Looking For A Cheap Alternative.

[d0rk2dafullest]

Hello everyone i'm getting a new tent soon for my mothers and clones. I have a veg room, but i need even more room because of my mothers and the amount of strains i have going on.

i was wondering if anyone is using any cheap LED lights just for vegging mothers? Like if anyone has bought a 12"x12" panel, would that be enough lighting to support 1 4'x4' tray?

I was looking on amazon and was looking to buy one of these :
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...psc=1&qid=1450987103&ref_=sr_1_1&sr=8-1-spons

I was just wondering if anyone has tried something like this? and have found the most bang for ur buck.
I'm just looking to keep my mothers alive and well, i'm not trying to flower under them at all. just veg nicely. and produce enough for me to take clones from.

I also have some t-8 fixtures as well. i was planning on running t-8 bulbs if the LED panels were not enough. or not even worth it all. they hold 2 tubes each, so i was gonna run like 3 fixtures per 4'x4' tray.

I'd run t-5, but all those fixtures are just too much. especially for just vegging moms. i'd rather go cheap LED or t-8 bulbs.

Any help is appreciated. Not trying to go nuts. trying to keep it very simple.

 

[ArcticOrange]

Just out of curiosity do you live in a med or legal state? I can get $400 worth of t5s off craigslist from people who thought they could grow and found out they couldn't for less than $100 on craigslist. At JUST about any given time.

 

[d0rk2dafullest]

Just out of curiosity do you live in a med or legal state? I can get $400 worth of t5s off craigslist from people who thought they could grow and found out they couldn't for less than $100 on craigslist. At JUST about any given time.

California, it's just about the same here. i expected more equipment to be sold and such. but i guess EVERYONE out here grows. and just would sell their equipment to friends or even give it to the friends who DID know how to grow. lol. I had some friends who stopped growing recently too, and they all donated their equipment to me as well. not everything but what i had room for and could use. for example, a co2 generator. was very awesome of him to donate to me. (Thanks again bud!)

I still have have extra 4x4 trays and even a 4x8 tray not in use. I just dont have the room. but if i ever expanded. i know i i'd have some equipment. just not the lights. i have no xtra lights. i was offered lights from before. but they've sold them now. it seems everyone and their momma grows in SoCal

 

[Dabominable]

Another option that i did, is yo buy some t8 lights of america light fixtures at walmart for 13 bucks a pop, and wire them (really basic wiring) for single sided power, and direct current, completely bypassing the ballast. I've got about 12 of these lights. I mixed 5k/65k bulb spectrums. I've been using the same bulbs for about 3 years now and have had no slow in growth. I had used them initially at my old house, where my veg room was my attic, and was able to space out about an 8'10' with 5 lights on each side. I've got 18 watt bulbs in, making them 36 watts per fixture, so roughly 350w for all 10. You can put the light pretty much on top of the plant, because the heat just doesn't exist. I then went to dhgate.com and ordered 20 t8 led bulbs, and you can pretty much get whatever wattage you want, as it is direct current and it won't be an issue. I get 100 lumens per watt, so 3600 lumens per fixture * 10 = 36000 lumens. You need to change your soil mixxes accordingly because plants feed less under these sort of leds. Next time i've got an actual day of nothing to do, i plan on making like a 2x8x4 box and putting 2-4 lights in there and making it my seedling and clone station, and switching over to a 400-600 hps with a monstrous parabolic hood. I now take my plants outside in the sun during the day, and bring them under the lights at night. But as i stated, these will veg stuff, and had been my sole reliance at my other spot. Had no problem vegging from cut to 5ft with these lights. Hope this helps, and there are plenty of diagrams showing you how to wire them. I just grabbed one fixture from another spot that i probably wired wrecklessly, or it pulled a wire during the move. So if i get around to it today i will fix it and then try to explain how the wiring is if you had no luck. With the leds you do not need a real intake or exhaust out, mostly just oscillation..

