Lets do it again, 400/600w 30 gal? DWC

So i have been busy..

Started off a seed in a spot out back in june. she sprouted but never did much.

decided to transplant in the house in my homegrown worm shit, decided too many bugs so did a DIY DWC unit. Painted the tote black need to hit up the lid. its a work in progress.

using dyna grow grow/bloom and a lil clonex to help get things going.

1kw ballast dimmed down to 50% with a 400w MH (so is that 500w on a 400w bulb? good or no? )

and thats about it. ill report in tomorow with PPM/PH and take it from there i guess. have a scrog screen as well for later.

take a seat and comment up love the convorsation

I think you might want to check with your ballast manufacturer about that. Most dimmable ballasts demand that a like wattage bulb be used, I.e. 1000w ballast should have a 1000w bulb. Running that combination could be dangerous and at the least you will not get the correct color spectrum from it.

I was always under the impression that you could run a 400w bulb in a 1000w ballast as long as dimmed down properly. and that you never want to run a lower wattage bulb on a higher wattage setting.

that being said, this is why i posted my concern for running the ballast at 50% and using a 400w bulb. 50% of 1000w is 500w so my concern isnt reallly about wether i can run the bulb (well yeah it kinda is) but more so wether the balast is pushing 500w or 400w..

ok so i asked about the light and looks like i will be fine. been running 2 days now without a hitch.

i repoted the little guy so the roots were hanging out the bottom of the net pot to hopefully speed up root growth and get her moving in the right direction.

PH of my rez is around 5.6 so im not going to mess with it right now. PPM is around 553 which i feel is plenty for such a small plant, my tap water is about 140 ppm without anything added.

ordering some dutch master zone for the rez should be starting that next week sometime.

other than that looks about the same as it did the other day will get a few more pics up once growth starts.

The PROPER equipment should be acquired BEFORE you begin any grow! It's an investment in your future and piece of mind!

PLEASE FOR YOUR OWN SAFETY PURCHASE THE PROPER BULB OR BALLAST!

Though it may "work for now", when you (possibly) burn your house and the fire department reports the cause of the fire to be obvious neglect, even if you have insurance they won't cover you...

http://www.amazon.com/Apollo-Horticulture-GLK400GW19-Digital-Dimmable/dp/B004YXDHX6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1407144033&sr=8-1&keywords=400+watt+Apollo


http://www.amazon.com/Eclipse-Horticulture-MH1000-1000-Halide/dp/B00MBU4CJW/ref=sr_1_8?s=lawn-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1407144400&sr=1-8&keywords=apollo+1000+watt+mh+bulb

i love amazon. i buy the ipower bulb. i buy the hortilux bulb. then i return the ipower bulb as the hortilux bulb after smashing it. essentially i paid $20 for a $100 bulb

The galaxy and lumatek select-a-watt ballasts can run lower wattage bulbs at a dimmed setting. I have 400w galaxy I regularly run 250w MH in veg. Been doing this over a year with no problem. The bad thing is the ballast uses a soft-start mechanism, so half the time my 250w lamp doesn't fire for some reason. That said, their 1000 watt ballasts dim down to 600w, not 500.

lol i screwed in a 600w in a 1000w ballast before. accidentally turned the power to 100%. bulb literally glowed super bright and burned out.

urgod said:

i love amazon. i buy the ipower bulb. i buy the hortilux bulb. then i return the ipower bulb as the hortilux bulb after smashing it. essentially i paid $20 for a $100 bulb

Click to expand...

That's kind of a douche move.... but if it works!

hahaha i know its such a douche move. but when i receive half a bottle of $120 nutrients and broken bulbs thats why i do things like this. plus i paid for prime like you so we covered customer is always right even when we are wrong

im tunning a 1000w ballast fimmed down to 400w with a 400w bulb. This is how they are meant to be used grom everything i have read. if you find some literature i would gladly read it claiming otherwise.

Just to be safe i just e mailed the manufacturer asking if i can run a 400w bulb in a 1k watt ballast so long as it is dimmed down to 50% if they say no i will throw a 1000w bulb in there and just dim that just to be safe.

i appreciate everyones concern

Most ballasts will still initiate start up with full power then dim down to selected wattage. This is where you have problems, but to me its the screwed up color spectrum that ruins it.

so a couple of pics and a small update on progress.

dutch master gold zone will arrive tomorow and ill be adding it to rez, anyone have any exp with this product and know if it will flux my PH?

a small new root is popping through the net pot so im hoping by this time next week i see a little bit of growth and improvement on the plant.

Also i contacted apollo to ask about the bulb/balast question being discussed above and still no response. so far things seem to be fine and i have run entire grows using a lower wattage bulb on a higher watt balast dimmed down, so im leaving it for now but if i dont get a response i will try and contact them again.

heres the pics.

Dustch master zone has come in so got t that going will check PH later tonight, hopefully it stays in a decent range.

tossed some seeds in paper towel in case the one in there dosent make it..

PH is still at 5.8 and 576 ppm and 20.3c water temp. so numbers are right where they are supposed to be. hopefully this plant pulls through...still up in the air on wether it will or not.

ok so not sure if anyone is following along here or not but will update anyways.

has been a rough start with my little plant but i think she is going to be just fine. looked yesterday and have some new root growth coming out of the stem, have had to move it in the net pot about 3 times now and finally just stuck the whole stem through the bottom and that seems to have worked.

no new growth yet but i dont think it will be long, the little roots have doubled in size since yesterday..Hope this growth keeps up. As an added measure i added a litte clonex to the res just to help with root growth and development.

RetiredMatthebrute said:

ok so not sure if anyone is following along here or not but will update anyways.

has been a rough start with my little plant but i think she is going to be just fine. looked yesterday and have some new root growth coming out of the stem, have had to move it in the net pot about 3 times now and finally just stuck the whole stem through the bottom and that seems to have worked.

no new growth yet but i dont think it will be long, the little roots have doubled in size since yesterday..Hope this growth keeps up. As an added measure i added a litte clonex to the res just to help with root growth and development.

Click to expand...

If those roots are growing your fine. I've never used clonex in a dwc just plain tap water to get them going, but if it's working go for it! This is my favorite part, the whole starting up thing taking root and growing branches. I cant stand harvesting though.

yeah i dont care for trimming much. my favorite part is after week 2 of flower when you start to see the buds forming and really take shape into what they will be when they are all done.



this is my least favorite part, if i wasnt so hell bent on saving this plant (was a seed from my previous plant that must have slightly hermied because i have only found the one and its almost gone) I would start a new one. the bud is good and a seed from a hermie means female which is my main reason for wanting it to survive. i planted it outside a few months ago in a spot that was too shady so it never amounted to anything, decided to pull it out of the ground and see if i can save it...

i know theres alot of dirty workd out there for hermie plants but i dont feel the same way, in almost every grow i have done one of my plants has hermied, i never destroyed any of them and just let them finish up, never had bad bud or "seedy" bud. Sure there was a seed here and there but nothing crazy and if chancing a few seeds to gaurentee a nice harvest and female plant i would rather have a few seeds than grow a seed that has a 50/50 chance of being a full blown male.

i dont run clonex in my DWC for the most part but it does have hormones in it that help with root production so i dont see how it would hurt.

i think there is a little new growth!!! hopefully this time next week it is really noticable, lots of new roots coming off the stem