A plee for your health

Mr Celsius · Jan 12, 2010

After having grown vertical for years now and many years of flat before that, I now need glasses and my vision has been ruined.

As vertical growers, you especially are vulnerable to eye damage. I highly suggest turning your HID's off when working in your room/s. If you can't be bothered by that, then get at least 2 pairs of really good sunglasses that can overlap each other.

Metal halides put off UV but HPS don't. If running MH vertically, this will degrade your eyes rapidly. You must wear UV protected sunglasses if working in your room/s with the lights on.

Please listen and learn from my mistakes.

Edit:

Since the creation of this thread, many people have shared their knowledge and experience. A lot of us have purchased Shade 5 welding goggles and it has helped drastically. I still recommend turning your lights off if you need to do some work, but again, if you can't be bothered, goto amazon.com and type in shade 5 (or IR 5) welding goggles. I got the fancy "fly" ones, so it was $13.00 with super saver shipping, but they have a pair that is $7.00.

People spend way more then $7.00 on any other aspect of their grow, invest in yourself.

oldblue · Jan 12, 2010

Good call! I've noticed everytime i leave my tent i cant see right for a good 15mins in normal light. I'm gonna start using sunglasses to visit the girls from now on. Thank you for the advice.

Matanuskan Flo · Jan 12, 2010

i bet even enough cfl's together would do the same damage. good call OP. its so hard to remember sunglasses every time, so i keep a pair in the entrance just for that purpose. i still sometimes don;t put em on haha.

Mr Celsius · Jan 12, 2010

Matanuskan Flo said:
i bet even enough cfl's together would do the same damage. good call OP. its so hard to remember sunglasses every time, so i keep a pair in the entrance just for that purpose. i still sometimes don;t put em on haha.

Yes, you could probably blind yourself with cfl's... but it would be funny. You goto the doctor and he asks, why do you think your vision has degraded so rapidly? You answer, cause I grow weed with 2000w of CFL's.

I bet he would just laugh at you.

Ya its hard to remember... I know, I tried for a long time, now my vision is so screwed up that I can't afford anymore. I don't wanna be blind by the time I'm... well age doesn't really matter... I don't wanna be blind!

transplant · Jan 20, 2010

Good info! Stickey?

johnipedestran · Jan 20, 2010

welding goggles

the lazing factor is one of the reasons I switched back to horizontal.....

peace
jip

beejium · Jan 20, 2010

shade 3.0-5.0 welding glasses should work. $20, but you won't see the color of the plant well with dark green tinted glasses. i think shade 10 would be near impossible to see the plant.

beejium · Jan 20, 2010

oldblue said:
Good call! I've noticed everytime i leave my tent i cant see right for a good 15mins in normal light. I'm gonna start using sunglasses to visit the girls from now on. Thank you for the advice.

it takes about 15mins for the eyes to adjust to large light changes, but you are probably doing damage without knowing it. i'm sure i have... in my case welding hasn't helped any.

Power13 · Jan 20, 2010

Good thread, safety concerns are to be treated as very important.

Sticky this guys!!!

Castelvetro · Jan 20, 2010

i got up to 33 minutes of straight sungazing but its during safe times, im sorry to hear about your eyes and appriciate the heads up.. i hope your eyes heal themselves-

SensiSamurai · Jan 20, 2010

i have wore glasses my entire life and i'm glad i paid extra for the transition lenses. even though... i still try to not look directly at the lights. great advice to protect your eyes. how would you take care of the girls when your blind?

Mr Celsius · Jan 20, 2010

Thank you for the... thanks! Unfortunately, we don't actually have a mod for the vert section... so we can't sticky things :/

I think we should throw some candidates out there.

antimatter · Jan 20, 2010

I wear big sunglasses that cover fronts and sides and usually avoid looking at the lights directly or holding my hand infront, wouldn't consider doing it without sunglasses. The sun outside is definitely worse, try laying in the sun for a half hour with your eyes closed on a nice day and your vision will definitely be a bit funky when you go back inside, way worse than if I stared at a metal halide with sunglasses on.

Tanning Bed lights are another story, sunglasses arnt enough thats why people wear these.

yesum · Jan 23, 2010

i say turn off the lights and be sure.

Mr Celsius · Jan 23, 2010

yesum said:
i say turn off the lights and be sure.

Couldn't agree more... but some people just don't want to. It'll wear your bulbs out a little quicker, but at the cost of saving your eyesight, I feel its worth it.

beejium · Jan 23, 2010

Mr Celsius said:
Couldn't agree more... but some people just don't want to. It'll wear your bulbs out a little quicker, but at the cost of saving your eyesight, I feel its worth it.

bulbs should be fine as long as you let them cool completely before re igniting. i can't see one more cycle a day doing that much damage to the lamps.

:-( · Jan 23, 2010

Mr Celsius, thank you for this advice, its unfortunate that you had to learn this through the proverbial 'school of hard knocks'. I for one will be heeding your advice.

Puff Daddy · Jan 23, 2010

Bump for importance. Thanks for sharing the warning and your experience Mr Celsius.

Natagonnaworrie · Jan 25, 2010

Thanks for sharing! this is the first time i am going to go (right now) and tack some shades up right on the door to my grow tent.. I'll throw up these green tinted aviator types for now, but does anyone have any suggestions as to what brand or any detail i should get to really protect the eyes??

a million thank you's

SuperConductor · Jan 25, 2010

Yep. If using a tent hang something from the frame at the door side that will block the light as you open it and keep it between yourself and the bulbs at all times, you can check your grow from there with lights on if you need to get closer turn the lights off. It's not so bad the first couple of grows but quickly gets painful and headaches become common afterwards even with just a couple of seconds exposure (talking just HPS not MH). Using a dripper system helps as you barely have to opent the tent.

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