 

[d0rk2dafullest]

Another option that i did, is yo buy some t8 lights of america light fixtures at walmart for 13 bucks a pop, and wire them (really basic wiring) for single sided power, and direct current, completely bypassing the ballast. I've got about 12 of these lights. I mixed 5k/65k bulb spectrums. I've been using the same bulbs for about 3 years now and have had no slow in growth. I had used them initially at my old house, where my veg room was my attic, and was able to space out about an 8'10' with 5 lights on each side. I've got 18 watt bulbs in, making them 36 watts per fixture, so roughly 350w for all 10. You can put the light pretty much on top of the plant, because the heat just doesn't exist. I then went to dhgate.com and ordered 20 t8 led bulbs, and you can pretty much get whatever wattage you want, as it is direct current and it won't be an issue. I get 100 lumens per watt, so 3600 lumens per fixture * 10 = 36000 lumens. You need to change your soil mixxes accordingly because plants feed less under these sort of leds. Next time i've got an actual day of nothing to do, i plan on making like a 2x8x4 box and putting 2-4 lights in there and making it my seedling and clone station, and switching over to a 400-600 hps with a monstrous parabolic hood. I now take my plants outside in the sun during the day, and bring them under the lights at night. But as i stated, these will veg stuff, and had been my sole reliance at my other spot. Had no problem vegging from cut to 5ft with these lights. Hope this helps, and there are plenty of diagrams showing you how to wire them. I just grabbed one fixture from another spot that i probably wired wrecklessly, or it pulled a wire during the move. So if i get around to it today i will fix it and then try to explain how the wiring is if you had no luck. With the leds you do not need a real intake or exhaust out, mostly just oscillation..

I'm hoping it's the same with t8's as well? Just oscillation ? If not even needed, i think that's what i'll be running. as far as wiring goes, i'm no electrician and i dont think i'd mess with the ballasts. i just dont trust myself enough, and dont want to start an unnecessary fire. LOL.


By the way from cut to teen, how tall were ur gals after 4 weeks? (using the t-8's)

 

[Dabominable]

I'm a hobbyist. I did basic wiring for basic lights/fans years ago. I am 100% scared shitless of electricty.If you do the wiring wrong, as long as the grounds were grounded, it just wouldn't turn on. I had a rough time my first time because i got too baked and could only figure out how to get one side to turn on, so my electrician buddy came over and he did it. Then i got it down and mimicked it. I've got like 2-3 fixtures i'm not using that i could take apart and snap some pictures for you to get it down. I wouldn't even point you in this direction if it was remotely difficult. For instance, i want to run some more electrical sockets out into my garage, and i need to google how to do that because its been so long, but the t8 lights are one speed, brah. Plus, there is enough wire in those lights, that when you remove half the wires you need to, you can use it to re-wire your light. So all you need to do is buy some end twist caps, the bulbs, and the ballasts. Once i got into it, it was 10-15 mins per fixture, between dabs and bongies. I will say, though, that the power cord side of the fixture is a REAL bitch to get the tabs off for it to slide off easy. I just ended up slide-breaking off the tab, and then just putting a piece of string in the groove on both sides to hold the ends where they neeed to be. It's pouring rain right now, so i can't do what i was planning to do right this second, so i'll go grab a fixture and bring one in and get to some pic taking, just for you. Because i been in this boat, and this was literally the cheapest thing for me at the time and works great. I can put everything in the same room with no issue, seeds in soil, unrooted clones, rooted clones, 6fters etc. It worked for me at the old spot where i was doing 50+ at a time, but for growth rate it's not extremely fast. Hence the reason these are going into my box im making for seeds/clones and doing the parabolic umbrella for my veggers

 

[Dabominable]

I ment buy the fixtures, the bulbs and the end caps, not the ballasts, you're removing those :p

 

[d0rk2dafullest]

right on. thats exactly what i'm about to do!! thx man ur setup looks great!! it's exactly what i need them for. Lol. just to keep my babies alive. thanks a lot for ur insight!