New Grower Newbie in need of light advice.

[Isterbuken]

Hey afn,

I have built me a growbox (width 160cm, depth 80cm, height 120cm), the reason for the weird measurements is height restrictions in the space were the box can be placed. My question about the lights is, will two 400w hps be enough to effectively grow in this area or would two 600w be a better fit? Looking forward to getting my first advice on a question, from the AFNlogo comunity.

 

[namvet25]

400 watt should be enough but 600 might be a little stronger.

 

[Nam80232]

One 400w. Your hight is 4 feet, that's really close after a hood. Might want to think about led, plus the heat from those lights will be intense.

 

[A4]

Yeah, 400W should be plenty in that size. 600 would be nice if you can keep it cool. That is a big if. I have a had a hard time keeping my 1mx1mx2.5m tent cool with 600 and had to purchase an AC unit. Like Nam80232 said, when you factor in the hood you are going to be left with very little height. I am not sold on LED yet in larger setups but in your case it is a viable option. It is going to look a little higher priced than HID at first glance but keep in mind you don't have to buy a hood, a new bulb every year, ballast, duct work and cooling fans, and quite possibly an AC unit. It also frees up about 40-50 cm head room. That is probably they way I would go if I were in your situation. Best of luck Isterbuken.

 

[GoAuto6]

I would go with 2- 400 watters and use cool tubes, somthing like this,




COOLTUBE Reflector Air Cooled 6" 8" Grow Light COOL TUBE GLASS HOOD




they work very well just link them together with ducting poke it out, chances are you wont need a A/c,

 

[namvet25]

400 watt should be enough but 600 might be a little stronger

Ijust read this post,what a brilliant statement,pretty tecknical shit.

 

[Soylent Green]

Would go for 400watt good quality led! Best 2*200w or 3*150w!
More expensive now but no hassel getting temp under control!
Also do some scroging and use only half of the light during vegetation!

 

[Isterbuken]

HeyAFNlogo, Thanks for all the advice, my plan was to run them in cool-tubes, is light intensity still an issue with these, i mean will the lights be to bright, even with the heat under control?

Sure the led´s are more expensive, but if they indeed would give my plants an extra 40cm head room, it would mean i would be able to choose between more strains, and that would make it worth the extra cash to me, if i where to go the led route, would two ms0006 type led be as effective as two 400w hid?

Well my friends there you have it, my noob question leading to good advice, wich in return lead to more questions, i guess this will be my life for the foreseeable future. Again thanks for all your help.

 

[A4]

Well if you go with cool tubes there won't be much difference in height difference between LED. I was thinking along the lines of a standard hood. 2 400's will be nice! Good intensity and penetration. The nice thing about that is you could run only one during most of your veg and be fine then use the other one when the plants get taller. If you went with a digi ballast you could buy a selectable one like Lumatek 400 and use either 400W or 250W bulbs in there. Use 250 during veg or when you are only running a single plant and then dial it up to 400 when you really want to blast them.

 

[Liontamer]

I would go with a single 600 Watt for that size of grow space, supplemented with a few CFLs, I use a 275 Watt LED and it really is the mutts nuts, not a cheap piece of kit at close to 300 quid but worth every penny in my opinion.
Have a look at the LED section in this forum, theres some good advice in there but basically there are good and bad LEDs.
If they are Chinese they are shite, if they are American they are awesome, cree LEDs are the no.1 at present.
As with most things you get what you pay for. A set of LEDs on fleabay for 30 quid wont even give enough intensity or the correct spectrums to even raise a seedling let alone get you some good bud.
I use a LUX meter to ensure my plants are always getting the perfect level of light intensity.
30 quid will get you a good meter and it takes all the guesswork out of your what height to set your lights.
10-15,000 Lux for seedlings.
25-30,000 for veg stage.
35,000 for flowering plants.
Sorted mate.