First grow - bag seed x8 - CFL - 4x4x4 cab or 3x3x3

lets see some PICS!!!!

lol oh yeah? i may be inspired. it is night for them right now. they are on a 20/4 cycle, with their midnight being at 12 noon so as to be as warm as possible this winter. so their lights don't come back on til 2...

picked out all my flowering tent stuff. lol. only came to $640! lol thats with an avidity 4x4x6.5 foot tent, 1000watt digital hood/ballast (virtual sun) with MH and HPS bulbs, 6" inline fan and speed controller, and 6" activated carbon air scrubber...mmmmm

suppose i COULD just build the cab that size. probably even cheaper. the problem would be when i have to move...breaking them down would a pain in the ass!

do you plan on moving soon?

can always setup the cab so that it pins together making assembly and disasembly easier, may take a few min to figure out how to do that but im sure you could figure it out. i mean wouldnt be that hard, just get your 4 walls cut an get some pin hinges and use them to connect the sides top and bvottom together. the all u gotta do is remove the pins in the hinges to take it apart, this would be good to prevent wear and tear moving it around from screwing and unscrewing that cheap OSB plywood

but i guess by the time you do all that it probally easier to just buy a dam tent, but you can always make a list of materials it will take you to build the box and compare to the price of the tent and see if its worth all the work. i mean if its a 20$ difference then its not really worth 15 hours of work amirite or amirite?

Is the virtual sun ballast dimmable? I assume you got this package? http://www.ebay.com/itm/Virtual-Sun-1000W-Grow-Light-Hood-Digital-Ballast-1000-Watt-HPS-MH-Kit-/170729251401

If the ballast isn't dimmable I would recommend either going with another cheap kit that has a dimmable ballast or grab the same hood (they sell it separate for $85), and get a good quality ballast like this one - http://www.urbansunshine.com/lumatek-1000-watt-Electronic-ballast

That would be $20 more and you wouldn't have the $5 light hangers nor the $5 timer or the bulbs but you would have a much much better ballast and a MH bulb with a non dimmable 1kW is pretty pointless - much better off using your CFLs for veg if you can't dim the intensity. So plus a good bulb you would be paying ~$100 more but you would have a quality ballast, a better bulb, and the ability to dim your ballast which IMO is an amazing luxury.

some ballasts are dimmable in a sense. my ballasts are switchable from 600 - 750 - 1000 - super lumens. From what I know super lumens pushes your 1000 watt bulb past 1000 watts. I use the super lumens setting. Downside is that it shortens the lifespan of the bulb I was told. If your ballast does have the dimmer switches you need a different bulb for each setting. For example, if you are on the 600 watt setting you need a 600 watt bulb. You can't dim a 1000 watt bulb down to 750 watts or 600 watts.

radeonDEUS said:

how big an area does a 1000 watt cover? like whats the max tent size? I'm feeling ambitious. lol.

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The tent I have my 1000 watt in is 4'x4'x6'7" and it's perfect. I had to make some adjustments though. I used to run a 600 watt light in the same tent. I used to use a 6" Vortex fan to pull air through my reflector and exhaust out a duct in the top of the tent. When I added the 1000 watt light my temps shot to 87 degrees. I ended up using that 6" fan to cool only the light. Air pulls from outside the tent, through the light, and exhausts out the of the vent in the top. I use a 4" Can Fan HO to pull air into the tent through a lower vent and push air out through an open vent in the top side of the tent. My temps stay 75 and under now. I wouldn't recommend going smaller than a 4'x4' tent with a 1000 watt light. I have a 3'x3' tent also and even my 600 runs too hot for that so I had to bust out the old 400 watt magnetic ballast.

Bulbs are super easy going. With my dimmable 600w ballast I can run a 1kW bulb at 400,600,or 660, a 600w bulb at 660,600,400, or 350, a 400w bulb at 400 or 350. I can literally run any MH/HPS 400w bulb - 1kW bulb with it. Now of course you want to match the best you can and you don't want to go way over - it would NOT be good to run a 400w bulb at 600w.

I recommend the dimmable because you might have heat waves, you may have to move and run it in a 3x3 space, you might at some point want to veg with it... Say you want to veg with the MH bulb they give you - chances are your plants are small and don't take up a 4x4 area yet (or why are you vegging). Running a 1kW light 18hrs a day (time and a half compared to flower) costs a bit of money and if you only need to cover a 2x2 area you're wasting most of it. Now dimming it and running it at 400w over a 2x2 area makes a ton of sense. 1kW veg for 4 weeks is 504kWh or ~$60.00. A 400w veg for 4 weeks is 201kWh or ~$24.00. The savings of $36 should immediately offset the purchase of a 400w MH bulb (which you could use if the ballast was dimmable).

