Increasingly Ridiculous Enhanced Red Spectrum 700w+ CFL Array / MODSCROG

[Mr Jay]

Soo, I'm a little confused about your lighting spectrum. The red referred to in lighting spectrum is 2700k. It looks like the red lights you have are just dyed red party lights. If true I'm confused as to how they are beneficial over regular 2700k red floro's? Or maybe I'm just hungover and hallucinating.

 

[AlexTrebek]

Soo, I'm a little confused about your lighting spectrum. The red referred to in lighting spectrum is 2700k. It looks like the red lights you have are just dyed red party lights. If true I'm confused as to how they are beneficial over regular 2700k red floro's? Or maybe I'm just hungover and hallucinating.

I remember him mentioning: 2700k / 3500k / 6500k's
I don't know if the fluoro's actually increase red spectrum, since like you said it's just a red dye, but they are having a very positive effect in flower or else Terpene wouldn't keep mixing them in.
I only find those red bulbs in 13w, never 23w or higher.
I love your spiders!

 

[Terpene]

Good eye, they are indeed dyed red party lights. They apparently emit about 800 lumens, so while only about half as bright as typical 23w bulbs, the light is practically pure red spectrum. I put far less emphasis on the red light than overall brightness - this is actually the reason for the redesign: more wattage in a smaller space.

Right now my "light density" is only about 60w of white light & 15w of red light per square foot. I should note that all spectrums of non party bulbs are considered "white light" in comparison to the red bulbs. After the redesign, I will be running just under 100w per sqft with the bottom rack (final 4-6 weeks of flower) seeing more red light than the top. Figure six spiders per level, one bulb in each will be red.

I've also thought about taking my 240w 3w CREE LED panel from lighthouse out of veg (yes the flowering model works great for veg, that experiments over) and putting it on the bottom rack for maximum red spectrum / light strength. The 240w holds about 1600umol. By the by, if you're looking for LEDs, the 500w 3w is what you want. It will very solidly cover a 2x3 area with acceptable light intensity - this is what "acceptable" light intensity looks like.

The meter has the same reading as the LEDs outside in July at about noon. Outdoor shade is 1100 on this meter, 600w HPS holds 1000-1100 max at the canopy, my CFL canopy brightness - 1100-1500 max.



Here's the link to the red CFLs. (damar makes em)

 

[StonedStupid]

Well, generally I'm pulling about 2.5oz per plant because I like running equatorial sativas. The poison skunk is probably 3-3.25.

I've been self sufficient for about 3.5 years now, (CA medical patient) I'm running a perpetual and rarely ever run the same thing twice, so that tends to cut down on the yields a bit, but about every 3 weeks one bites the dust and another replaces it.

I am a lover of sativas myself though a good indica or hybrid of the two works as well depending on the time of day and what I have going on. I have spend most of my time on the boards here trying to figure out how I want to set up my system once I have the money for equipment and figure out a new place to locate myself.

If all works out I will be moving to a country where growing for personal is decriminalized/legalish. If I end up staying in the United States I am planning on moving to a medical state where I can gain my medical card. I figure the more I educate myself on what is working for others and what doesn't work the better I will be when it comes time to not only buying the equipment but also setting things up so that they will be the most efficient. I would like to figure out what kind of set up will maximize my yields with the least amount of effort and space. Being that I am also used to being on a low budget it would also be great to figure out a way that I can do all of that without seriously impacting my electric expenses. I have been trying to figure out how I can estimate future electric bills but have yet to come across a thread that covers how to figure everything out. I know how to calculate kWh though. I just have to figure out how to read how my the local electric company breaks down their charges per kWh. Chances are though I would end up having to figure all of that out again when I move because depending on where I end up I will most likely have a different electric provider.

I have spent a lot of time looking at grows with CFLs and a little bit of time with looking at the threads on LEDs but I am still having trouble deciding whether or not I should go with either of those or the traditional HIDs.

 

[BattleAxe]

Sam Skunkman's super strong smelling Poison Skunk (durban poison x skunk 1) came down today, despite still having a few live foxtails here and there. Best size/density from the CFLs yet.

Nice lookin' bud.

I like the ingenuity of your design. It seems very efficient.

Keep it up!

 

[Terpene]

Thanks BattleAxe!

I have spent a lot of time looking at grows with CFLs and a little bit of time with looking at the threads on LEDs but I am still having trouble deciding whether or not I should go with either of those or the traditional HIDs.

LEDs (especially 3w CREE LEDs like the one's in my 240w or the 500w I recommended) are just hands down better than CFL. If you have what basically works out to a dollar a watt, I would suggest buying LED panels - 240 for veg, 500w for flower. They're easy to work with, don't produce any real heat and really slam the light out.

I don't like HPS/MH because you can fry eggs on them. I used to sell commercial lighting and after seeing how many stoners burned their homes down using red hot HPS bulbs/hoods in small closets, I promised myself I'd find something that required no ventilation, air conditioning, etc.

I understand that's a bit paranoid, but on the other hand, when you don't have to run a 1000w AC system to cool your lights, you have 1000 more watts you can use for light.

 

[AlexTrebek]

Awesome build, can't wait to see what the redesign will look like as I'm building CFL too.

I had a question for you Teperne, How are you sastisfied with your bulb stability and strudyness?

I noticed those spotlights and they look solid and sturdy, wich is never the case with the usual CFL setups,
plugged into socket adapters and powercords or Y splitters and such.

