Light wattage

Im currently at the store purchasing grow mediums and hopefully some bulbs. I’m completely new to this. Waiting to set up my 5’10” x 5’0” x 8’0” walk in closet before I even order my seeds.
Since I have only a slight idea what I’m doing I’m going to probably start out with planting 4 like most people on here seem to suggest. My question is will one 600watt HID bulb be “enough”. Or will 1000watt be what I want? Might actually order the combo ballast to interchange between MH and HPS online if they don’t have it here at Menards.

Depends on heat .
more light is always nice but if you cant keep it cool you would yeild better with a 600 .
Just my opinion though

Another option is a 600 watt dual splitter
Or mabey even 315 cmh
I use gavita at the moment and it probably wouldnt work for you unless you keep them really low

A 600 watt will do a good job covering a 4’ x 4’ space. 1000 watt will do 5’ x 5’. With a good cool tube and well ventilated either is reasonable. For personal use the 600 is enough imo. And any digital ballast accepts both mh and hps. Magnetic ballasts only accept one or the other so you need 2 but theyre cheaper. I use a digital ballast and a 400 watt over a square meter in a 5’ tall tent and have been getting a bit over 10 oz’s per grow lately. Still improving things.

Also the brand bulb is important. Dont want to cheap out on that. Best one ive found is hortilux but theyre expensive. A lot of cheap ones you buy just dont work ime. Like literally dont turn on lol. Ive heard grolux is good and there are plenty of others.. look into it. I dont recommend ipower lol i just got 2 bulbs from them and both are non functional. One mh and one hps

You could use the 600 hid and throw in a couple t5 for uv.

Cold$moke said:

Another option is a 600 watt dual splitter

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So this would allow me to use both MH and HPS simultaneously?

With this info you all have given would it make sense to use MH and HPS 400w each along with a t5 bulb?

Would ventilation going into the rest of my apartment suffice or does it need to circulate with outside air...? My plan was to just cut a hole at the top of the grow closet leading into a spare bedroom for the duct work.

I also grow in a closet(5x10) that I utilize about a 4x4 area with an 8 bucket RDWC system. I run led's but I can tell you that heat management is going to be a priority. A 600W HID will give you plenty of light but a 1000 will max out that space(just a bunch more heat to deal with). A vented hood would be my choice to keep temps under control.
On the T5-I think that they would just add to the heat load. The HID is more efficient at making photons.

Digable Plants said:

So this would allow me to use both MH and HPS simultaneously?

With this info you all have given would it make sense to use MH and HPS 400w each along with a t5 bulb?

Would ventilation going into the rest of my apartment suffice or does it need to circulate with outside air...? My plan was to just cut a hole at the top of the grow closet leading into a spare bedroom for the duct work.

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Imo that lighting would be enough but more is always nice. Depends how much you smoke. And youll want this vented outside if possible. I vent down under my house. Have a big hole cut in the floor. With all smell filtered first of course. Youll want a good fan and filter setup like this
https://www.ebay.com/i/251870306943?chn=ps&ul_ref=http%3A%2F%2Frover.ebay.com%2Frover%2F1%2F711-117182-37290-0%2F2%3Fmpre%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fwww.ebay.com%252Fi%252F251870306943%253Fchn%253Dps%26itemid%3D251870306943%26targetid%3D401661962395%26device%3Dm%26adtype%3Dpla%26googleloc%3D9012416%26poi%3D%26campaignid%3D1028987039%26adgroupid%3D50256398786%26rlsatarget%3Dpla-401661962395%26abcId%3D1130066%26merchantid%3D114711362%26gclid%3DCj0KCQiAs9zSBRC5ARIsAFMtUXHTBUTZk6w2hUm1WRHUCuk-gLMH_RHvb6oiWYvHV3pI0DP0VkMVqF4aAmn5EALw_wcB%26srcrot%3D711-117182-37290-0%26rvr_id%3D1413873996049
But you may be able to find the setup cheaper. If you’re doing a 400 or 600 watt id go with a 6” fan

cannn said:

Imo that lighting would be enough but more is always nice. Depends how much you smoke. And youll want this vented outside if possible

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Well I guess my only option for a vent leading outside would be somehow through the spare bdrm window lol. Otherwise no way.

How about this? Are those ventilation tubes on the reflector hood?
Edit: https://www.amazon.com/iPower-Digital-Dimmable-System-Reflector/dp/B006DS3BA4/ref=sr_1_7?s=lawn-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1515732905&sr=1-7&keywords=Grow+Light+Digital+Dimmable+HPS+Mh+System+600w

Thanks very much for the carbon filter recommendation btw. This will help a ton I'm sure.

