I was all excited about those bulbs until I just read this last sentence! Of course they don't come in 2 footers ... my luck wouldn't have it any other way!!
Is'nt that a bitch Bro!!
I've been complaining for a few years now that there needs to be 2 footers in both the Quantums and T5VHOs
some day Bro, some day....
I don't know, I may have to check the dimensions on some of the Quantums to see if I can fit a 4' fixture. Maybe a nice little gift for me once Uncle Sam gives me my money back!!
If I can, then my light footprint will far exceed the space that I have.
You might be able to swing it! A lot of the 4' T5s are not really 4'. I'm not sure about the Quantum Bad Boy but my Sun System is actually 47" long and the tubes are really 45" long.
As long as the fixture is'nt touching the walls of a tent or anything else flamable it should be fine.
More light = Bigger buds!!
The dimensions I found say 3.5" x 18" x 46.25". My grow room footprint is about 23" x 48". I think I can swing it. It will run me around $350 for the unit, 2 boxes of bulbs and shipping, so I just need to wait for taxes!
And bigger buds is what we are here for right??
You may be able to save some $ building a custom light!!!
Hydrofarm makes single strip T5HOs in 2' & 4'. The 2 footers I have are actually 22.5" so I'm sure that the 4 footers are an inch or two under 48.
The coolest feature of these single strip T5s is that they come with special hardware and connector cords to connect multiple lights to build a custom light specifically for your particular grow room.
The light can be built like a panel that we buy ready built but they can also be connected back to back, side to back, and a myriad of other options. The possibilites with these lights is only limited by your imagination.
A 4' single strip & reflector kit will run about $40 but I'm sure there's more to be saved by buying multiple lights and hunting for deals....
A package of 6 single strips would be about $200 and then a box of 8 Quantum tubes would be an additional $65.
However the single strips come with Hydrofarm's best tubes so you could just wait until they fade after a crop or two and then replace the tubes with Quantums
Excellent plan of attack!!
I dont know why Hydrofarm is so mum about the single strips. They really only advertise them as singles for seed starting & orchids.
I did'nt even know they connected to each other until I got them home.
I guess Hydrofarm wants to keep a little quiet on these lights since growers can save $ building their own lights over buying one of their big lights ready built
Hey Bandit your going to need cattle scales to weight the buds.How many watts total will that make? I'll send you a spare welding hood
HH
1076 watts my friend! I guess the ez way would have been to just use a single 1K HPS and call it quits but you know me, I gotta do it a little tricked out!
I'll plug it all into the killawatt meter later to find out what the real wattage is with lights, blowers, and ballast fan running.
I'm already hunting for an 8" blower to use on the MelonHeads. The sixer I have in there now cools the lights down pretty good but having the 6" to 8" duct adapter makes it a bitch to raise and lower the system (no flexibility) and I figure the extra oomph in heat exaust cant hurt anything.
I found a good looking blower made by CAP. It's an 8" Valueline blower that pushes around 750cfm so that will more than likely be the next upgrade.
Speaking of welders mask I've been kicking around another grand plan!
I'm thinking of getting a welder, mig or arc, not sure yet. I would realy like to build some sort of frame structure for the light system to be mounted.
You can see in the pic how there are six adjusting points for the whole lighting array. Right now i have to adjust each one a little at a time to raise or lower the entire system.
I think it would be super cool to have them all mounted the way they are, but instead of hanging from the rafters they hang from a steel frame and the steel frame has the ability to move up and down and lock in place. It would take some serious designing with pulleys or tracks of some sort but then I would want to connect an ATV winch to the whole thing and use the winch to raise and lower the light system. The end result would be a powered light hanging system that could be controlled with a remote control!
SkunkWorks innovations never stop my friends!
Hay Bandit,
I'm loving your t5 tutorial. Those Hydrofarm clip together singles are just regular T5, right? not HO or VHO?
And the Quantums are HO?
I heard a lot of good things about Ushio mh/hps bulbs and see they make some 3000k T5HOs with 2000 lumens. Ever use them?
I've got 5 2' Sun Blaze T5HOs, and I'd like to flower with 3 of them.
Your new lighting set up is gonna make your buds pop
I sure like your set up,my last grow(LAW and Clones),i used two 400w it paid off in yield ,as soon as my bag seed project gets old enough i will use the two 400's again.
also like you idea of tying you lites together.SkunksWorks ROCKS>
HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU AND YOURS>
HH
Here's to a skunky 2011!
Much respect to all the growers posting their danky gardens! I wish I could burn one of these hash joints with all of you!