And of course the same principle applies to flowering - start them off closer together while they are smaller and run it at 600w before cranking up to 1kW when they are larger and more spaced out. After a few runs it should easily make up for the difference in price.

I just realized most 1kW ballasts only dim to 600w? You would have to change all the 400w to 600w but the ideas all still apply.

And you could always get the better ballast and cheap bulbs. A cheap 1kW bulb like the one that comes with the other package is ~$20. You can get a sylvania (which is a decent brand) 1kW bulb for $30. So for the extra $100 you could get the better ballast the same hood, and still buy both a 1kW MH and HPS bulb.

You would have to check and make sure these are the right ones but here's a for instance on the prices.
1kW Sylvania MH bulb $26 - http://www.plantlightinghydroponics.com/sylvania-1000w-4000k-bt56-universal-metal-halide-lamp-p-1749.html
1kW Sylvania HPS bulb $29 - http://www.lightbulbsurplus.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=398

ok I'm definitely more convinced. lol. i mean it would exclusively at least at first be only in a 4x4x6 cab or tent. and that would ONLY be for flowering. so what i MAY do is get that setup cause its kind of decent, and then get a dimmable ballast if i need it in the future. i mean if i were to get it now, i wouldn't even be turning it on for another few weeks, cause i literally would only flower with it. not saying i wouldn't use it for other applications in the future, but at least for now it would just be in the flower cab...

erm he shound really be running 1000w in a 3x3 grow area should he?

i mena heat, fire........

Gastanker said:

Bulbs are super easy going. With my dimmable 600w ballast I can run a 1kW bulb at 400,600,or 660, a 600w bulb at 660,600,400, or 350, a 400w bulb at 400 or 350.

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Not calling you a liar but I have seen bulbs that didn't match the ballasts wattage do anything from flicker to not turn on at all. What brand and model ballast are you using? Post a picture. I'm curious. I can't imagine that mismatching a bulb and ballast of different wattage would be good for the bulbs life.

matthebrute said:

erm he shound really be running 1000w in a 3x3 grow area should he?

i mena heat, fire........

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I don't think anybody recommended a 1000w in a 3x3. I only run a 400w in my 3x3. A 600w will work but runs a little hot, in my case at least.

I'm using a lumatek. My 1kW bulb is a hortilux, my 600w HPS bulb is a lumatek, my 600w MH is a sunpulse?, and then I have a 400w Ushio or Sylvania around as well. All the bulbs fire on my ballast and run without flickering. The ballasts are made and marketed as not having to switch bulbs between dimming. Think about the super lumen setting - there's no such thing as a 660w bulb

I wish I had a hood to go with my HTG 1kW. I would sell you that for real cheap.

I might have to make a video - I feel like dimmable ballasts come up a ton. I almost exclusively run my 600w MH at 400w and have never had a problem - in theory I get a few less lumen but a longer bulb life versus just running a 400w bulb.

matt man i wouldn't run even a 600 in my 3x3x3 cab. i mean from what I've heard/learned. I'm talking about running the 1000watt in a 4x4x6.5 cab or tent that i haven't built/gotten yet.

stickn with the cfls in the 3x3x3 (current) cab...probably for good...for veg.

i could make a hood pretty easily gastanker. how cheap? lol. i love the DIY stuff. all u need is a length of 6" galvanized ducting and a standard high output light socket. and a skillsaw. then all i need is ballast and bulb!

maybe ill do that anyway...wiring, although scary to mess with, is actually very safe if done correctly.

Video of a 1kW and 400w bulb running on my 600w ballast at different wattages has been posted in my thread - https://www.rollitup.org/grow-journals/407578-gastankers-1000-watt-x-ray-68.html

Let me think about a price - Paid a fortune for the stupid thing but I'd get rid or it cheap - way too loud and hot for me but I'm sure its about the same as the cheap ballast you would be ordering and it's UL listed unlike the ebay one. You would need a socket/cord but I think those are all of $15.

yeah loud and hot are fine with me. ill probably mount the ballast right to the cab on the outside. its in my basement so its cool and doesn't matter if its loud. lemme know.

my bad thought you were looking to get that 1000w for your current cab lol.....smoke another one...