Have fun building!

 

[StonedStupid]

LEDs (especially 3w CREE LEDs like the one's in my 240w or the 500w I recommended) are just hands down better than CFL. If you have what basically works out to a dollar a watt, I would suggest buying LED panels - 240 for veg, 500w for flower. They're easy to work with, don't produce any real heat and really slam the light out.

I don't like HPS/MH because you can fry eggs on them. I used to sell commercial lighting and after seeing how many stoners burned their homes down using red hot HPS bulbs/hoods in small closets, I promised myself I'd find something that required no ventilation, air conditioning, etc.

I understand that's a bit paranoid, but on the other hand, when you don't have to run a 1000w AC system to cool your lights, you have 1000 more watts you can use for light.[/QUOTE]

I have looked at Cree's Evole 90s in the past few days. Mr. X's thread using them pretty much has me sold on them but I have been looking at other potential LED set ups as well. I know that LEDs have come along way since those crappy 90W UFOs. I just have to figure out the money for the set up as I am currently unemployed. I figure the more planning and research I put into everything the better off I will be in the future. I know from what I read a while back that the LEDs last longer than the HIDs. That in itself could be a bonus as I wouldn't have to replace the arrays as much or as frequently rather. I priced a 600W LED array and it was rather pricey. I think I need to shop around more for the penatrator bran dthat I was looking at. The Evole 90s are sweet though I think that they are a bit large to be shoving in a cabinet. Especially considering that I don't know how large of a cabinet that I will be able to build yet. Is there different LEDs for flowering like there is with HIDs? I don't really see much differences between the ones I have been looking at when I do search for LED arrays.

 

[itisme]

Nice pics!

 

[Terpene]

Is there different LEDs for flowering like there is with HIDs? I don't really see much differences between the ones I have been looking at when I do search for LED arrays.

They sell blue spectrum leds for vegging which are probably a bit better than the red led panels for veg as the plant will grow denser because of the blue light.

I wouldn't worry about the color spectrum that much though. I'm using the red 240w panel in veg (20/4) it works great and the plants seem more evenly vigorous than when vegging under CFLs alone - where top growth is more pronounced.

 

[Terpene]

Pics from today:

Flo #1 looks like Purple PCK in veg. Seriously impressed by this one!

Holy Grail is frostier than Harlequin ever was. Looks like Destroyer did the trick...

Old school Hawaiian Snow is ugly, but smells like Caramel to the point I think it should be called "Caramel Haze."

 

[AlexTrebek]

All of your strains and macro shots are incredible,
this thread should win some kind of CFL community award

 

[Brinny-chan]

Re: Increasingly Ridiculous Enhanced Red Spectrum 700w+ CFL Array / MODSCROG

subscribed to this one, cool thread

Sent from my SGH-T989D using Tapatalk

 

[J.C.grower]

great closet man! love the buds, this is inspiring! thanks!

 

[IwannatokeNbone]

is it just my eyes but dont cfl buds always look more like outdoor grown perfect indoor? the buds look comfy and i think they with enough light get very dense to to being minimuly heat stressed.

 

[blackone]

That poison skunk looks really lovely - not a bad yielder either it seems.

 

[Terpene]

is it just my eyes but dont cfl buds always look more like outdoor grown perfect indoor? the buds look comfy and i think they with enough light get very dense to to being minimuly heat stressed.

Thank you for the compliment - but for outdoor looking perfection, you want 3w LED panels. Here are some shots of a friend's work.

Cindy Walker - Dago Walker x C99

Pearl Harbor - Motherchucker Blue Hawaii x Destroyer

 

[purplepig3]

Nice work impressive cfl buds Terpene

 

[sgapetti]

excellent, good to see cfl in a larger setup like yours, keep up the good work

 

[Terpene]

Thanks for all the kind words everyone!

Some neat new genetics have arrived, so here are some veg pics from today, followed by shots from under the lights.

Zamaldelica
Ace seeds was nice enough to send over a few packs of their new Zamal cross, Zamal x Golden Tiger (Malawi x Meao Thai). I'm told Golden Tiger is the strongest stuff since sliced bread and that the addition of La Reunion Island Zamal is only going to make it more intense.

Thai Widow Haze (working name)
Here's the product of Purple White Widow (purple thai pheno) and my Tom Hill Haze Trifoliate from Miau Miau's F2 stock. The Tom Hill Haze is probably one of my favorite looking plants ever, hopefully it pulled some of the "maroon-purple" flavor from the Purple White Widow. Only time will tell.

Flo #1, still throwing purple..

Marley's Collie
Sensi's Jamaican x Maple Leaf Indica was given to me by a good friend who was moving. He had tossed it into flower for about 10 days, but it was too small for my 4 plant setup, so I revegged it for about a month. Now that its done a barrel roll and finally back to vegetative, I've tossed her into flower.

Holy Grail
Harlequin x Destroyer is just a trooper. Not only does this thing make for the most even screen I've ever done, but it stacks on the frost and requires no energy to keep rockin and rollin.

Hawaiian Snow
Greenhouse's triple haze is just ugly, but smells great and continues to keep stacking it on. Probably only another 4-6 weeks left on this one. A friend with a Hawaiian Snow clone will be dusting his with a male Napalm (rascal fire og x destroyer), should make for a VERY interesting cross.