330C326F-6E6E-45B2-9DDE-C13835858703 by jgalt77 posted Jan 12, 2018 at 7:14 PM EB5718F8-B299-4365-8188-7749177C47CB by jgalt77 posted Jan 12, 2018 at 7:14 PM AF656DD1-42CB-4989-8C6C-67CE0DDCA52F by jgalt77 posted Jan 12, 2018 at 7:14 PM 24918BEF-D248-4D99-8753-F80B4318D6F3 by jgalt77 posted Jan 12, 2018 at 7:14 PM EB787041-E8CC-4271-B946-6C2D4BCF2C31 by jgalt77 posted Jan 12, 2018 at 7:14 PM Hi, this is my second grow, first indoor! here’s all the info- 4x4 tent, 4 qb120’s in 3000k ran in series with meanwell driver, 2- 40 watt t12 fluorescent in 6500k (so roughly 360 watts total) the quantum boards are approx 18 to 24 inches above the 2 larger plants and the fluorescent is about 10 to 16 inches above the 2 larger plants. 4in in-line fan with carbon filter and small clip on fan although i am replacing the clip fan with an occilating tower fan very soon. strain is unknown but i suspect a hybrid leaning towards sativa. the larger plants are in 3 gal air pots and are clones from my outdoor grow (they were cloned at different times, that’s why there is a size difference), the smaller ones are in 1gal air pots and are clones from the clones. the seedling in the red solo cup is from the outdoor grow (it either hermied or i have a neighbor growing weed also). soil is a mix of 32qts ecoscraps organic potting soil, 6qt jiffy natural and organic seed starting mix, and 8qt perlite. temperature ranges from 70 fahrenheit to 87 (still trying to get it dialed in), humidity ranges from 20 to 70% with about 45% being the average. tap water is from a well and tests at 6.6 ph and 75 ppm on a tds meter. i give general hydroponics floragrow and floramicro at half recomended strength every other watering (seedling just plain water for now of course!) the brown 2 tiered planter is strawberries to keep the wife happy. i know i don’t have enough light for a 4x4 but i have some car repairs that need to come first. However, i only plan on flowering the 2 larger plants in there. the plan is to transfer them to 5 gal air pots around the first week of february and move the 2 smaller clones and seedling to my laundry room where they will be under 24 hours of 80 watts t8 6500 k while i switch the 2 larger plants to 12/12 directly under the quantum boards. the strawberries will stay in the tent as well. i was gonna scrog it but i’ve been lst ing and supercropping these girls so i might just let it go and see what happens. I might be able to come up with enough cash to get this light which would give me another 185 watts . or i might just roll with what i have and save the money for more quantum boards so i can do 4 plants next grow. any and all imput on anything is appreciated! thanks!
You're pretty low on power for a 4x4. I run 2 x qb260's in mine which is about 570 watts total. 4 x qb120's is 240 watts max if you're running a max output driver. I usually recommend 8 qb120's for bloom in a 4x4. You have one plant that looks pretty light in color. It may need a bump in nutrient strength.
4 x qb132 boards is like $40 more then that roleadro. You still need power supplies but those are under $18 each board if you get single board drivers.
thanks for the response, i was getting slightly concerned about the color on that one also, i’ll try giving that one a bump in notes. I thought the qb120’s ran at 70 watts each? i was just checking out the qb132’s on amazon actually... i think i would go with the hlg 240h meanwell driver and wire in series tho, would work out to about the same price and then i only have 1 plug to deal with. would you recommend the 2700k or the 3500k if i use from start to finish? anyways...i will be purchasing them. just not sure when. but in the meantime, shouldn’t i still be ok since i’ll only be flowering 2 plants directly under the qb120’s? i mean, i know you want about 30 to 50 watts per square foot but i won’t be using the full square footage of the tent for this grow. only about half. so wouldn’t it be the same as flowering 2 plants under the 4 qb120’s in an open space? definitely not trying argue because i’ll be the first to admit i’m extremely inexperienced but i guess i’m not fully clear on that.
