PsyCLown

Unfortunately not, all the way up in Gauteng. We need more growers up here.

I agree with you there. Just haven't had anything to help cool the drivers and not willing on forking out money to cool them as a big chunk of extrusion like that isn't likely to be cheap to begin with.

@The_StonedTrooper very cool and clever, will draw the heat out of the driver very quickly and effectively I am sure. I am putting a bit more faith into the Meanwells and hoping I do not have issues and if so, that their warranty will cover it. 5 and 7 year warranties is pretty awesome! That is also if they run 24/7 for 5 or 7 years straight is their supposed lifespan. Mine are just on some cardboard on top of the tent to help prevent any damage to the tent material and to help insulate the heat from the tent. lol

I have seen the Mantis fabric pots before, been around for a while. @mantis you related to the peeps who make the pots or just coincidence?

@Totemic curious to see what they say about the strain and cross.

Very cool to see the forum in it's earlier days, although I must say it does look and feel dated in comparison to what the forum looks like currently. When did the big spike in users happen? I assume around the point where the law changed? So that was what, late 2018?

I get that, although the diodes will still degrade with time. As long as you can keep them cool, that will help slow down the rate at which they degrade. Majority of people run these Samsung diodes below their max rated. Even 120W for a single QB288 is below what Samsung rate the diodes for. So pushing it up to the same power level as your typical QB should not be an issue and with the cooling you have I highly doubt it would make much difference if any in terms of the speed at which the diodes degrade. I did the maths once, from what I recall a QB288 (so 288 of the LM301B/H diodes) were capable of 164w or something around there, according to Samsung. If you'd rather not, that is perfectly fine too. These diodes are more efficient when run below their max as well, after a certain point efficiency does take a slight dip in terms of watts and PPFD output, a bit more goes towards heat. Difference would be negligible although adds up over the years Is that a metal enclosure of sorts which your driver is on top of? To help keep it cool?

Are those the Ripper lights? I recall those having a lot more diodes and in theory you'd be able to push more power to them - not sure how the heatsinks are but often having a fan blowing over them is sufficient to drop temps drastically. If that is the case, then I would consider upping the power a bit. Ultimately you'd want to use a quantum sensor to see what your average PPFD is at canopy height for your tent and whether it meets your needs or falls within the recommended range.

I misread, sorry. LED, assuming you have Quantum Boards or lights with Samsung LM301B/H diodes, the 600W of LED would be around 1200 umol. So a lot better than 600W HID, although still a bit short if you want to try end up with the optimal output for flowering plants in that size tent. You want around 900W - 1000W of LED in that sized tent to get around 2000 umol which is optimal. One thing to keep in mind is the spread / coverage of the lights. You could get a few big COB's but their spread wouldn't be as great as multiple smaller diodes like we see on strips and Quantum Boards. You want to try achieve a nice even PPFD throughout the tent as well.

So in a 2.4 x 1.2 tent, the optimal PPFD is around 2000 umol. The 600W HPS puts out around 770 umol, keep in mind as the bulb is used the output will decrease. So a used HPS bulb will be less than 770. So a single 600W HPS in that tent is far from ideal. I'd only consider using half the tent (1.2 x 1.2) with a single 600W HPS. Gavita HPS 1000W DE (Dual Ended) will output around 1500 umol, to put things into perspective. 1KW HID is far better, although being dual ended helps as well in terms of efficiency. @Prom I am still skeptical about plants being better under HPS. I have heard very mixed feedback from people who have changed from HID to LED. Many have said LED is better. Some were even coming from 1KW HID lights, so not the smaller lights either. Ultimately though, I am very happy with my LED's and have no desire to change or try HID.

