Surfinstoned's 720Watt LED - God's Gift - Hydro Grow

[GrowGSL]

Re: Surfinstoned’s 720watt LED, god’s gift, hydro grow

I am a fan of movers, I think at this point with 3w led's you could pull an 18" plant no prob.

The movers help even out the light hitting the plant, as well as stretches that coverage area.

 

[surfinstoned]

Re: Surfinstoned's 720watt LED, god's gift, hydro grow

Surfin looking great!!! Those LED's are working good for the flowering. Question? I am growing some gods gift in hydro right now and I cannot nail down the PPMs it likes for veg state, seems very finicky. What PPM's were you running for the VEG stage, it seemed to work great for you. Everything was going pretty good for the first week or two but when I upped the solution it did not like it at all so I dropped back down but it doesnt seem to like that either, so i put it in the middle and gave ppms at 450 now but I usually have the PPMS up around 600 and this stage of growth, I cant figure this plant out. Anyways looking good keep up the good work.

Thanks Anomoly23,
That really means a lot coming from a great grower such as yourself. I looked at your journals and all your grows did so well I hope I have the same success as you have had. Well it's funny that you asked I don't know if you read one of my earlier post but all 3 weeks of my veg process and the first week of flower I was mixing my nutes all wrong. If you can believe this I was putting them all in the same container together with no water and they would lock each other out. So with that being said:
1st week of veg PPM was 300-330
2nd week of veg PPM was 450-500
3rd week of veg PPM was 550-650
I hope this helps but again I have no idea how much the plants were actually taking because I was mixing wrong. This is my first grow as well so I do not have any prior experience with this strain, right now I'm on 3rd week flower and the PPM strength is right at 1200-1220 and they seem to love it. How many times a day do you flood/feed?

 

[surfinstoned]

Re: Surfinstoned's 720watt LED, god's gift, hydro grow

Surfin,
Looks awesome! Are you sure this is your first grow? An R/O system is on my list of things to buy/install, I am tired of running to the water store to fill up every few days. I have thought of using filtered tap water but the water here is almost 400ppm, lots of Ca in there.

@Vaporeyes,
Form my experience with a few LED companies, Advanced has the best customer service. You'll love those lights when you get them in your area. I trust Kyle's input, if he says that 2 of the 360s will cover a 4x8 then they should do the trick, otherwise he would just say you need three so he could sell an extra light. Also the closer you have the lights to the canopy, the smaller your core is. Keep them 18-24 inches above the canopy and you'll be fine. 12 inches or closer will bleach your buds, they will be pure white on top.

I think that this journal should have a 5-star rating. For a first time grower to be doing this well, designing and building the space herself and maintaining a well written and informative journal. All of that in itself would be difficult, for her to do it all on a first effort definitely deserves *****. So if you haven't voted yet, go to the top of the page and "rate this thread"

Hey Steve how was the weekend get-a-away?

Oh yes I'm sure this is my first grow and I have a ton of mistakes along this grow to prove it. I just felt like such a retard that I have not posted most of my mistakes besides the mixing all 6 of my nutes in the same container and then putting it in the res! Lol

Here is another mistake that I felt like an idiot and then the fact that I don't want to give the girl growers here a bad name.
So when I first got the clones from a friend of a friend they were doing great until 2 days after about 3 of them started wilting big time as you can see in the picture. Apparently I did not put the plant deep enough in the hydrogen and the water was not even hitting it at all. Trust me when I say I have made plenty of mistakes and am still a rookie big time! And if it was not for this forum and the guys at my local hydro shop who spent 2 hours with me explaining what all this is and how it all works. Unfortunately I'm one of those girls who likes to dive right in and I learn best from doing and making mistakes along the way!!!!!

Yeah I feel you on the water issue. Tap water in San Diego sucks my PPM out of the tap is around 465! I would go to Vons and use those glacier machines and fill up 7 5gal jugs once a week. No more spending 40.00 a month on R/O water for me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thank you for the rating vote everybody this is great! I guess I should move my lights up as well right now they are about 13-15 inches from the canopy, I will raise them today a couple of inches.