GBAUTO said:

On the T5-I think that they would just add to the heat load. The HID is more efficient at making photons.

Click to expand...

Was actually thinking of using the t5 only for seedlings now. Do people do this? Then switch to the HID when repotting?

Do a week of reading in your spare time.
All the answers are here somewhere

Not sure about mixing bulbs on a splitter.
Would have to ask someone else as i have not personally used one.


Biggest thing is get a light what ever you want .

And then get your environment dialed.

Do that and youll be successful

Reading is no problem its just remembering everything
I'll do what I should have done from the moment I decided to give this a shot: reading with a pen and paper in hand haha...

Like I said thought this has helped a ton along with my first thread on purchasing seeds. I think I'm ready to start buying the bigger things since I have little bit of a better idea now. So thank you all!

I'm sure it'll be at least towards the end of the month until I'll have my room set up and get things started since I don't have too much time on my hands. Not to mention the free shipping options

I'll sure be looking forward to sharing photos and receiving(hopefully positive) feedback on what I come up with in the Grow Room Design & Set-up thread.

Digable Plants said:

Well I guess my only option for a vent leading outside would be somehow through the spare bdrm window lol. Otherwise no way.

How about this? Are those ventilation tubes on the reflector hood?
Edit: https://www.amazon.com/iPower-Digital-Dimmable-System-Reflector/dp/B006DS3BA4/ref=sr_1_7?s=lawn-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1515732905&sr=1-7&keywords=Grow+Light+Digital+Dimmable+HPS+Mh+System+600w

Thanks very much for the carbon filter recommendation btw. This will help a ton I'm sure.

Click to expand...

Yeah thats the kinda thing you want. With a 600 watt and that well ventilated you can eliminate the need for extra cooling. But you can definitely find cheaper. That ones a bit overpriced. Also ive only ordered 2 things from ipower, one 400 watt mh bulb and one 400 watt hps bulb and neither worked. Id look into what are the best ballasts rn. Thats the important part there.

I got too excited and placed my order. But I went with a similar combo from VIVOSUN. $156 for a 600 watt set up

Should look into rfi and rfi causing cable company's to come investigate easy to test with am radio

Just remember .
Lights
Temps.
Humidity

If you can get those 3 good the rest will be pretty easy.
Dont go crazy on hydro nutes!

klozetgrow said:

Should look into rfi and rfi causing cable company's to come investigate easy to test with am radio

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I looked it up and wasn’t quite clear on exactly what it was but I have a friend that works for Comcast who explained it a little better. According to him they don’t go investigate your house if that’s what you mean. And he said most what causes the interference is electric motors. The duct fan I bought is only like 22 watts or something. Lemme know if I’m missing something.

Digable Plants said:

I looked it up and wasn’t quite clear on exactly what it was but I have a friend that works for Comcast who explained it a little better. According to him they don’t go investigate your house if that’s what you mean. And he said most what causes the interference is electric motors. The duct fan I bought is only like 22 watts or something. Lemme know if I’m missing something.

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Radio frequency interference. It can occur with improperly shielded wires or something in digital ballasts. A lot of people dont trust them and people have had legitimate issues due to this but i think most of their issue was not having the sense to say no you cant come in my house. Lol. With extremely powerful ballasts it can mess with antannaes, phones, remotes and shit and it can be detected. Its possible to cause someone to come knocking.

if they do knock, tell them to wait a minute, go unplug your ballast, and ask them to check again. if there was a problem and unplugging your ballast fixes it, time to join the 20th century and get a decent ballast (i know its the 21st century, but i don't want to rush anyone)

if they ask what you were doing, tell them you have a giant tesla coil you use to reanimate roadkill, when you get it right, you'll bring back Nixon, he'll fix all this shit.....i guarantee they won't ask any more questions

https://www.1000bulbs.com/product/137290/GROW-RFFILTERSET.html?gclid=CjwKCAiA1uHSBRBUEiwAkBCtzTIMnlJUmD4GW_jNa0xKKXVHbT3VUAyFwLK7DkGtp6lkaMgWnfoe8hoCs1wQAvD_BwE

Theres these but at that point id just get magnetic ballasts lol

You guys are like an encyclopedia. I will definitely consider that rfi reduction thing. Seems pretty I nexpensive for some more peace of mind.

Also I was thinking the same thing cannn. I can easily say no you cannot come in or just pretend I’m not home lol.