Well, it depends on how efficiently (lol) a heater converts electricity into heat. With a HID light or a bar heater, a bit difficult to control the temperature. The bar heater one can at least hook it up to a temp sensor with a relay of sorts to turn off once it reaches a certain temp. I quite like those cheap 2KW fan heater with a coil inside. They have a built in thermostat. When one of those are inside the tent, as the tent is such a small space it heats up in less than a minute and then turns off and only turns on when the temp drops. I have never needed to compare the efficiency between an HID light, bar heater and fan heater. Although HID light would mean lower temps when the light turns off and no way for you to change that without a heater. Also to put HID vs LED efficiency into perspective. 240W LED will give around 475umol of usable light 600W of these LED would give around 1188umol of usable light. 600W HPS (SE) would give around 777umol of usable light in comparison. So 411 umol less which is almost an additional 240W LED light worth of output... It is a significant difference. That is working on an LED light having a usable umol/w of 1.98 and some quantum boards may be higher. So to get the same output as a 600W Single Ended HPS light, you'd need 392W of LED. So a saving of 208W.

Nutriplex or EHG? I have never gotten around to it, but has anyone compared the contents of nutes between GHE, EHG and Nutriplex?

100% Although the chances are much higher with some over others... Sort of like investments. Sent from my Redmi Note 7 Pro using Tapatalk

This is the issue though. Over the years there have been a few strains which have become very popular which lead to a lot of breeders trying to have the same strain. So they take the parents and chuck some pollen to be able to claim it as the "same strain" but in actual fact it is not as the original cuts were not the same. Let's use an example, let's say you have a very special pheno of a strain called ABC and you decide to cross it with a strain to Fire OG and you decide to call this new cross Alphabet OG and it does really well and is a huge hit. Everybody wants it! Now strain ABC and Fire OG have been released to the public, so the seeds are available to pretty much anyone... But not everyone is able to get the exact pheno of ABC and Fire OG which you used... However due to the popularity other breeders will simply take any cut of ABC and Fire OG and cross it to be able to claim to have Alphabet OG... Which is not the case as it is not the original parent plants, despite the parents being from the same strains. This is why knowing your breeders and who released what and being able to trust them is soo important and why a lot of the bulk EU seeds are in essence expensive jut. Purple Punch is not Purple Punch - just because it has the same name does not mean what you grow will be the same. Purple punch from breeder X could be amazing! Purple punch from breeder Z could be complete utter shit. Then on the other hand, you get people who are even more scaly and try release counterfeit seeds - I believe this happened recently with In House Genetics and their Pancake lines. There were some lines which had not yet been released, but somehow there were seeds being sold in the IHG packaging claiming to be those unreleased strains. So where you source your seeds from is also very important! One needs to also keep in mind the variance with phenotypes and some breeders typically just have a high morphology due to the way they breed and release their strains. So the picture for the strain looks superb, you grow out a 10 pack of seeds and end up with no plants which look remotely like what they advertise picture wise. Other breeders you have a much higher chance of getting the pheno which is what was being advertised in the picture from a pack of 10 seeds... So to sum it up, end of the day - get to know your breeders and stick to the trusted ones and you will end up growing a lot more

It would work well with iPhone as they're all the same. So same sensors would be used and it can be calibrated. With Android, different story as flavours and choice are a thing in the Android world. Chances of all of Samsung's phones using the same sensors is a bit unlikely and then even more unlikely that different brands would use the same sensors. ie Xiaomi, HTC, LG, Samsung, Hauwei etc. all using the same sensors on all of their phones. So calibration then needs to happen per model and it is not unheard of for the same model of phone (Let's use a Samsung Galaxy S21 as an example) to have the same sensor throughout production. In the past certain changes have happened on smaller components due to stock and availability but in the bigger scheme this does not really matter or affect the end user much but in the case of trying to use your phone to work out the PPFD from your light - different story.

If it's the same sensor and gives consistent readings, then at X lux it would be a specific ppfd value. Start low and go up and it will give you some indication at least. Better than no idea and just winging it although a quantum sensor would still be best and most accurate. Sent from my Redmi Note 7 Pro using Tapatalk

The same unit you're looking for? Sent from my Redmi Note 7 Pro using Tapatalk

Maybe state (formerly GHE) next to TA?

General Hydroponics and Terra Aquatics are the same, not so? Use to be GHE and now changed to TA?

