Welcome to the Growery Message Board! You are experiencing a small sample of what the site has to offer. Please login or register to post messages and view our exclusive members-only content. You'll gain access to additional forums, file attachments, board customizations, encrypted private messages, and much more!
I'm not sure if this is the right place to post this but I need a little help. I plan on building two boxes. I will be using hydroponic systems to water both of the boxes. i plan on using two 400w metal halide lights. I was just looking at Lowes and saw something interesting. They have a metal halide light that is 400w but it runs off of 120v. I thought that they ran off of 240v.
With the 120v would I still need a ballast to control the light or can I just screw it in a light socket?
Watt usage and heat are a problem so I'm looking for the best way to light the plants and keep heat down as low as I can. I also don't want to have the electric bill go sky high.
-------------------- "If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is, infinite."
William Blake
Anything I write is a lie. Any picture I post is a fake. I only write for entertainment.
You cannot screw a MH bulb into a regular socket, a ballast is necessary 100% of the time. Did you look at the size of the MH socket? Its huge, like twice the diameter of a standard incandescent bulb socket.
Why would you use two MH's? Why not 1 MH and 1 HPS? That would be most optimal.
It seems to me like you are in your initial stages of planning and have yet to grow anything in the past... You might want to take baby steps and make sure everything is set, and you have enough information to start, so that you don't just throw seeds into soil and don't have what you need, therefore wasting those seeds because you need intense lighting starting just 1-2 weeks after breaking the soil. A single CFL or two can sustain seedlings for a couple weeks, but they will begin to rapidly stretch out of control if you don't bring the power!
-------------------- Don't criticize what you can't understand
You are correct, I'm a neophyte at growing. I am trying to understand everything that I can about growing. I have started a seed in soil to get my feet wet. I'm using CFL's at this time.
I plan on building two boxes that will house a veg stage, for mother plants and a flowering box.
I thought that two 400w mh would be adequate for the flowering stage.
-------------------- "If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is, infinite."
William Blake
Anything I write is a lie. Any picture I post is a fake. I only write for entertainment.
I was able to sustain 4 plants under first (2) 75w cfl's(6500K) then finally (3)lights, for 30 days. They were pretty healthy. I took them outside after that, though.
do they have to be stealth boxes? or can u just build urself a tent and put it in a room. Or buy a tent like i did cuz i didnt wanna bother wasting time cutting wood. This is from what i know...i felt like sharing a lil of what i learned over the years.
Lighting:
*Bigger is almost almost always better.
*You can grow plants taller with 600 or 1000watters cuz they throw strong light further.
*More lumens pretty much means better yeild and even potency.
*Mh is better for vegging and hps is better for flowering...if u had to choose one or the other for both stages...go for hps.
*With size comes heat issues therefore, better exhaust fan system or even an airconditioner would be needed. Look into Air cooled hoods or cooltubes.
checkout my log...im using 2 600w hps's in the flowering tent and a 400w mh in the veg tent.
Threaded
Previous
Index
Next
Some of these posts are very old and might contain outdated information. You may wish to 
Edit 
Reply 
_______________