Here are the 3 i did not put deep enough for the water to ever get to it. Brace yourself the sights you are about to see are shocking!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

https://www.420magazine.com/gallery/data/504/photo_1_9.JPG

https://www.420magazine.com/gallery/data/504/photo88.JPG

 

[surfinstoned]

Re: Surfinstoned's 720watt LED, god's gift, hydro grow

Sorry i messed up here are the other 2 pictures:

 

[SteveHman]

Re: Surfinstoned's 720watt LED, god's gift, hydro grow

Surfin,
It's important to document the mistakes as well as the successes, that's how we all learn. Some people have too much pride to admit they f'd up something and only show the best possible pictures.

The water in North County (Carlsbad area) is in the 460 range too. According to water charts, 200ppm is considered hard water, we basically have liquid concrete.

Move those lights up to about 18 inches, it will give you a larger footprint and won't risk bleaching the tops.

You deserve the 5-star rating!

 

[Thew1sest]

Re: Surfinstoned’s 720watt LED, god’s gift, hydro grow

You could even run a drip system next time that utilizes the water from the buckets with a few drippers up top to sustain the plants until the roots reach the correct depth, than there would be no worry as to whether or not your plants/cuttings/seedlings will become rooted or not.

Awesome job though, truly great first grow

 

[Vaporeyes]

Re: Surfinstoned's 720watt LED, god's gift, hydro grow

Surfin,
Looks awesome! Are you sure this is your first grow? An R/O system is on my list of things to buy/install, I am tired of running to the water store to fill up every few days. I have thought of using filtered tap water but the water here is almost 400ppm, lots of Ca in there.

@Vaporeyes,
Form my experience with a few LED companies, Advanced has the best customer service. You'll love those lights when you get them in your area. I trust Kyle's input, if he says that 2 of the 360s will cover a 4x8 then they should do the trick, otherwise he would just say you need three so he could sell an extra light. Also the closer you have the lights to the canopy, the smaller your core is. Keep them 18-24 inches above the canopy and you'll be fine. 12 inches or closer will bleach your buds, they will be pure white on top.

I think that this journal should have a 5-star rating. For a first time grower to be doing this well, designing and building the space herself and maintaining a well written and informative journal. All of that in itself would be difficult, for her to do it all on a first effort definitely deserves *****. So if you haven't voted yet, go to the top of the page and "rate this thread"

Thanks for the advice, looking forward to them !

Surfin,

hows this for a stoner move, needed to ph down my res and as baked as i was the ph down bottle and the bloom nutes looked an awful lot a like...took me a few minutes and several cap fulls before i figured out why the ph wasnt budging..ruined the entire fresh batch......shit happens, dont sweat it...

 

[surfinstoned]

Re: Surfinstoned's 720watt LED, god's gift, hydro grow

Surfin,
It's important to document the mistakes as well as the successes, that's how we all learn. Some people have too much pride to admit they f'd up something and only show the best possible pictures.

The water in North County (Carlsbad area) is in the 460 range too. According to water charts, 200ppm is considered hard water, we basically have liquid concrete.

Move those lights up to about 18 inches, it will give you a larger footprint and won't risk bleaching the tops.

You deserve the 5-star rating!

Of course you are right about the mistakes, I will never make that one again! Just raised the light about an hour ago!!! Thanks for the info.

 

[surfinstoned]

Re: Surfinstoned's 720watt LED, god's gift, hydro grow

You could even run a drip system next time that utilizes the water from the buckets with a few drippers up top to sustain the plants until the roots reach the correct depth, than there would be no worry as to whether or not your plants/cuttings/seedlings will become rooted or not.

Awesome job though, truly great first grow

That is a awesome idea! Thank you i might have to use that for my next crop.

 

[surfinstoned]

Re: Surfinstoned's 720watt LED, god's gift, hydro grow

Thanks for the advice, looking forward to them !

Surfin,

hows this for a stoner move, needed to ph down my res and as baked as i was the ph down bottle and the bloom nutes looked an awful lot a like...took me a few minutes and several cap fulls before i figured out why the ph wasnt budging..ruined the entire fresh batch......shit happens, dont sweat it...

Holy Stuff!!!!!! thats hilarious and horrible all at the same time. That is totally something that i would do.

 

[surfinstoned]

Re: Surfinstoned's 720watt LED, god's gift, hydro grow

So I decided to take some readings to see just how much power these LED's actually consume, to my surprise it was a noticeable amount more than what the specs of the light say it should be.

