Crystal Seeds? Opinions?

You can find magnetic ballasts that run both hps and mh bulbs , but they will not be dimmable… 600 watts is 600 watts… or 1000 watts which ever you decide to go with…
Like I had said earlier , just make sure that you do your research before investing… :wink:
Also if for any reason your house isn’t grounded properly an electronic balist can reek havoc on all of your other electronics… :wink:
:v: :sunglasses:

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Good info @peachfuzz and @Myfriendis410.

These guys are using them, they will get you the best info. And always good to research as mentioned. I have very limited experience with hid personally, about 2 harvests lol. But I built fixtures to replace digital ballasts for someone who had a phone company experience.

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I love HID lighting and have owned and used almost every type of ballast for multiple watts 400-1000 Magnetic tend to get warmer and can’t be dimmed also can be switch operated to run MH/HPS. Digital slightly more pricey run cooler and oddly are supposed to increase bulb life? or should I say reduce lumen loss :wink: HID bulbs are designed to run X amount of hours or cycles but suffer lumen loss which can factor quite heavy on yields and spectrum. That being said most bulbs drop by about 30-40% within 10,000 hours digital ballasts tend to force the lumens out where magnetic ballasts will not this means a bulb will run longer but it can be deceptive in that the spectrum and lumens are no longer the same with Magnetic Ballast. I do find magnetic ballasts run bulbs longer and arch faster but where a digital burns out a bulb the same bulb in mag ballast likely should be changed as it has reached the end of it’s proper spectrum and output.
The RF issue is more for someone running multiple large ballasts rather than a 600w or 2 I run 3 digital LEC 315w ballasts and the 1 Magnetic I had for my LEC gave me nothing but headaches as many bulb manufacturers design bulbs to soft start now. During talks with the ballast maker they replied with it is designed to run our bulbs lmao which made me feel so much happier about the 2 $130 bulbs it blew on me in the matter of a month. Bulbs are also something to consider Gavitta and some other big companies will only run high end bulbs or their own

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Lumen loss is a factor even in LED lights and is greatly increased by our use of cycles when I went to Light Emitting Ceramic (LEC) CMH ceramic metal halide (CMH) it was a heavy consideration. I wanted the HID’s I know and love but with less bulb replacements lower watts and nicer light to work in truer colours first off a Philips Green power LEC bulb is $130-150 about the same as a Hortilux EYE painful if like me I am used replacing bulbs 6-8 months MH drop faster than HPS but can get cheaper bulbs anywhere form 30-40 not the case with LEC :wink: A standard bulb will drop a percentage per hours run with LEC it worked out to 5% over 10k hours so may need to replace a bulb once a year? if that same bulb is used in both flower and veg so I get 2 times the hours on my bulbs in same time span that I would using MH/HPS in combo.

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Hmm. I might have to wait for tax returns to get to that level. I have 520 actual watts in a 16sq/Ft space.

At some point I would like to use my existing cheap panels for a veg room and get something else for flower. I’ve started researching DIY LED.

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@Donaldj @dbrn32
If I use a 600w MH/HPS should I be using that throughout my entire grow? Just dim it down when they are seedlings maybe? Or should I be getting a different light, for that phase? I’d rather not buy a whole other light set up if I don’t need to, but I’d hate to be wasting all that electricity if I don’t need to…

Use the mh bulb until you go to 12/12, then switch to hps. You can lower intensity for seedlings by dimming or raising fixture. Dimming should cut your power consumption a little, so probably the best route.

People have been growing top shelf weed under mh/hps for a long time. It’s not my choice, but there’s no reason at all it won’t produce a solid grow

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Correct I would also consider leaving it dimmed at 75% through entire veg and 100% during flower

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Good point!

Why dim to 75% through veg and then 100% at flower? Is that better than 100% through both stages?

plants respond differently to light intensity when they hit flower the increase serves to reduce node spacing some since additional light shocks plant as it adjusts to it the reduced light in veg will also help to regulate size some prior to flower

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The other factor is your plants are smaller during most of veg so less surface coverage equals less light requirements as well. I’m an led grower and I run 1/3 the wattage under veg as I do in flower.

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I always label my bulbs with a sharpie where it screws into the fixture with the date that was replaced… I also only use my hps for flower only … my veg area consists of two 4 Bulb x 4 foot t5ho fixtures and clone and seedlings are under one 4 Bulb x 4 foot t5ho fixture… :wink:
That’s just how I roll… :wink:
Many lighting options to choose from… budget , space requirements and how you plan on using them should be factored in when making a decision… also keep in mind that your lighting is at the top of important things to buy , so I always suggest that you don’t want to skimp in that area , because your going to want to up grade later… might as well only beat this horse once… :wink:

:v: :sunglasses:

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