I have seen some discussion about hanging MH light bulbs horizontal or vertical and didn't pay much attention unfortunately. Then I got a deal on a used Cooper 400 watt metal halide warehouse light. after testing it for 20 minutes and an hour of cool down, I removed the socket and reflector and replaced them with an 8' cord and a horizontal mounting socket and reflector which I then tested same as above and it worked fine. After cool down I brought it to my greenhouse and hung the reflector over my plants, leaving the 25lb ballast on a shelf, and the light worked fine. Once. The next morning the the light didn't come on because the bulb was dead. Was this just bad timing on the used bulb or was it changing the bulb from vertical to horizontal what burned it out? HTG has a demo that I saw afterward doing almost the exact same thing only they didn't change the alignment of the bulb.
Does it not tell you the correct position on the bulbs box? I use 400w omega metal halides and the box says it can be hung in any position. So I'm intrigued, you supplement the sun with a metal halide?? that sounds epic. I've seen cucumbers grown commercially this way.
I think you may have destroyed the bulb in multiple movements or it may infact was just at its time since you did say you purchased used, I would reccomend just buying a MH bulb from the store as their not very expensive haha
"Greenhouse" is a rather ambiguous term as I am using it. It is just where my girls are growing. Not an actual room with light passing in from outside. In fact I have gone to great measures to keep the light inside where it belongs and where it doesn't hit the plants it hits mylar until it does hit the plants. The whole setup was used and the light bulb did not come in a box with any labeling. I tried looking it up on the net and there was no mention of position that I could find, but I never saw a box for it either.
You may be been hustled. Seller probably used the light well passed the 3 year mark for replacement and it started to go out on him, so he put it up for sale. You mention you only had it on for awhile it probably did the same to him. Ive siwtched from vert or hort many times with no problem, again unless you broke something upon movement its really easy to do and not notice.
Yes I agree with IreadtheGCrules. Be careful running old ballasts. A friend told me they can become dangerous after 5 or 6 years.
I know you can't even touch the bulbs with your hands, the oils will kill the bulb or something like that.
Yes, I noticed that the globe in the center of the bulb was half black when I got it, and when it burned out it was all black. I use surgical gloves whenever I touch halogen bulbs. The oil in our skin on the glass when exposed to the temps and particular K's burns through the glass and causes leakage I learned in high school chemistry when the Janitor chewed out another student for picking up the bulb bare handed that the janitor was replacing. I have a Bubblicious plant. See first pict. and a Pure Power Plant. See second pict. I had two Pure Power Plants, but one turned out to be male. I is elsewhere and I plan to gather a tiny bit of pollen and using a film canister and modeling paintbrush fertilize one small bud on the bottom of the plant for future stock. Forgive my cheap camera, the last pict is buds on the PPP. The Girls have been on 12/12 for 13 days and the PPP has 3/8th inch buds all over already and the Bubblelicious has 1/4 inch buds all over. I have another of unknown stock that came free from Dutch Seeds when I bought my seeds and it just proved to be female yesterday. So far the entire grow has been done under CFL's. Two 125 watt 8500 lumen 6500K bulbs, two 32 watt T8 warm bulbs overdriven to or supercharged to 64 watts (That is trickier to figure out Phillips E32T8/TL735 Alto II 700 series) two 20 watt 2 foot T8 grow lights. I did swap out ONE of the 125 watt CFL's with a 125 watt 2700K bulb but that is all. I want my HID HPS! It is supposed to be here tomorrow! I was going to use the metal halide only until my HPS shows up.
Oh I'm growing a few bubblicous atm also. Does yours look really Sativa? Mine looks like an indica...