As @Prom has said you could look at those halo drippers or make some yourself perhaps. Otherwise adding more arrow drippers is fine too. Once again, as @Prom has said - you can get away without the heatsinks but then best to have a fan blowing over them to keep them cool. This is the cheaper and more cost effective option. If you really want to get heatsinks, you can reach out to some of the local guys who retail quantum boards and see if they'd be willing to sell just the heatsinks - gotta also make sure holes for the quantum board matches up with their heatsinks. This will certainly help, although won't provide the same PPFD as adding 2x 240W lights but if you already have it then rather do this as it will save on initial costs... there are some down sides to the HID light though. Ok, so you have an air intake and then an exhaust fan and then 3x clip fans for air circulation and an additional 3 if needed - sounds good then! As for temps, will be difficult to keep the temps up as most garages are not sealed very well. Perhaps consider adding a fan heater inside the tent and put your intake and exhaust fans on a timer to only turn on and run for a limited amount of time every hour or so. This will likely be cheaper than trying to heat the entire garage.

Why do you want a lux meter?

Welcome to the forum and enjoy your stay!

Welcome! Very awesome and cool setup you have there, amazing setup to start with! Congrats! Although I do have some concerns which I will list below. A single arrow dripper per 20L pot I fear will not be sufficient, it will not saturate the entire medium. Also is this on a timer? The lights do not have proper heatsinks and with the power supply being mounted on there, it will get very hot and reduce the lifespan of the diodes. Remove the power supplies from the top of the lights and make sure to have a fan blowing down directly over the light to keep them cool and help prolong the life of the diodes. 440W / 480W of lighting for that that size tent isn't optimum when it comes to flowering, you will want to look at an additional 2x 240W lights for optimum output. This can be added at a later stage though, perhaps consider lights with some heatsinks when you do get additional lights. Air circulation, a single clip on rotational fan won't sufficient - especially once the plants get bigger. Maybe take a look at my grow diary (links in my signature) to see how I setup my 2.4 x 1.2 tent - I have 2x 30cm box fans which are mounted at the top of the tent and blow down over the lights as well as plants and the lurve helps rotate the airflow direction to really get the air circulating well inside the tent. You want to avoid moisture build up or stale air in certain sections of the tent. With the above being said, nothing to worry about right away especially considering the plants are still quite small. I'd say keep an eye out for an additional fan to add to the tent in the near future, shouldn't cost more than R400 give or take for a decent fan. It does not need to be a clip on fan. As for the lighting, this is expensive - I know. If funds do not allow for additional lighting at the moment, then do not worry and continue with the grow and look at adding the additional lighting once budget allows. The additional lighting can lead to better yields as well if everything else is dialed in with your grow. The additional Arrow drippers should not be difficult or expensive to add so you can have multiple drippers per 20L pots. I'd say you want a minimum of 2 drippers and ideally 4 per pot for a nice even coverage. I have never used that soil, so cannot comment there although for your next grow perhaps consider trying coco instead of soil - with the setup you have it makes sense to move over to coco and you will likely benefit from faster growth as well and you can often get coco for less than the price of soil. If you wanted to, you could also squeeze more pots inside the tent. 10 pots leaves a lot of space in the tent still. Not bad thing, but just know that you can fit more plants inside the tent without issue if you ever wanted to The GHE Tri Part nutrients are awesome! Very simple to use as well. Please do keep us updated with your grow and progress and if you get stuck or have any questions let us know and we will happily assist! Welcome to the forum!

Well, by the time flower comes you will be able to tell. Blunicorn, at least the pheno I have, is very frosty - about as frosty as the slurricane I grew. Above average for sure. I must take some bud pics and post them in my diary sometime. I had some very nice colour come through on mine as well.

Good to know it is not just me and others also experience such effects. I have had itchy skin a few times after working with my plants, but does not seem to be as common or as much of an issue for me. @ORGANinc. that chilli feeling or effect is new, never heard of that or experienced it myself. These side effects / reactions are not going to change the fact that I grow and I will continue to rather pop an allergex or whatever. Have you guys found anything which works well to combat these effects?