some decent bud!

upnsmoke13 said:

no probems there (assuming they're 54w), i only have the one 4 bulb set-up. i'll be looking into them - one question. would the girls benefit if uvb was introduced earlier, lol i can't help it - there's always room to tweak!! i've been buying, for a while, and i'm ready to get some decent bud!

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UVB has two different potential uses:
1. Stimulate resin production during flower
2. Increase chances of mutation when exposed early in life. Great for breeding.

so i'm thinking of adding uvb's, after i flip, now. do i need more fixtures or can i get enough spectrum, with 4 bulbs, to cover my space. if 5w/ft, i'm looking at more fixtures, uh??

If you hang them vertically you can better advantage of that much light in that much space.

i run two 600w HPS lights in s ,,4x4 closet with cool tubes and the plants love it. my hoods are 2x2 so what you want to do might work out if temps are good

upnsmoke13 said:

so i'm thinking of adding uvb's, after i flip, now. do i need more fixtures or can i get enough spectrum, with 4 bulbs, to cover my space. if 5w/ft, i'm looking at more fixtures, uh??

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you have 8 sqft in that space. So 40w max of UVB 10%. 1 of the 4 bulbs should be fine for UVB. The other 3 can be 6500k.