lighting hint

[ALLBUDZ]

Scraglor and KC, thanks for that.

KC you know when you say an open end reflector, are you meaning something like a 'eurowing' A basic cheap reflector as an example. Whereas not like a hydrofarm ' I think thats the name' where its kinda boxed so the light heads down.

Ah a adjustawing is open ended is'nt it, I get you now, I think.

Anyway thanks both of you..

Cheers man.....

Edited December 9, 2009 by Scooby's Doobies

[KC]

Yeah like a dutch barn or euro reflector

e2a- or yes adjustawings woo

Edited December 10, 2009 by KC

[ALLBUDZ]

Spot on, understood.

I'll give that a go.....

Cheers man....

[Artificial Emotion]

This might be a silly question but I'll ask just in case. It says a 600W light should be 24-36" from the plants but when my lights are 24" away the temp is still lower than I'd like it to be ideally. Should I just keep decreasing the distance in small increments until the temp is sufficiently high? I see no reason why not...

[ritchtbiscuit]

This might be a silly question but I'll ask just in case. It says a 600W light should be 24-36" from the plants but when my lights are 24" away the temp is still lower than I'd like it to be ideally. Should I just keep decreasing the distance in small increments until the temp is sufficiently high? I see no reason why not...

Might be wrong but it's not the heat that's the problem (you could have a cooled reflector and be cm away and not be too hot), it's the intensity of the light at close proximity that could do damage. Some strains can handle it better than others so you just have to experiment with distances....

[Artificial Emotion]

Are you sure about that? I'll have to check.

[Guest leepy]

Are you sure about that? I'll have to check.

you want your light a close as possible without burning ya plants i used to hang a bit of chain 18in long from the bottom of my reflector

[Artificial Emotion]

^ Now that is a damn good avatar! I'm impressed.

Do you measure from the bottom of the bulb to the top of the plant?

[driptray]

you want your light a close as possible without burning ya plants i used to hang a bit of chain 18in long from the bottom of my reflector

Top Tip from the Leepy fella

I do this also

Easier to check when feeding an stuff

Driptray

[Artificial Emotion]

Leepy=light, yes?

[Guest Tutu]

Are you sure about that? I'll have to check.

you want your light a close as possible without burning ya plants i used to hang a bit of chain 18in long from the bottom of my reflector

I do exactly the same but my chain is 8" long for 600w, my 1000w is hung less the 6" from canopy but in a parabolic see lazi and scraglor's post.

If you want to hang your lights this low the plants need to hardened off to the high light levels otherwise you get light burn (Lumen shock the yanks call it) last time I dropped from 18" to 8" over the first 10 days of flower, next time though I'm doing things very very different I've already hardened seedlings off (They 3 weeks old, 600w @10") and intend to get the lights within 5" of the plants but hanging bulbs vertically with no shades so I won't have that horrid hotspot syndrom also the need to get the edge as close as possible so the inner parts are lit well.

I have an uneven canopy in 1 tent so the closer to the top the bulb is the better the lower tips do, the 1000w has a scrog net and almost perfect even canopy.

[Artificial Emotion]

I'd just like to say, I had my light around 4' high and moved it down to a much close height. Within 24 hours there had been the same amount of growth, maybe even more, than there would otherwise have been in a whole week! They also looked healthier and more perky. I had it so high because there were cutting/seedlings in the tent. It really makes a BIG difference to get the sweet spot where light spread/footprint and light intensity are both good. I know this is obvious to many but I thought I'd share my experience anyway!

Edited April 10, 2010 by Artificial Emotion

[chickenlipsr4]

Vertical bulb reflectors like grostars or parabolics allow you to get your lamps way closer than those that hold the bulb horizontally.

[piedpiper]

Hi all

After reading the whole lighting thread I'm still a bit unsure whether to go for the parabolic or growstar.

The larger of the para's from Greens looks like it should do the job in my 1.2 x 1.2 x 1.9 (had to trim the height a bit to fit in my loft), but the growstar looks like it would reflect more light.

The para setup from Greens comes with a 600 ballast and bulb and goes for 129.95 and having dealt with them before, am sure it'd be here within 2 or 3 working days, whereas the cost of the growstar, ballast and bulb seperately more than doubles and delivery from multiple sources is unknown.

Pretty sure the Greens merchandise is of a 'stable' quality, so not too concerned that for the price it'd be a 'cheap and nasty'.

At the moment (2nd week of flower) running 1 x 250HPS and 1 x 400 HPS both with mediocre to shite reflectors, but after reading this thread, thinking of replacing the 250 with the MH that I used for vegging.

What I was wondering was;

1) do you agree the para would be a good investment for a far more even light spread or should I bite the bullet, bum the dosh and go for the growstar with a quality (Lumatek comes to mind) ballast & dual spectrum bulb

2) should I strip the shitey reflector off the 250, fit the MH bulb and let it hang vertically between the 3 plants to provide light to the lower regions

As always, your advice / input is greatly appreciated

Stay safe

PP.

[piedpiper]

Bump

I'd just like to know of any comparative experience between the 1m parabolic and the 42" growstar (both with a 600 HPS).

So far I've got djay going for the growstar, but Greens report a lot of conflicting feedback on them.....so I'm not as sold as I was.

C'mon peeps......help me out here, already wasted too much money on sub standard reflectors, so would like to get something that's gonna do the job for a while to come.

Here's hoping.