Just the two LED's together:

Two LED's with light mover :

I also tested the lights separately and the lights were between 419-423 watts each. This is for anyone who is thinking about getting LED's, you may want to talk with someone who has the unit before purchase.

 

[DutchDude]

Re: Surfinstoned's 720watt LED, god's gift, hydro grow

I also tested the lights separately and the lights were between 419-423 watts each.

Could it be the fans and the circuitry running the whole unit accounting for the additional wattage? I am sure the 360 is just a simple 120 x 3W per LED?

Still envious of those and more than happy to take them off your hands

 

[SteveHman]

Re: Surfinstoned's 720watt LED, god's gift, hydro grow

Could it be the fans and the circuitry running the whole unit accounting for the additional wattage? I am sure the 360 is just a simple 120 x 3W per LED?

Still envious of those and more than happy to take them off your hands

DutchDude,
The 360 actually has 288 HO 3 watt chips in it, they don't drive the chips to full power, otherwise it would be a heat issue and would shorten the life of the light. They do have 6 cooling fans each and the power supply. Not sure if that is enough to make up the difference. Then one thing you can say though, is they definitely give you the advertised output. I've seen some panel claim to be 45w that draw 18w total, and some other companies that have 300s that draw 90.

I know it can be a bit of "sticker shock" when you expect a 360w draw and get 420ish (well kind of appropriate to draw 420).

Surfin.
I wouldn't worry too much. If your grow is anything like my last grow you should pull enough to cover the cost of the lights, the electric bill, all of your nutes and then have a fat wad left over. I am going to make a prediction that you pull 3-4 ozs from each of those plants for a total of 2 lbs.

 

[Twelve12]

Re: Surfinstoned’s 720watt LED, god’s gift, hydro grow

I need to get one of those wattage meter. Just got the portable a/c. The label said it draw 935w. Then add that into what I already have going falls under 10amp (15amp max for the room), but when I plugged it in the circus breaker goes off after 20 mins of running it. The a/c have used more juice, or that my LED, like yours, taking in more power than it advertised. Going to grab one of that killawatt to see it for myself. Thank god for the invention of the circus breaker or my place would be on fire, and I'm behind bars. lol

Anyway, your plants looks very healthy. I still don't think this is your first time, or that you got help from a pro! Either way, it is looking very good. When I get more cash I'll definitely upgrade the LED.

 

[yum000]

Re: Surfinstoned’s 720watt LED, god’s gift, hydro grow

Nice grow surfin', just finsihed reading from start to end. Your dwc has me intrigued and I've seen those systems before, I just don't believe I could adapt it for my purposes. My tent is only 40 inches by 40 inches, no way of getting 8 buckets in there, probably not even 4. I'll have to wait til I get a bigger tent 48x48 or so. The all in one units don't interest me because I couldn't figure out how I'd make solution changes in a scrog-can't just remove the bucket to go clean it out. BTW, do you have to use all 8 buckets in your system or is that all completely adjustable by just dropping buckets out of the chain? Do you use a water chiller? sorry for all the questions

 

[surfinstoned]

Re: Surfinstoned's 720watt LED, god's gift, hydro grow

DutchDude,
The 360 actually has 288 HO 3 watt chips in it, they don't drive the chips to full power, otherwise it would be a heat issue and would shorten the life of the light. They do have 6 cooling fans each and the power supply. Not sure if that is enough to make up the difference. Then one thing you can say though, is they definitely give you the advertised output. I've seen some panel claim to be 45w that draw 18w total, and some other companies that have 300s that draw 90.

I know it can be a bit of "sticker shock" when you expect a 360w draw and get 420ish (well kind of appropriate to draw 420).

Surfin.
I wouldn't worry too much. If your grow is anything like my last grow you should pull enough to cover the cost of the lights, the electric bill, all of your nutes and then have a fat wad left over. I am going to make a prediction that you pull 3-4 ozs from each of those plants for a total of 2 lbs.

