Lighting Orientation

Hey guys, I'm building a new room and am not exactly sure how I want to hang my lights.

I'll be growing SOG in 2 4x8 trays under 6x600w lights, and I'm not sure how I want to orient the lights.
The room is sealed with a 24,000 btu split AC so I don't really need to air cool the lights. I was thinking of attaching little booster fans to each light just to get some air movement but the more the AC works to cool the more it dehumidifies and the less I need to use a separate dehumidifier.

Anyway, I thought I'd see if anyone here has any opinions on the matter. I was thinking of maybe even doing a combo of the 2, with the middle lights hung like in A, and the outer ones hung like in B. What do you guys think?

in my opinion that's too much light for those trays. not that it's a bad thing but you don't need 3 600's to cover 8 feet. a 600w light has a footprint of 4x4. even longer when you put them side by side and you have overlapping light from both bulbs. to be honest with you, most of the bigger hoods are 3' long so you would just be wasting light anyway. plus you are spending a lot more money than you need to on equipment, cooling, electricity, etc...

if you are using air cooled hoods then i would line them up like in the 2nd diagram. that way you have less bends in the ducting and will need less fans.

good luck.

I did 4x600w in my last few runs but I've seen a number of people run 4x1000w lights in the same space. This would still be 400w less than running 4 1kws but better light distribution. I've got about a 1 foot parameter around where the trays will go and I fully expect the plants to grow out of the 8x8 area a little bit.

Hanging all the lights in 2 lines would be a lot easier for sure and is definitely the only way to do it if I want to run air cooling.

My hoods are small enough that it should work either way.

squidcore said:

I did 4x600w in my last few runs but I've seen a number of people run 4x1000w lights in the same space. This would still be 400w less than running 4 1kws but better light distribution. I've got about a 1 foot parameter around where the trays will go and I fully expect the plants to grow out of the 8x8 area a little bit.

Hanging all the lights in 2 lines would be a lot easier for sure and is definitely the only way to do it if I want to run air cooling.

My hoods are small enough that it should work either way.

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yea, you have a point. i guess i didn't think about the overhang. go for it. sounds like it will be a nice grow. you should journal it.

will you be able to move the plants around at all when they are in flower? if so, i would suggest putting a MH bulb in the middle hood of each row and rotating the plants every few days. mixed spectrum lighting will give you a better result in my opinion.

The trays will move a litte bit for when i need to move around, but i'm doing SOG with a drip system and drip rings so moving them around would be pretty difficult and impossible after the first week or two.

I agree, i'm a fan of mixed spectrum but I've never tried it. I do use hortilux eye bulbs though which are about as blue as HPS gets.

I've been thinking about journaling it, I just get a little sketched out posting photos online you know?

squidcore said:

The trays will move a litte bit for when i need to move around, but i'm doing SOG with a drip system and drip rings so moving them around would be pretty difficult and impossible after the first week or two.

I agree, i'm a fan of mixed spectrum but I've never tried it. I do use hortilux eye bulbs though which are about as blue as HPS gets.

I've been thinking about journaling it, I just get a little sketched out posting photos online you know?

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i've posted tons of pics on here. i wouldn't worry man. no one is tracking you. but i can understand the desire for security. no pressure. would just be a nice addition to the forum if you decide to.

i use the hortilux super hps bulbs too. love them. i'm looking at their 400w daylight blue MH bulbs for supplemental lighting. i've heard they have problems in digital ballasts though. maybe later on down the line. i bet you could get rid of the middle light and do some crazy stuff with UV bulbs or even 125w cfl's that are 6500k. that would be a great mixed spectrum too. even adding some 45w cfl's would do the trick a little.

i have a little soil grow here at my house that i run for fun. try out new strains and stuff. day 55. maybe 10-14 days left. grown in sunshine #4 with worm castings. using advanced nutrients connoisseur and a few of their additives. r/o water and botanicare cal/mag plus as needed. i run advanced nutrients sensi grow and voodoo juice for veg. i also run my plants under MH lights and on veg nutes with a little PK boost for the first 2 weeks of 12/12. then i switch to connoisseur and the additives but i still run a little N boost with the sensi grow part A throughout flower.

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Nice looking plants sir. If you're looking for MH bulbs check out the HiLUX Gro. They're a bit pricy but very nice.

My last run I did Aero, Drip and DWC all in the same room. It was a pain in the ass so I'm simplifying this next run. 2 drip tables this time with rockwool mini cubes. I'm using mostly AN and botanicare nutes as well. Sensi Grow, voodoo, and b52 for the 1 week of veg, did sensi bloom last run, connie this next one, bud ignitor, big bud, overdrive, bud candy, bud factor x. I kind of stopped using calmag with the AN line, doesn't really seem to be nessesary, even though i'm using RO. I also use hygrozyme and silica blast. I want to try out bio-thrive this next run as well as liquid light on the foliar.


I'll try to snap some photos and post a journal sometime in the next week or so. My mother plants are growing right now so I should be ready to take my crop cuttings in a 2 or 3 more weeks.