What light reflector are you using?

irishboy

irishboy

Well-Known Member
I have always wanted to see whats the most poplar light reflector used today in our grow rooms? I also see allot of post of newbies wanting to know about different reflectors out their, so i figure we could kill two birds with one stone. also i am sure any ballast and bulb info and reviews would help lots of others out also.

hope this can help others make their decisions much easier when setting up a grow room.


ill start off i have a yield master 2 reflector and a 1k sun system ballast. i want to upgrade my ballast to digi because of the mad heat it puts off and the loud humm noise it makes..lol. but its been reliable to me with no problems at all. the reflector is ok, i wish it would have reflective material on the ends where the ducts are instead of white paint.
 
macrael

macrael

Well-Known Member
i am a first timer and with one baby girl in the room to determine the sex i had a horz. regular shade that kind wraps around half of the bulb in shiny aluminum and made the first plant one tall bud about almost 2 feet tall then i put the rest in and there all taller then the first one and most are one big cola at the top and stringy at the bottom so i decided to take my shade off and drop my bulb in the middle but it s only the second night of that so i can t really say if its good or not but i was really interested in the umbrella shaped hood but then o couldn t drop it in as far i dont know if i am losing a lot of light that way but i know all the plants are getting equal amounts of light which so far i have been turning the plants by hand will post some pics tomorrow can t find camera now:fire:
 
C

caseyg2007

Well-Known Member
I believe you will find cooltubes are probably the most popular, or atleast most well known, but there are so many to choose from. I personally use a cooltube with a 400 watt hydrofarm xtrasun ballast and 430 watt agrosun bulb. I have also used the hydrofarm daystar and wasn't very impressed (if i had gotten the air cooled one then i might have a different opinion). Digital or magnetic? It is really based on the conditions of the grow. Do digital if you plan to have a large room and plan on keeping the ballsts in there, or when using a stealth grow room, however most monitoring systems have issues with digital ballasts and there high frequencies. Use magnetic if you can seperate the ballasts from the room or if you are using any kind of CO2 and CO2 monitoring equipment and dont mind a little noise. Hope this helps.
 
irishboy

irishboy

Well-Known Member
caseyg2007 said:
I believe you will find cooltubes are probably the most popular, or atleast most well known, but there are so many to choose from. I personally use a cooltube with a 400 watt hydrofarm xtrasun ballast and 430 watt agrosun bulb. I have also used the hydrofarm daystar and wasn't very impressed (if i had gotten the air cooled one then i might have a different opinion). Digital or magnetic? It is really based on the conditions of the grow. Do digital if you plan to have a large room and plan on keeping the ballsts in there, or when using a stealth grow room, however most monitoring systems have issues with digital ballasts and there high frequencies. Use magnetic if you can seperate the ballasts from the room or if you are using any kind of CO2 and CO2 monitoring equipment and dont mind a little noise. Hope this helps.
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very good post and thanks! +rep

ive never tried a cool tube, but was going to buy one because of the heat i deal with in summer. i did some search and heard that cool tube cut the lumen's way down and arnt good at coverage area lighting?

i was going to buy the hydro farm Radiant AC but i was reading since they use the smooth reflective metal, it creates hot spots? i love the idea of the double metal they use on the reflectors to keep down on the radiant heat, but hot spots are no good, if this is true. i have always been told to grow with the dimple reflective material when buying hoods?

ive never heard about the digi ballast messing with equipment in the grow room, thanks for the heads up. very imformtive post.. thanks!
 
Shrubs First

Shrubs First

Well-Known Member
Daystar AC, so sick, highly recommended. I run 2 Daystar AC's
with 2 600 Watts in a 5x5 grow tent. No problem cooling them
or the tent.

I don't generally like the wrinkled reflective aluminum because I
have a smaller growing environment, so I would like as little of light
diffusion as possible. I don't notice hot spots with my Daystars.... And
the Radiants are even larger, I'm sure there wouldn't be a large problem..

I actually read that althought the cooltubes are great for blowing air through
and cooling the bulb itself, it really creates horrible hotspots focused under the
bulb due to the radiance emitted.
 
cireb72

cireb72

Member
Well fellas, currently im into my 3rd week of veg and am using a car shade reflector wrapped around 1 pot with 3 32watt cfls. Been using that from day 1, and my plant is 11 inches tall! I know its cheap, but think about it...You say mylar is the best right? And what do you think the reflective material is?..lol
 
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