Steve,
Thanks for answering that question from DutchDude, I don't think I would have know the answer. I truly hope that your prediction comes true. That would be double my goal! Now back to the lights, it's more about the whole experience that has left a bad feeling here is a brief rundown.
When I called to order the lights I asked to double check what their website was stating and I was told it would only consume 360 and that it might spike to about 370 which was fine with me. When the lights came I hooked them up and on one of the lights there were 2 rows of LED's not working, so I called and they told me that sometimes in shipping one of the power supply clips might have come undone, so they walked me how to fix it over the phone and everything was good. When I found that they were pulling more power than what they were supposing to pull I called and was told they will look into it. A couple days later I get a call saying that they tested 2 other 360's and that both were pulling about 390 watts, and then he said I'm sorry and he then told me about their return policy and asked if I wanted to return them I could. Now I don't know about everyone else but I was expecting something like "yes we did some test and found that something is wrong and we will send out 2 out to replace those and I would send these back to them, or a discount offer on my next light, just something other than what went down. That's just my opinion and experience, but I will probably go with spectra for my next light.
Another concern that I have is that if these lights are consuming 50-60 more watts then they should are they going to burn out before their time?

 

[surfinstoned]

Re: Surfinstoned's 720watt LED, god's gift, hydro grow

I need to get one of those wattage meter. Just got the portable a/c. The label said it draw 935w. Then add that into what I already have going falls under 10amp (15amp max for the room), but when I plugged it in the circus breaker goes off after 20 mins of running it. The a/c have used more juice, or that my LED, like yours, taking in more power than it advertised. Going to grab one of that killawatt to see it for myself. Thank god for the invention of the circus breaker or my place would be on fire, and I'm behind bars. lol

Anyway, your plants looks very healthy. I still don't think this is your first time, or that you got help from a pro! Either way, it is looking very good. When I get more cash I'll definitely upgrade the LED.

HighDive,
It definitely sounds like that might be the case, just remember that on 15 amp breaker you can only get up to 13 amps constant power anything above that will cause the breaker to shut off, or anything that spikes to 14 amps will pop the breaker as well. Thank you for the complement, by people thinking that this is not my first grow says a lot about how the girls look!!!!!!!!!!!!
I am already planning my next grow, I will be moving up to 20 plants and possible 3rd LED!!!

 

[surfinstoned]

Re: Surfinstoned's 720watt LED, god's gift, hydro grow

Nice grow surfin', just finsihed reading from start to end. Your dwc has me intrigued and I've seen those systems before, I just don't believe I could adapt it for my purposes. My tent is only 40 inches by 40 inches, no way of getting 8 buckets in there, probably not even 4. I'll have to wait til I get a bigger tent 48x48 or so. The all in one units don't interest me because I couldn't figure out how I'd make solution changes in a scrog-can't just remove the bucket to go clean it out. BTW, do you have to use all 8 buckets in your system or is that all completely adjustable by just dropping buckets out of the chain? Do you use a water chiller? sorry for all the questions

Yum000,
No worries about the questions that's what we are all here for and I realize that my journal is not the most detailed but I will get better my next time around! You can totally get 8 buckets in that space check it out I put together a crude demo for you in a 36" x 36" box real quick so you can visualize (9) 2 gal buckets. They look smaller without plants in them.

I am doing 12 plants right now, you can do as little as 1 plant and go up to 48 plants with the same brain unit. I do not have a water chiller right now, I am using frozen 2 liter's to keep the temp down I have a system that works great for me, only have to do it twice a day! Res temp always within 63-69 degrees. I do plan on getting a chiller for my next crop though. Feel free to ask as much as you want I spent 2 hours with a guy at my local hydro shop this system looked like the best for my needs.

 

[yum000]

Re: Surfinstoned’s 720watt LED, god’s gift, hydro grow

Oh wow, I just assumed those were 5 gal pots, I looked back at your grow room thread to discover their 2 gallons, who makes that system if you don't mind me asking?

 

[SteveHman]

Re: Surfinstoned’s 720watt LED, god’s gift, hydro grow

Surfin,
Did you take kill-a-watt readings after 20 minutes of running? I popped my 360 on the meter and it kicked off with a 490 watt start-up spike then settled down to 411 at 5 minutes and then down to 392 at 10 minutes and leveled off. I'm good with the 390 range. If yours doesn't kick down after 10-20 minutes of run time I would ask what they could do for you.