Low Lumens or 'LUX'?

  • Thread starter Prestige
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Prestige

Prestige

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My fellow Farmers, I need your help. My 1000w ballast AND light went haywire on me and are both totally fried (less than a week of use). I went and bought a cheap temporary replacement at the local hydro store. Got a 'SG Ballast' (1000w) by hydrofarm and a 'xtrasun' 1000w bulb. Anyways, it is strong and pretty hot, took my lux meter to it and it was in the 600's to 2000's?!?!? Weaker than my 600w! At the BULB it is only 8,000 Lux!

What is the problem? The ballast? The bulb? Both? I have never been very .....what's the word? Electrically inclined?... And the problems just keep coming. Someone please help me. Much obliged.

Regards,

Prestige
 
MedicineFarm

MedicineFarm

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do you know what caused the first ballast and bulb to blow? you may want to get a volt meter or a friend that has a volt meter and start at the outlet you are using for the set up. it is best in my experience to start as far as you can down the line ( in this instance you may want to start at the panel), and work towards the bulb in diagnosing electrical issues. get to know a good electrician! lol hope this helps. also is the replacement ballast an electronic or digital?
 
Prestige

Prestige

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Hey, guys! Thanks for the quick response and input.

@MedicineFarm
The new one is magnetic. I am going to take your advice and contact my electrician friend. I described the problem to him (he doesn't understand grow lights), but he worked on my house when it was being built and said there should be no problem. It is on its own circuit. 15 amps. I am loosing my mind, lol. My plants are kind of wilting (think it is the heat). It looks brighter (old one was more red/orange) and it puts out heat like a blow dryer, but my LUX meter says it is only at 8,000 at the bulb.
 
Prestige

Prestige

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Also, I have not the faintest idea what caused it. I woke-up, lights were out, tried to press the reset button; sparks shot out and I smelt something burning. Tried to plug the cord into another socket, lots of scary noise and sparks and a very strong smell of burnt plastic and sulfur.
 
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Prestige

Prestige

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My buddy who use to work on jet aircrafts is coming over, right now. He said if the problem is the electricity, he will rule it out in 10 minutes.
 
MedicineFarm

MedicineFarm

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damn even beter, a jet air craft guy! any luck with the trouble shooting? i would agree with Mastacheeser lux meters might not be the best way to represent the output. a par meter measures the part of the light spectrum plants use for photosynthesis. i think its watts per meter squared. W/M2. these are bank for a good one! is your reflector air cooled? can you get room temps down to like 80? if you can do this ur plants will let you know how the light set up is doing. if your not happy with the bulb try one from 247 garden. inexpensive and they work great.
 
Prestige

Prestige

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It is funny you say that, I got my first 400w (I have so many lights)from them (247 garden) at the indoor gardening expo in long beach! Did you attend? I got well over $2,000 worth of nutrients for free. Got a tent and 400w digital ballast with bulb, hangers and everything you would need for $99! Guys were real cool, I really wanted to get an exhaust system, but they wouldn't let me waste my money on something I don't need. Hard to come by stand-up people like that these days.

Anyways, he said there is nothing wrong with the electricity and 1000w is definitely coming out of that bulb and ballast. The room stays in the 60's and 70's, I put an axial fan on the x-Wing that blows directly on the bulb. Funny thing is tho, the meter says it is calibrated and still only 8,000 LUX. I have used it for EVERY light I own (9 setups of MH/HPS and LED) and it gave accurate readings, in fact, it still does, so that leads me to believe it is not my meter.

I ordered a quantum 1000, with a vertical hanger and a Ushio bulb last night, but I would still like to figure this out. Did my hydro guys sell me bunk or used equipment?
 
Prestige

Prestige

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43
My buddy use to work on F16 Tomcats back in the day, but doesn't know shit about LUX and Lumens, lol. But I do know that it isn't my electrical source and he has offered to bring in another 40 amps for me!

Just a little bit about my garden: got Motorbreath, Kush INC., Channel+, The White S1, Wifi#3 cut, F-Cut, Valley Girl, OG Chem and my recently acquired 213 OG cut going on my current run. They don't seem to like the light! My temperature gun reads 74 at the canopy (highest reading), but they are curling down like they are dehydrated/underwatered, which I know is not the case. Some of these strains you cannot get in seed form anymore and my cuts cost me an arm and a leg to get (went thru a lot of bullshit and con-artist to get my hands on them). This run is more to pick-out my best phenos to make mothers from. I cannot let them die or herm on me. They are in veg (due to flip on Saturday), but they have been thru a lot of irregular on/off and wacky temperatures due to weather.
 
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Prestige

Prestige

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Your right about 247 Garden, btw. I still have both my tent and my 400w, not a single problem. My 400w has even been thru some abuse, but nothing phases it. I'm glad you mentioned them because their equipment is legit, durable, dependable and well priced too. I just think more people should know about them, really stand-up people.
 
MedicineFarm

MedicineFarm

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if you like to try different ideas about light sources try one of there 1000w dual arcs. people say there to expensive, nobody uses them, and so on but i have done multiple side by sides with duals and HPS, the HPS may physically appear larger but the deal is that with the added blue light i see a few advantages, first the spacing of the branching is more compact and closer together, the plant stays greener longer, less premature yellowing in the final phases, and i also notice more trich production. denser flowers over all give er a whirl some day!!!
 
Prestige

Prestige

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Image

One of my OG Chems (OG leaning pheno). My passion and expertise is in genetics and inheritence, not too knowledgable about lights and ballasts... I will need to study-up. Arguably just as important as genetics is light! No matter how good your genetics are, low quality lighting will give you low quality bud and vice versa.


Thanks for the tip! I'm gonna check-out the dual archs, I've heard about them too, but never paid it much attention.
 
MedicineFarm

MedicineFarm

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that plant looks awesome! oddly enough i don't know shit about genetics lmfao!! would like to get some basic info down the road
 
MedicineFarm

MedicineFarm

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Yep, six inch Grodan par gro blocks which are the quick drain type, on top of coco mat, top feeding drip @ 20 sec. Of on time to 1 hr. of off time 24/7. I veged em with that set up for two weeks and some of the trunks were almost two inches across!!!
 
MedicineFarm

MedicineFarm

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I use 3/8 elbows and tees with 1/2 vinyl tubing for the square dripper, drill 3/16 holes in each elbow. I think the pump is a 665? Anyway the elevations are the same so that keeps the pressure even.
 
Natural

Natural

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MedicineFarm said:
I use 3/8 elbows and tees with 1/2 vinyl tubing for the square dripper, drill 3/16 holes in each elbow. I think the pump is a 665? Anyway the elevations are the same so that keeps the pressure even.
Click to expand...
thanks for responding bro..looks like yer killing it in many ways.
Do the lines need to be the same length and are you using a manifold tube(like from pump/to hose to/2" 'manifold tube'/to hose/then drippers) ?
 
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