What Light Should I Use?

  • Thread starter DVIS
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DVIS

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I've been trying to figure out what light I should use for the last 3 weeks and can't decide.

Grow tent:
2 x 4 x 7 tall foot gorilla grow tent

I feel like the best option would be a 400W MH Blue and 400W Super HPS from Hortilux. That, with a Gavita 600W Ballast (has a 400W option to power the 400's).

The only confusion now lies with what type of reflector I will need, and how much heat the light(s) will produce.

Can I use a non-air cooled reflector in a small tent like that without it getting over 80 degrees?

Would an air cooled reflector with the tempered glass effect the light too much and effect the grow?

Do I need to buy a "fixture" for the bulbs? Or does it come with the ballast, or reflector hood?
 
sixstring

sixstring

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imo you will need an aircooled hood.any decent hood will come with the socket included and installed.they dont come with ballasts unless you get a de setup from gavita,nanolux,or epap and those setups are way to hot for that tent.400/600 combo like your talking should be good on 400w.probably still need a fan to pull air through the tent but maybe not if you keep the tent in a cool spot and cool the hood well.good luck
 
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DVIS

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Thanks for the response.

Regarding the socket/fixture - Hortilux says the MH needs an open fixture and the HPS needs an enclosed fixture. So I'm assuming a fixture/socket is the same thing, and that I'll need a different type for each bulb?
 
Toaster79

Toaster79

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I'd look into 315W CMH for veg and flower. For what I've seen they can compete with 600W HPS/MH easily. Smaller bill and less heat too. Just a thought.
 
sixstring

sixstring

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Thanks for the response.

Regarding the socket/fixture - Hortilux says the MH needs an open fixture and the HPS needs an enclosed fixture. So I'm assuming a fixture/socket is the same thing, and that I'll need a different type for each bulb?
most decent hoods will accomodate both types of bulbs.400w mh lamps are not that big.i use alot of 6inch cool tubes and they will handle up to 600w mh lamps.if you start looking at hoods most will say what type lamps will fit,1000w mh are really big and wont fit certain hoods but it dont sound like your going that big.lots of choices on amazon ect.
 
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DVIS

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Toaster79 that looks interesting...

Only kits I could find were the LEC and then the Cyclptics:


The Cycloptics looks interesting. Any thoughts on it?
 
dogznova

dogznova

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A Cool Tube might be of interest in a 2x4 tent as well. Some reflectors will not fit in a 2x4 tent they are just too wide...

If it's HID lighting you end up going with. I say Cool Tube it.
 
sixstring

sixstring

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A Cool Tube might be of interest in a 2x4 tent as well. Some reflectors will not fit in a 2x4 tent they are just too wide...

If it's HID lighting you end up going with. I say Cool Tube it.
i second the tube :D
 
Billyboat

Billyboat

Moderator
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I really like the super sun 2 for that size space.
 
DirtySanchez

DirtySanchez

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A double socket raptor with hortilux blue mh & Hortilux hps would be pretty awesome in a 4x2 running 800w total. Get phantom or grow amp digital 400w ballasts maybe?

Definitely wanna go air cooled in a tent really in most cases.
 
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DVIS

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I ended up buying a CMH kit from HTG Supply... Seems like the sunsystems reflector uses mirrors, which is really strange - and the Cycloptics unit is less wattage but costs over twice as much. This seemed like the best choice ATM but we'll see....
 
puffnstuff

puffnstuff

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I would go with 600w air cooled light. That's is what I used and had great results in my 4 x 2 tent.
 
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crocodile og

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Well low wattage HID lamps are less efficient lumen per watt. LED being made of arrays of diodes maintain a consistent lumen per watt ratio over all sizes.

In theory (and it depends on manafacturer etc) 250 watts of LED delivers more usable light than 250watt HPS. Being available in smaller arrays/panels one can come up with combinations that suit odd spaces better with LED than with HID that generally throw a squarish footprint.
 
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crocodile og

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What brand and how many watts?

I have only personally used hydrogrow LED. If i had a rectangular space such as your 2x4 I would consider using two of their 200 watt panels rather than a single 400w(due to footprint) or 2x 250w(lumen to watt ineffiency).

I hear the 315 CMH are good lights also. Though i have no first hand experience with those.
 
Toaster79

Toaster79

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So why would LEDs be suitable only for smaller areas? It's way easier to achive better coverage with several smaller light sources than with one single large source using reflector and that way loosing at least 10% of output. The other thing is light specteum which can be with LED technology easy to tune for desired wavelengths. Except using COBs which have fixed light spectrum but still can be fine tuned since there are multicolor COBs on market. Also single coloured COBs have better color rendering index (CRI) than HPS, considering you're picking high CRI over high efficiency. So warm white is suitable for flowering and cool white for veging. Bridgelux which I use has CRI of 96+ @2700K CCT, Cree 92+ @3000K and Nichia even 92+ @4000K (Nichias are only 5W emmiters so they are out of league here).
 

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