Looking for a couple 4'

[papa canna]

I need a couple 4' to compliment my 600w HID. My girls aren't getting quite enough light and I'm maxed out on wattage in the room due to heat. My issue is that I don't know anything abort florescent lights.

Do brands matter? Is there one brand that stands out like hortilux does for HID? Do florescents require ballasts? Do they stay cool as I've been less to believe? And most importantly, can I mix 2000k and 6500k in the same fixture to get a mixture of spectrum in the same fixture?

Sorry for the questionnaire but I can't seem to find much info on florescents. Everything has been HID and led lately.

 

[Michael Huntherz]

I need a couple 4' to compliment my 600w HID. My girls aren't getting quite enough light and I'm maxed out on wattage in the room due to heat. My issue is that I don't know anything abort florescent lights.

Do brands matter? Is there one brand that stands out like hortilux does for HID? Do florescents require ballasts? Do they stay cool as I've been less to believe? And most importantly, can I mix 2000k and 6500k in the same fixture to get a mixture of spectrum in the same fixture?

Sorry for the questionnaire but I can't seem to find much info on florescents. Everything has been HID and led lately.

You can run any color-temp combos you want,
Brands do matter to some extent. If you want uv suplementation, which is the best part of fluoros, reptile and aquarium bulbs that emit it will be your best choice. They eat watts, T5 high output four-footers are 54w per bulb, and they aren't cool, but much cooler than HID from the plant perspective. That's the direction to go for fluoros, but they are the least efficient of all lights. Good for uvb, and some people (@RM3) grow dank under them, but they will add heat, no question.

Standard issue cheap 3000k and a mix of WavePoint aquarium bulbs is what I use for flower, I run straight cheap-ass 6500k for veg. I also run a menagerie of other cheap crap lights. I have grown better smoke than one can buy from a recreational shop in WA, using them, from what I have seen.

 

[papa canna]

You can run any color-temp combos you want,
Brands do matter to some extent. If you want uv suplementation, which is the best part of fluoros, reptile and aquarium bulbs that emit it will be your best choice. They eat watts, T5 high output four-footers are 54w per bulb, and they aren't cool, but much cooler than HID from the plant perspective. That's the direction to go for fluoros, but they are the least efficient of all lights. Good for uvb, and some people (@RM3) grow dank under them, but they will add heat, no question.

Standard issue cheap 3000k and a mix of WavePoint aquarium bulbs is what I use for flower, I run straight cheap-ass 6500k for veg. I also run a menagerie of other cheap crap lights. I have grown better smoke than one can buy from a recreational shop in WA, using them, from what I have seen.

So then I suppose the fixture itself wouldn't matter? Just get a decent brand of bulb? I just want to two 4 tube t5's to compliment my 600w. I will probably end up running something like 6500kish for some multi spectrum, but I am considering throwing in a couple 3000k bulbs to see how vegging plants react to that. I'm assuming I don't need a ballast here? but if we're talking about 54w per bulb, is that the same wattage heat you would see from an HID. 54x8 = 436. Couple that with my 600w and i might as well just toss in a 1000watt HID and call it done?

 

[Michael Huntherz]

The fixture is as good as the ballasts inside, to some degree. I think you should just throw 1k watts of HID at it and call it good. Exactly my thought, but I wanted to answer the question you asked, instead of saying "no" or something, and you arrived at the sane answer. Buy a 1k HID, or, this is my personal choice, wait until you can build your own high-end COB LED fixture.

If you love HPS run with that like you stole it! Cheers. You don't need help, you just needed to think out loud a little.

 

[papa canna]

The fixture is as good as the ballasts inside, to some degree. I think you should just throw 1k watts of HID at it and call it good. Exactly my thought, but I wanted to answer the question you asked, instead of saying "no" or something, and you arrived at the sane answer. Buy a 1k HID, or, this is my personal choice, wait until you can build your own high-end COB LED fixture.

If you love HPS run with that like you stole it! Cheers. You don't need help, you just needed to think out loud a little.

I really wanted to upgrade to 1000watts. But my mentor (who is a literal god at growing weed, supplies my entire area code with premium genetic clones) suggests against it. stating that my yield would only slightly increase and i'd be dealing with more heat issues. I have no dedicated AC unit, and my last yield was a disappointing 5 ounces from 9 plants

 

[Michael Huntherz]

I really wanted to upgrade to 1000watts. But my mentor (who is a literal god at growing weed, supplies my entire area code with premium genetic clones) suggests against it. stating that my yield would only slightly increase and i'd be dealing with more heat issues. I have no dedicated AC unit, and my last yield was a disappointing 5 ounces from 9 plants

Oh, I don't know, he's probably right then. I use fluoros and cheap-ass LED and am doing OK. Sometimes things don't go how we want, I guess. Good luck, I'm not a HID guy, so I'm not much help there.

 

[OneHitDone]

Are you running an Air cooled hood? That would be #1 for heat management.

I have been curious about blending the Hortilux Powerveg series with HID. Something like pairing the FS+UV with HPS seems like it could be interested for veg

http://www.eyehortilux.com/products/power-veg.aspx

 

[intenseneal]

I really wanted to upgrade to 1000watts. But my mentor (who is a literal god at growing weed, supplies my entire area code with premium genetic clones) suggests against it. stating that my yield would only slightly increase and i'd be dealing with more heat issues. I have no dedicated AC unit, and my last yield was a disappointing 5 ounces from 9 plants

I agree yeild increase will be minimal due to the height you need to run a 1000w at compaired to a 600w and the heat increase would be significant. Start with fewer plants like 4-6 and work on your growing skills. Learn what the plants want at each stage if life nute, light, temp, humidity wise. The environment your plants are in is one the most important factors for a good harvest. Keep temps in check with exhaust fans, in flower not going over 82°f is important for yeilds. These things will help increase yeilds over andding more lighting to a grow that just needs more experience. Good yeilds and bomb smoke comes with time. I had my t5 setup dialed in after my 4th grow and it showed. Now i am learning with hid lighting and some things are new to me all over again.