I’m trying to get some stretch out of mine right now. Especially the ones in the 4 x 4.
I’m very interested in seeing what you end up with. The one light is crazy looking. The tent on the right.
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It’s an older school DIY light. Maybe what we would now consider 1st generation?
It actually puts out a ton of light…
Here is a bit better what it looks like:
The big spiky things are heat sinks since the big LED arrays get hot.
Very simple designs, a lot easier to wire than strip lights. I have one other I built just like this but it’s 3k color temp so not as good for veg.
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I thought about some of those at the gas station. Like at Circle K they are humongous. I remember you talking about making that light. I need to make me one instead of spending a bunch of money on a big light. $600-$1000 is a lot of money. I’m not having problems with the cheaper lights. I just feel like I’m not getting enough red. In the flowering stage.
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Honestly at this point in time I don’t think I would build another light in most cases. The lights they have nowadays are priced so low, you often don’t save that much money in the end especially if you don’t have all the tools/supplies on hand already to build one.
For flower I use HLG Rspec lights, which I do think are really good. HLG has awesome customer service and great lights. I guess they are a little more pricey than some of the newer lights though… Spider Farmer is supposed to be pretty good and a bit cheaper.
It’s hard to build lights that also have red diodes in them like the ones you buy.
I am realizing though that the bigger the light you are making the cheaper it will probably be to build vs buy. For me, in my 2x2 tents I would barely save money nowadays at all buying vs building.
But in a 4x4 
?? I’m not sure…
You might actually save money there I’m not sure… Might be worth checking the DIY thread if you are really thinking about it. The guys there are really helpful and might be able to give you a price estimate vs a pre built light.
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HLG R 100
I use for both.
600w hps I would use start to finish. MH bulbs I never used. Refuse to buy them. Even my 1000w lights hps. I never had a problem. 4K is good. I do use the 4k HLG. 4K is the bomb. I love those lights. Even the 100r. I know they take up a lot of room but 4 in a tent that is a lot of light. I like the small ones because I like to put them on the side or add to a tent.
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That is still a little pricey. Bloom Plus has a new light. I’m pretty happy with those lights.
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A 28ft x 32ft room outfitting with led I just know is going to be expensive. Building or buying pre made that are actually going to work is what scared me of doing it so far.
Anyone have experience doing larger rooms ?
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Not with LED lights. Have you ever seen the ones in Home Depot and Lowe’s. I have seen those used. But they have a clear ceiling. They’re not running all the lights 100% I’m sure.
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I think my area is a little bigger than a 10 x 10. I wish I had a little bit better control. Right now I’m finding out this is the best time of the year for me to be growing. When winter gets here I’ll be doing all autos. I think that’s gonna be a big game changer for me.
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Pretty rough seedling phase.
I way underestimated how much more I would need to feed in coco than rockwool.
It’s strange, but I think coco is teaching me things about rockwool 
Like that I would need to be way more precise in EC/watering to use rockwool LOL…
I am using almost 3x the EC I was using in rockwool at this stage and foliar feeding twice a day at about 1.5 EC for the last 3 days.
Plants were very light green, lower leaves had spots indicating various deficiencies.
One good thing about this is that I took notes of which plants did well despite being under fed.
This will help me make decisions later about which to keep for making the F1 crosses.
Tent 1
Tent 2
The whole garden:
Currently flooding once a day, lights on 24/7 and dimmed to minimum during foliar feeds.
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Sweet setup, going to be a jungle in there very soon. Dunno if you ever saw VaderOG on Youtube, but he used to run E&F coco and Canna with great results in his older videos.
How you liking the Canna so far ?
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I’m going to let it jungle out until I can get clones from all the plants and the I’ll thin everything to a main cola (in theory… In practice I have no idea what I’m doing lol…)
I did see VaderOG and Dawgo the Hutt on YouTube doing coco eNf, and man they definitely make it look easy… Part of why I’m trying it for sure 
So far the Canna is OK. I don’t know what I’m doing with coco really lol… So it’s hard to say until we get into bloom, but the pH is pretty stable and there is no gunk in my rezs (yet).
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Ah glad it’s not just me that noticed the need for extra EC with the coco. I run veg in the 1.5-1.8 EC range.
Flower I’m currently running around 1.8ish too. I was doing 2.5ish or more the last few runs with the hydroton in the table. I’m trying to see if I can use the same strength as veg.
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It seems like a really smart way to do it, makes the frequent watering less tedious. I wonder if it might benefit from an occasional top watering to keep the upper layer from getting salty, dunno.
Coco’s easier than soil for me. Don’t let it dry out, keep PH&EC pretty stable, add some extra CaMg under LED if needed.
I tried Canna once, though that grow died mid flower on vacation. Was good stuff, easy to use. Need a few epsom foliars, but that was in recycled coco so it might have been a bit depleted to start.
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With rockwool you pretty much have to do this once a week. I asked a couple eNf coco growers here if they do that and they don’t… Including @HolyAngel who has been running this system successfully for a while.
I’m not sure why it’s not necessary, I guess it’s just a property of the coco
I’m right at 1.8 right now after starting at about 1.0 and they were definitely super hungry at 1.0.
Canna feed chart puts the target EC at 1.5-1.7 so I think it’s about right. It does seem very high…
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Tons of defoliation, which I would normally not do at this stage. Planting density is the highest I’ve ever run. I need light to hit the the flower sites lower down so I have something to make clones out of.
Today I’m flipping to flower with hopes of taking clones during stretch.
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Oh man, so good in here, love the 2 tent set up
Can you tell me a bit more about your flood and drain? You did use the Ikea bins right?
Sorry to hear about the COVID, I had it around the same time and I still get out of breath easy
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Hey thanks bud!
I actually use this underbed from Lowes:
Reasoning is that it’s 23.5 inches at it’s longest so it comes close to maxing out the space in a 2 foot tent.
I use 2 of those, one on top of the other. The top one sits on the bottom one in the opposite direction so I can get to the rez underneath by popping out that black cover. Then I can check pH, EC and top up. I also empty the rez that way with a shop vac.
I drill holes with various hole saws for the ebb and flow fittings which are standard Botanicare fittings.
I have an 8 watt air pump with a line into the bin to keep the rez aerated.
I like the system a lot compared to all the other ones I’ve run (I’ve run probably run 5-10 different systems in the last 3 years). My only issue is that I wish it held about 2 more gallons of water.
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Yeah feels on the tub selection
Pretty much the same criteria, I like the heavy duty ones that are suitable for outdoor(uv resistant) maybe it’s a thing down here under the sun 
I’m sure like me you have considered just paying for a 2x2 hydro table?
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