Ttystikk's vertical goodness

Sativied said:

Sounds like you could use one of those HPS glasses.

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I have some, but they aren't sunglasses- so they still gave me eyestrain.

ODanksta said:

Damn especially the hydro shop i was recently running, we had atleast 12k of lights in displays. I could barely see when i driving home at night. Lol i wonder if it is even safe sleeping in a house 10k + in magnetic ballast. Just from the all that electricity. My house has this constant buzzing noise.. sometimes i wonder if its frying my brain

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Magnetic ballasts don't put out the weird RF interference digis can, especially the cheap Chinese ones.

I have some three or four digital ballasts, I'll run new Plantmax HPS thouies on them in one room as a control vs. the CDM lamps.

ODanksta said:

My brother was using those a while back, his comment was way more frost, less yield. I do like the white light that comes from the CDM, more then the red from a regular bulb it seems less stress on your eyes when working in the room..

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My vertical trellis rig keeps more of the canopy in the Goldilocks zone of optimum distance and lighting, this may have an effect on the yield- and it may not. Time will tell!

@ODanksta: does your brother have more specific numbers? You said way more frost and since that's a large part of the eventual dry weight, the wet weight had to be much lower.

Perhaps a BHO run for both bulbs will show different results and it may be at least a good bulb for resin production.

Sativied said:

@ODanksta: does your brother have more specific numbers? You said way more frost and since that's a large part of the eventual dry weight, the wet weight had to be much lower.

Perhaps a BHO run for both bulbs will show different results and it may be at least a good bulb for resin production.

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That's just what I was thinking. The whole point of the exercise is resin production, right?

ODanksta said:

Damn especially the hydro shop i was recently running, we had atleast 12k of lights in displays. I could barely see when i driving home at night. Lol i wonder if it is even safe sleeping in a house 10k + in magnetic ballast. Just from the all that electricity. My house has this constant buzzing noise.. sometimes i wonder if its frying my brain

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It's well known that humans need time for their eyes to adjust from light to darkness and back. I can imagine that attempting to rush this process might at least be uncomfortable. I'm curious if it can lead to problems.

ttystikk said:

It's well known that humans need time for their eyes to adjust from light to darkness and back. I can imagine that attempting to rush this process might at least be uncomfortable. I'm curious if it can lead to problems.

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...and by way of anecdote, I'm on my way to an emergency eye appointment for ANOTHER detached retina. Coincidence?

The CIA is attributed as the source of this saying; once is an anomaly, twice is a coincidence- and three times is enemy action.

I had a long talk with the doc about the lighting conditions we encounter, including going from very dark to very bright settings in short periods of time. She was clear that our biggest risks as growers are;

1. Foreign objects/chemical overspray, even resin in the eyes

2. Long term damage due to UV exposure

To fix #1, wear safety glasses
To fix #2, make them good shades

To oversimplify, I did very well getting in early. Preventative work done last summer seems to be doing its job. Prognosis is good that I won't have any long term issues in the new eye. Vision in my right eye, the one that did have the detached retina, is deteriorating and I'll need cataract surgery soon- but other than that, it's healthy and therefore well worth the effort to improve my vision. They scheduled one more observation appt for a couple of weeks out, just to make damn sure.

I like the sound of making damn sure.

Tending to problems and getting things organized is the order of the day around here.

I'm moving my ballasts so that I have all my digitals in one room, to run the head to head HPS vs CDM.

Nutrient changeouts, the usual.

Update on how the CDM experiment is going; the plants love it. They display strong phototropism, vigorous growth and great color.

It's going to be awhile before I have meaningful weight numbers, but I'm liking how chunky and thick and frosty the buds are!

Some harvest time pics;
Magic Merlin left, another right


Same plants, panning right


Magic Merlin left, Purple Jones right


Hillbilly Hobby


CDM FTW

@SnapsProvolone I was wondering if you could help me figure out a persistent excess RH issue. Someone mentioned that you knew a bit about environmental controls and equipment... and any ideas would be most helpful!

Sealed CO2 or ventilated?

What exactly seems to be the problem? High rh all the time?

SnapsProvolone said:

Sealed CO2 or ventilated?

What exactly seems to be the problem? High rh all the time?

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I'd run it sealed and supplement by CO² tank as designed if I could keep the RH down. As it is, I'm forced to all but constantly ventilate to keep RH below 75%... and yes, I live in Colorado.

I run a fully water chilled room, where 8" Icebox brand water to air heat exchangers are the main vector of heat out of the room. These also perform dehuey functions. When the room is dry- empty- the system has trouble maintaining temperature with all the lights on, but humidity is low.

When the room is full of plants temps become manageable but RH climbs into the 80s, forcing me to ventilate.

I suspect my air handler surface area is inadequate, and I'm wondering what my options are.

What is the temperature of your air handler coil? Room temp?

How many cfm are you blowing through the air handler. How many watts you running? Room volume?

SnapsProvolone said:

What is the temperature of your air handler coil? Room temp?

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Chiller maintains water in circulation at about 62-65f.

Room temp target is 80, 85 w/ CO². RH target is high sixties until peak bloom, then taper down to the forties at chop.

Currently, empty room runs at 86 to 87 and dry- and full room runs at 75-85% RH and on temp.

You need to get that core down into the low to mid 50's or add significant additional core area. Your cold water any cooler than the core, perhaps increased flow rates?

SnapsProvolone said:

How many cfm are you blowing through the air handler. How many watts you running? Room volume?

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Since each air handler is 8" in diameter, I use industry standard fans to blow through them. The biggest are Maxfans, pushing 675cfm.

Room is running 4kW. Volume is 1000cf.