multiple light question

Im about to start a bigger grow than i usually do, i cant decide if i should run three or four 1000watt ballasts for my flower room. ( i have 4 x 1000watts ready with aircooled hoods and a 1 ton AC.. or to do 6 x 600 ballasts with normal wing reflectors, i can dim three of the 1000's but i just feel like its a bit of a waste if you have them, just run with the 1000s if you got them?

i have experience running both so its not a big deal i just cant decide and im leaning toward the 6 x 600..

so i have these custom trays i built, with light hangers.. i dont own a house yet and its just easier to move and not contniously fuck the walls up with drilling and so.

they measure 1.350m x 1.120m, so two of them pushed together will make 3m2, three of them pushed together will make 4.5m2 - on wheels so i can split them on defoliation days to get inside and if there are issues..

im really having a hard time deciding and its not like i can start from scratch i kind of have alot of the equipment already and selling to buy new/different would just waste time and make me lose on the resell value.

please anyone who has done something similar please give me insight as to how and why, planning to have it running in a months time as im finishing off my last run.

i like the coverage of two 600s better than one 1000 but penetration is not as good as the 1k.. especially on larger plants.

if you want to know anything else please comment

If you have 4 air cooled 1000s already that is what I would use. I run. 1k over a 4x4 follow tray and I love it. It's got a wide hood so I get pretty good spread and it grows great buds.

If you went With 600s I would still want them air cooled personally. It seems silly not to.

I don't know how much your trying to cover either though. If you have 6 trays and you want a light over each I get that.

Just make sure you get your seeds/clones planted

600s only if youre doing sog with cuts.

1Ks if youre flowering seed plants or any training method besides sog

1ks work awesome for SOG especially with a nice wide hood!

Thundercat said:

If you have 4 air cooled 1000s already that is what I would use. I run. 1k over a 4x4 follow tray and I love it. It's got a wide hood so I get pretty good spread and it grows great buds.

If you went With 600s I would still want them air cooled personally. It seems silly not to.

I don't know how much your trying to cover either though. If you have 6 trays and you want a light over each I get that.

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thanks for the comment, yes i agree the 1k just seems to grow fat colas, i dont have the wide hood.. when i bought them i didnt have any experience so i didnt know they should be wider when running the 1k.. Even though they are not the wide hood they cover 9 plants perfectly, i pulled 800g dry off it on the first run..

i dont know if i would run the 600s aircooled though, actually i probably wont. they run cool enough not to have to and it really is better running them without as far as i understand.

ok so i would run 2x 600 per tray or 1k per tray... i think, once i have them setup in the new room ill space the hoods out and see what it looks like.

i should be finished painting the trays in a day or two then ill set them up and post a pic to give you a better idea. i really just want to know wich would be more practical to run - this grow will be to generate an income now that i have a little more experience.

let me get those pics posted..

XipXipXoom said:

600s only if youre doing sog with cuts.

1Ks if youre flowering seed plants or any training method besides sog

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yes thats what im thinking of doing, 2 x 600s run 16 under them in 10l bags all clones - one strain

the 1k seems better for bigger plants? - more soil, more expensive lamps, aircooled hoods.. i dont know if this is the most cost effective way?

Vd22 said:

Just make sure you get your seeds/clones planted

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yes i have my moms ready and will be able to take enough clones for the run.. i have flowered about 50 different phenos this past year to select my keepers and its time to do a big run with only one strain

Thundercat said:

1ks work awesome for SOG especially with a nice wide hood!

Click to expand...

what would you think about dimming the ballasts to 750 and running them parallel on one tray? so 2x 750watt in 1.5m2 - that seems like the best option for my trays? then two trays would be 3k watts, i think they would cover the area better, thats what i realised with the 600s, they cover the entire area so there is less wasted light, where the 1k seems to penetrate nicely in the centre, again for bigger plants but the sides are just shit, i have read countless topics where people prefer 2x 600s to 1k just because it has a better spread over the entire area, what do you think of this?

I think 2 600s can be a little better on coverage sure. Adding a light mover to your current 1000 watts would be another great way to get that same coverage since you don't have wide reflectors. Its all up to you man.

2 600s over a single tray would be great if thats what you want to run. I've thought about doing that in my room just never spent the money and time. For my current needs my single 1k is plenty.

For the record the 600s will be almost as hot, I don't know where you heard they wouldn't. I would defintiely air cool any HID lights imo. If you keep the glass clean its not reducing your light intensity by much, and the reduced heat will make up for it. If you don't air cool the lights you will have to AC the room with the amount of lights your talking, and it will make your AC run harder.

I'm also old school, I'm a huge believer in keeping your lights as close as possible. I honestly laugh at pictures some guys post where their lights are multiple feet above the plants. If dual 600s gives you better spread and lets you keep them closer to the canopy that's an advantage for you too. You want your lights to stay as close to 12 inches as possible. Beyond that point the lights drastically loose intensity. My aircooled 1k is usually 12-14 inches from my canopy.

1k does have more useable vertical canopy height due to inverse square law. According to this chart it is 10-36"(26") for 1k and 8-29"(21") for 600.
So if you can keep your canopy under 21" in height then 600s are theoretically better due to greater lumens per watt and less shadows due to more points of light.

Glass supposedly steals 10% of light so run your duct in parallel w/ no glass if you can. If you need a charcoal filter just put it on the exhaust. It keeps charcoal dust off the bulb and if you are using a smart bathfan like a panasonic whisperline 340 or 440 it measures the airflow and increases rpm with increasing negative static pressure to keep the same cfm regardless of duct turns, length or restrictions, within reason, and a properly sized charcoal filter is within a smart bathfans range of compensation whether its on intake or exhaust.