I just purchased 2 of these https://www.elitehydro.com/proddetail.php?prod=DHID600W and was wondering if anybody has any insight on them. Also, they are 600w, since I have not seen a Metal Halide 600w, can I use a 400w MH in one of them. I was thinking of putting a MH in one and a 600w HPS in the other. Any suggestions. Oh, one more question....what are the top of the line bulbs to buy? Again, MH and HPS. Hortilux Eye??? Thanks
I was thinking of getting one, but.... went into my hydro store and asked about them. He said they sent them all back as there was a problem with a gasket, or something, on the dimmer. He was told it was resolved on the new ones... not sure how you would know but get one of the newer ones.
There are 600 watt MH conversion bulbs for that sweet ballast. http://www.hydroponics.net/i/133475 I Think SunMaster and SolarMax have them also. Nice price on that digital ballast too..........
You can't use a MH bulb in an HPS ballast unless its a conversion bulb and in that case you can. I've been debating switching my flowering 1000ws to the new (to me at least) dual arc bulbs that operate on HPS ballasts. They're supposed to provide the full spectrum that the plants require. Might be well worth your while to try them out. Those bulbs go for $169-199 for a 1000w but i've seen them as low as 99 on ebay. Try bulbs.com
Thanks for the info guys. Ive seen those dual arc bulbs awsell but not in the 600w range. I already ordered 2 of the 600wdig ballasts so gues I'll see if they sell a 600w dual arc. One more thing...Can I use a lesser watt bulb in a ballast . For example...can i use a 400w mh in a 600w ballast? I know I can get a 600w conversion bulb but would I have to get a 600w convrsn mh or could I use a reg 400w mh? This ballast accepts both mh and hps. Just wondering if i could use a 400w mh bulb I already have in these 600w ballasts.
ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS use the matching bulbs with the ballast. I looked out of curiousity for those 600 dual arcs and couldnt find any. I imagine they only come in 1000w.
Any opinions on which and what type of bulbs i should buy for these new ballasts to see the plants thru veg and flower? Money not a factor. Should I go w/ a mh conversion or straight hps? Basically im tryn to find out what the best bulbs on the market are.
If money is NOT a fator then i'd buy conversion MH to veg and HPS to flower. Having said that a lot of guys are vegging under HPS with pretty good results, but ideally its MH to veg. What I do is veg in those beer cups so that I can get all my plants under one light then I move them to the 2 gallon pots once I'm ready to kick em.
Anytime....let me know if you need anything else. BTW are you planning to use the MH for flowering too or just to veg?
using the mh for veg and hps for flower. but i still havent made up my mind. im wanting to yeild the most out of the 2 600w ballasts so i might just see the whole process thru w/ 2 hps bulbs and have my seedlings under cfls. I would like 2 have 3 seperate areas...mh for veg, hps for flower and cfls for seedlings. seperating the grow might be the only way of keeping a steady cycle. But how many plants could i keep under the 600w hps lamp vegging at one time. And how many could i keep under the 600w mh when veging. my goal is to have a steady constant harvest. well...at least thats the goal anyway.
It all depends on how many plants you plan on flowering. I have the arrangement you are seeking. What I do is I have a room with one 1000w MH that I use for vegging and another room with 5 1000w HPS for flowering. To save space and power I veg in beer cups so that I only use one light and can veg for 2-3 weeks and be ready to go immediately after I take down the plants that finished flowering. Once I'm done veg I transplant the plants to 2 gallon dirt pots and start flowering all over again
I don't think I'd ever wanna dim my light honestly but I could see how some might. People seem to think you need a conversion bulb for that ballast but they are wrong. A typical digital ballast doesn't require a conversion to run ether hps or mh, that is one of the benefits of buying the digital ones. With that being said you can buy any bulb you want but it seems eye hortilux is popular around here.
thats exactly what I thought when I read the title...why would you dim your light Problem with the 600w ballasts is they dont make a 600w MH bulb...so you have to go with the conversion bulb. And honestly I guess I couldnt make a statement on the difference, but cant believe no company has made a 600w MH bulb... _numb_
There are indeed regular 600w MH bulbs out there. At my work we use them as over head lights in our canopy area. Ether way a digital ballast can run any bulb you want that matches the correct wattage. ps. your grow room is amazing
I probably wont use the dimmer option but for the price I found these for I couldnt pass it up. $177 each. I will most likely purchase 1 more 1000w ballast and use 1 of the 600w I just bought for flowering and use the other 600w for vegging. Going to use cfls for seedlings. I cant wait to set this room up. I just purchased a new home and it has a secret entrance into an attic like room above my bedroom which is on the 1st floor. Its roughly 15X15 8 feet high. I'll post pics and start a journal once I begin. I just purchased 10 Kushberry fem, 10 Tai Skunk and 5 gigabud fem seeds. I currently have 2 blueberrys flowering in my closet under 10 42w cfls. That was just an experiment and believe it or not...they are flowering nicely. Its day 17 in the flwring stage. This shit needs to become legal. All this hiding around shit is for the birds.