Start to finish definitely the 3500k. I flower with a 3500k qb260 and the buds are nice and dense. You can just work with what you got of course. My flower tent size is 4x4 and that's the size that I have the most experience with. It takes quite a bit of power to fill well. At one point I was running 770 actual watts of platinum leds in there. The quality of the quantum boards allowed me to drop about 200 watts and get more of a crop.
alright, you talked me into it. i ordered it. i knew i wanted it and i also know they were gonna sell out within a day so i figured i’d better jump on it. i might have to wait a couple of weeks on the driver but at least i got the board. but, if the wife gives me a hard time about buying more lights i’m blaming you! lol!thanks for the advice man, i’m sure i won’t regret it!
Zero percent chance of regret with that purchase I assure you. I've never seen one burn up even when people wire them wrong. There's a youtube video of a qb288 board taking over 600 watts and then burning up the driving equipment before the leds gave out. They're pretty amazing. Wait till you see them light up. You'll call your friends to come over and check out your star wars style grow lights.
Hey, I got to thinking what you were saying about individual drivers. Is there an advantage to this? I was figuring on the hlg 240 mean well type A cause that's what I did with my 4 qb120's. I just mounted the driver about 2 inches above the boards on the frame that i built. I figured it's easier to deal with 1 plug and 1 driver would also generate less heat than 4. But im not sold on doing that again with the 4 qb132's I ordered. I'm open to other options. What would you recommend? The only thing is mounting the driver (s ) outside the tent really isn't feasible for me and I am kinda sketched out about mounting them to the inside wall of the tent cause I worry about it being a fire hazard. I've already had one house burn down on me (not because of growing or anything). I wouldn't want to ever go through that again lol! Anyways, thanks in advance for your advice!
What I like about individual drivers is the flexibility. I have 4 qb120 boards in my 4x4 veg area. Right now I'm only running two of them. I have a massive plant waiting to flower that I don't want to get any larger. If I want to run three and take one out to isolate a male I can do that. I can change the height of each board by itself. I can change the spacing between the boards to give a larger plant more intense light on one side of the garden and a clone machine less light. When you have one large fixture all those things are harder to do.
I like the LRS-75-36 from arrow.com. It's cheap, $17.40. It's wall mountable with the screw flange built in. It has screw terminals so requires no splice kits to wire. It's one of the only drivers around that will run the qb132 at max power output and it's fairly high efficiency. 91.5%.
My wall mount drivers are by far the coolest running drivers I have. I've measured them after running for hours at 91 degrees. They are far from a fire hazard. If you mount them on the light fixture you've given them a 20-30 degree hotter working environment and for sure shortened their life. It also adds heat to the board possibly shortening the life of the leds. Everything runs cooler if you don't mount the driver on the light. The light is also lighter when you bump you head on it or move it up and down. They don't pull on the top of the tent as much either. Wall mount is super slick. What an electrician would do is buy an electrical steel box, mount the drivers inside of it and run the wires out of knock outs. It's completely not necessary with these drivers though.
Yeah, I'm thinking I like that train of thought. The flexibility it offers is definitely appealing. I will have to put a couple of more bars in the top of my tent to hang them but that's no problem. Is the fact that I currently have the driver for the qb120's only mounted 2" above the boards a big enough issue that I should redo it?
It will work with a 2 prong plug if you want but yes the driver has a ground screw for a 3 prong plug. Might I suggest an old computer cord for your wall power cord or any 18awg extension cord. Just cut the female side off and wire it to the driver. Then buy some 18awg solid core wire to run to the board from the driver output. Positive and negative.
I think it's fine as long as it's not resting right on the board. I wouldn't do that but the driver will for sure run way cooler not mounted above the fairly warm board. It just makes sense. I have two of my qb120 board fixture made like that with the driver slightly above the board. The other two that have wall mount drivers I like much better. I do wish all of mine were like that. I have two more wall mount drivers I'm going to put in, in the future and move my driver on board fixtures to a kitchen herb garden so I can have some fresh basil. It just takes one ratcheting hanger per board. Most people would use one on each corner if they made a 4 board fixture so it's just two crossmembers in the top of the tent for four boards. Two boards on each crossbar.
so i run a wire from the positive on the driver to the negative molex connector on the board? i feel like i’m understanding that wrong.
ahh, thank you for clearing that up. i had a feeling it was a typo. i’m no electrician but i know just enough to know that didn’t seem right. anyways, i ordered the drivers you recommended through arrow last night so i’m super excited. any idea why they aren’t on hlg’s list of compatible drivers? and i still have a almost full roll of 20 gauge solid core wire from the last build. lowe’s didn’t have the 18 gauge. do you think it will make much of a difference?