Praetorian
Well-Known Member
No worries - I just was confused by your statement that they were too hot.I stand (or sit) corrected. ... I realized I should have phrased it better after writing.
What I should of said was, 'I don;t think 1KW's are needed for 2L's SOG' .. but as you have shown it's works great if you can vent and have the space.
Thanks for pointing this out!
edit:
However, I would note that because 1KWs have a much wider light footprint, to use all that lumens one would need a much wider row of 2L's, maybe 10 -20 deep , in a 2L SOG it going to be very difficult to get in and water .. 600w provides a more manageable light profile to be able to get into water the things.
I've just read that 1KW have a footprint of about 5'x5' or 60"x60" ... thats 15 x 15 Hempys or 225 bottles. ... I like to space mine a bit so let say 14x14 but that still 196 Hempys to negotiate around and feed.
Lets say you are run the fewer number of 196 bottles. If it takes 20 seconds to feed each Hempy (3 in a minute) that 196/3 or 65minutes to feed them every time.
Its for primarily this reason that I suggest 1KW are better suited for larger and fewer plants that have been given some veg time... Although in this game, rules are made to be broken.LOL
I think that it really depends on how far your light is from your tops. I have been slamming my 1000w (HTG Big Kahuna reflector - 27" X 33") at about 13-15" from the tops and it reduces the footprint and puts more of the lumens to work on the entire length of the COLA. I would say with my reflector and distance to the tops that the ideal footprint is more like 3.5' X 3.5'; that being said, more plants could be put under it but I would need to rotate the outers into the 3.5' X 3.5' 'ideal' footprint, or raise the entire reflector up to widen the footprint with less lumens throughout the useable footprint.
65 minutes of work every two days is not much though, especially if you average 12g per, which would be 5.25lb per run
Again, I think it depends on the distance to the COLAs you want and how much light you want to concentrate on the length of the COLA versus wider footprint/sheer plant numbers. I am going to be ultimately running about 90-100 under two 1000w with reflectors of a similar size.
Hmmm. My experience tells me that 144 under ONE magnum 600w would be far too much light dispersal. But, as you stated, the distance of the reflector is the factor. I just don't think the outer extent of the 4' X 4' footprint would be really strong enough to grow without religiously rotating plants into the center of the footprint. Not saying it can't be done, I just would rather try to concentrate a ton of light into a smaller footprint.
