GE Ceramic Metal Halide or Hortilux Eye in Cooltube.

I am having a hard time debating what light bulb I want to run. Its for a small 250w Bulb. I

purchased both a CMH and a Hortilux Eye. Both cost me about $40 each

brand new. I am using a bake a round DIY cooltube. I have a 160cfm 4

inch inline fan for cooling. Filter > Cooltube > fan > exhaust. The

CMH bulb is smaller in its diameter than the Hortilux Eye so it has

the ability to get more air around it. But which is actually better

for growing? I am running a very small 2 plant grow. My Grow space

is 42"w x 36"d x 42"t


I am also running 2 LED's one over each plant.


30 Watt Cree XPE Blue/Red
Wavelength: Blue: 460-470nm, Red: 620nm-630nm

http://www.ebay.com/itm/30W-Cree-XPE-5-Blue-5-Red-Mix-Color-

Multichip-LED-Plant-Grow-Light-DIY-Emitter-/251473220347?

pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3a8cf8d2fb


50W Actinic LED 10000K/Blue/Red

Wavelength: 10000K color(30pcs) + 445nm Blue(10pcs) + 660nm Red

(10pcs)

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Powerful-50W-Actinic-10000K-Blue-Red-

Hybrid-Led-Energy-Saving-Lamp-for-Aquarium-/181168203854?

pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2a2e77684e





So which is better for my set up?


CMH or HPS?

GE CMH250/U/830/R
Initial Lumens: 25000
Color Temperature: 3000K
CRI: 85

Eye LU250S/HTL/EN
Initial Lumens: 30500
Color Temperature: 2100k
CRI: 23

oh crap to stoned now help u later sorry ..........to much info good work

Yeah if you need to know anymore info let me know. I want to run one bulb (switching out is a pita). So I want to pick one to go from veg to flower. I am hoping the LEDS give me enough blue. Let me know what you think, I am not opposed to adding in cfls or another led.

I use a cmh 400, no cooltube..so obviously I am partial to cmh..

The only problem with using a cooltube with a cmh is it blocks the UVB which is the main reason for using them.
so I guess what I'm saying is it really makes no difference which of those two you choose.

ok sorry about that i caught your thing at the end of my day and was getting tossed before i crashed out to slow my mind

to be honest the Horlix i done some work on Hid bulbs they are very well made bulbs ...................i am assuming u already own them

if u do not i would change your thinking and look into LED spotlights instead of the of those choices ............just becuase what u are talking about adding in will increase the heat alot and u will need to modifiy the system to use it .............the spot light will cost u less in power and the reworking of it is less work and time

Hid lights are great for area of coverage but they are limited on the depth they get get in effectily on the plant ..........LED is great for the depth but shitt for the coverage ...........with u in a small area like that LED make more logical choice since u are not in need of the total coverage but the depth it gives u will work alot better in your area

the other choice besides the spotlight would be a pannel LED over top and the 2 leds u have now u angle them and do a cross light thing like a stage spotlights

i own this 300w led ..............the results are nice but i did add in a 600w light to my system but i am a 4x4x6 tent with 2 large plants so i needed the coverage then used the leds on the side to get the depth

So what if I do a single plant and just use all 3 lights on it. I honestly need to finish building the damn cooltube and just do a test run to see what the temps look like with either bulb. 160 CFM seems to be a good amount of air in terms of the small space. I have the ability to run two vero 29s if I so wanted, do you think two vero 29s will out perform a 250w hps?

I can take on two of these (except run a 2700k and a 4-5k) http://www.digikey.com/product-search/en?mpart=BXRC-50C10K0-L-04&vendor=976

Strap it onto one of my heatsinks and get a power supply.

Think that would be better and just dump the HPS all together?

depends on your skill with them and what price u can get them for

the ones i was showing u have lens.........so when the light hits it comes out at set angles (this is how LEDs get the depth)
120 90 and 60 degrees

120 and 90 are the most common and get u decent depth

the 90 and 60 is the best but cost the most

Ok so... I own a 400w power supply, this:

http://www.futureelectronics.com/en/Technologies/Product.aspx?ProductID=VIMU4EQVICORCORPORATION1019102&IM=0

I am going to run it through this for constant current:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/DC-600W-10A-0-60V-Digital-controlled-Programmable-Step-down-Power-Supply-Module-/170935452655?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item27cc8c03ef

And I will run 4 Vero 29s in parallel. (Yes I know if one dies it will boost the amperage of the other 3, I throw caution to the wind)

And my other two leds since I already made them for giggles.

And worst of all trying to find a cooling solution for the veros. Yes CPU heat sinks work great, but at $25 a pop+ for the good ones it hurts. 40v @ 2.1 amps is ~80w Figure at least 80% of that is heat so round that up to 65 watts of heat to dissipate off each vero. So double the wattage of cooling (you know in case one of my veros decides to sacrifice itself for the greater amperage of others) So that's 130w which is about average for a new intel processor.

So probably that @ $60 for 4
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835200056


Already own the power supply
Veros are like $200 for 4
$75 for the Step down
$60 for the coolers

$335... for 320 watts of light which comes out to about 30k or so lumens.

So its going to cost me $335 to get rid of an hps light that cost $40 bulb and $80 for ballast $20 cooltube $10 for trinkets to make it work.... ouch.

Oh and reflectors for the lights to get them down to 90 or 60 degrees...

keep your HPS stuff for anytime u are able to expand .........a buddy askes u to help him out use a room in his place for something so he can make money ...........this is what has happend to me

the other part u need to account for is how many bands are u going to work into your system and at what ratio

what i keep seeing repeat is this 7 to 1 .........that is 7 red to 1 blue ............and 7 to 1 to 1 ...........7 red 1 blue and 1 white (10000-12000k) ..............u need to get it to emit in a certin wave band to have any use .............u also might want to have UV or IR too

also rem this is a LED so the actually power drawl is about 1/3 to 1/2 of what ever u are using ............the other part is always run the chips under the maximum current this will make the heatsinks and fan more effect and prolong the over all life of the chip( this is one thing i was taught to look for in LED markers what the chip is rated and the power they put tho )

this is something i do not mess with for the simple fact my fingers are not ment to do little sodering in tiny places

at the money u are spending it logical just ot buy one made on the market (only reason to diys is bored or to save money) ...

I guess I can test run the light and see what happens if I can keep the temps low im going to use it. Ill start with the hps and if it cant handle that heat ill switch to the CMH. So if I cant keep the heat down I am going to use the LEDs for sure. I am quite sure there is more than enough light in 2x 2700k, 2k 4000k, and my other two.

I find the cmh runs just a tad cooler.

Alright so. I built my cooltube finally. Looks actually really good much better than I expected. I also decided for my other light to run a pro-200-par by indagrow. I picked it up yesterday. So EDFL and HPS and LED all in one grow :O. yay