can i switch the lights every night?

[JesusKills]

hey i was just wondering if any one knows if switching the lights from a 500w too a 35w 6 foot long fluorescent light would do any thing bad to my plants? i just wanna be safe cause my closet is small and i dont feel like waking up in the night with my room on fire...again lol

[dekay]

Jesus didnt kill he never existed.

[JesusKills]

not what i was looking for, but thanks for the opinion lol

[dekay]

Dont get the question.

[Talpa]

erm a reduction of 465w. think youll plant will wonder where the sun went? how olds the plant. I presume your using 2 completly different light fittings. your not too specific in your question.

[frost313]

How did your room catch fire?

[JesusKills]

well the plants been planted for almost two weeks, i had a 35w 6 foot fluorescent light on them since they started and i just got a 500w almost like a spot like but gives off 10,500 lumens for them, but i keep the lights on over night and a bit threw the day, so i wanna keep the 500w on them from 5pm till i go to sleep and over night have the 35w on them till 11am, i dont trust the 500w so i was wondering if switching the lights every night is gonna harm them, and the house burning down wasnt from weed lol

[Up_in_smoke]

You don't trust the 500w?
To be fair, at 500w, what kind of light is that? I'm thinking halogen, and if so, they're too hot anyway, you need to change that if it is.

But provided your ventilation is correctly set up, your light shouldn't catch fire to anything. Loads of us run lights through the night. Don't do what you're suggesting, your poor plants won't like it one bit. Get a smoke alarm and a fire extinguisher for safety but you can't be changing to some shitty bulb for fire safety, hardly worth bothering at all then.

Actually, one other thing, 10,500 lumens output from a 500w is not very efficient at all, I suggest you upgrade your light, I think a 250cfl puts down about the same IIRC, in which case, for double the wattage thats shite

[Tay]

Yeah ditch the hallogen (searched around and came to the same conclusion as up_in_smoke) They are in no way suitable for growing. As well as wasting most of their energy on heat, they don't put out the correct spectrum of light. Your plants would probably be better off under your 35w tube!

[Idontgrow]

My first auto grow i switched to a 15w light at night time from a 200w cfl with no obvious problem from doing so. The sun gets weaker as the day goes on anyway, eh?

[JesusKills]

well there really isnt any ventilation since im renting a room from some friends i cant do to much to there walls and stuff, so i just put some lights in and im hoping for the best.. halogen is what im using your right up_in_smoke. but i live in a really small shitty town and the closes city with anything in it is 3 hours away, so the lights i have are pretty much the best im gonna find around here, plus there only in the closet till the snows all gone then i could clone and put them out side, but im scared my switching of the lights is gonna make them not as strong or its gonna stun them or something, idontgrow is right about the sun getting weaker threw out the day tho, so when i do switch them to the 35w im guessing there just thinking its a cloudy day...and i do wish i could get better lights, but like i said i live in a really small town so its hard to find stuff. so would thos lights atleast do good till i can put them out side in a month or so?

[Tay]

i really duno, i can't find anyone on the net that's grown with halogen. it's just a written rule: NO! they run so hot you can't get it close to your plants and it only has 10000 lumens that probably don't even make it far past the tips of the colas. ...buy a 300w cfl from ebay or an online shop, less electricity ,2700k perfect colour temp, twice as many lumens, half as much heat so you can get it literally an inch away from your plants. you'll find one for like £30-35.

edit; unless you can afford HPS at short notice then go wild!

[Up_in_smoke]

My first auto grow i switched to a 15w light at night time from a 200w cfl with no obvious problem from doing so. The sun gets weaker as the day goes on anyway, eh?

Silly logic if you ask me.
The sun gets weaker through the day, well firstly, the sun will almost never be just giving off the light of a 35w strip, its really not much at all for anything. And if its had something more powerful all day long, it'll just do fuck all, it will keep light hours up, but it won't be growing the thing.
Also, the sun, that is nature which we use to the best of the natural ability, indoors is all about controlling the environment yourself, so dropping to a lower powered cfl might seem logical as the sun dies down through the day, but indoors we want to maximise our light hours to be as beneficial as possible, dropping the light will go against this.

Why did you even do that? I can see what the OP is saying, I would feel unsafe with a halogen on 18 hours unventilated in a small area, but a 200cfl? Surely they're no more dangerous than a 15w one anyway, in fact, I'd imagine the cheapness of the smaller cfl's and rate at which they are built compared with big cfl's, they're probably more likely to catch fire or something than the big ones.

well there really isnt any ventilation

Say what? No ventilation and using Halogen? Yeah I see why you were paranoid, that is a fire hazard and you want to stop doing that ASAP.

since im renting a room from some friends i cant do to much to there walls and stuff, so i just put some lights in and im hoping for the best.. halogen is what im using your right up_in_smoke. but i live in a really small shitty town and the closes city with anything in it is 3 hours away, so the lights i have are pretty much the best im gonna find around here, plus there only in the closet till the snows all gone then i could clone and put them out side,

Too far? Thats an excuse, and a feeble one, if you want to be serious about this, then distance to travel shouldn't be much of a factor. But anyway, are you 100% there are no growing shops anywhere near by? They are quite common over here but not always easy to tell where they are.
Also, we do have the internet these days, get shit delivered to your door.
And as for renting so can't do anything, consider knocking up some temporary space, doesn't need to be brilliant, but a bit of black and white on the walls will help massively for reflection and you can tape that up if needs be. Just make sure whatever you do can be undone easily enough.

but im scared my switching of the lights is gonna make them not as strong or its gonna stun them or something,

You are quite right to be scared of that, I too would be worried if I could only manage a pissy light at night but a decent one through the day, it won't maximise the plant.

But all that being said, as Tay said, that halogen is a piece of shit and not right in the slightest for cannabis, wrong spectrum of light, completely puts its energy into heat, not actual light efficiency and so your grow cab will be too hot, add no fans to the mix and you're asking for trouble.

[JesusKills]

Yeah well im gonna stop using the 500w and just use the 35w and see what happens, if they turn out good ill clone them and put them out side, then they can do whatever out there in the woods, Up_in_smoke you might think traveling shouldnt be a problem but not every one has money man and a car, sorry if you think that tho, and i would order stuff but sadly the fact of it is not every one has a credit card or even enough money to get the right shit, reason for why im trying to grow some, to save me some money, im just using stuff that people have givin me and hoping for the best, i wish i could do it right cause i would do hydro instead, but whatever, thanks every one for the help, when i can do it right ill be back to this site for more questions

[Up_in_smoke]

Yeah well im gonna stop using the 500w and just use the 35w and see what happens, if they turn out good ill clone them and put them out side, then they can do whatever out there in the woods, Up_in_smoke you might think traveling shouldnt be a problem but not every one has money man and a car, sorry if you think that tho, and i would order stuff but sadly the fact of it is not every one has a credit card or even enough money to get the right shit, reason for why im trying to grow some, to save me some money, im just using stuff that people have givin me and hoping for the best, i wish i could do it right cause i would do hydro instead, but whatever, thanks every one for the help, when i can do it right ill be back to this site for more questions

I know not everyone has money, I know that better than a lot of people, but its about priorities, if your priority is to grow weed, stop spending money smoking it to save enough to start growing it properly, if you bodge your way along, you'll end up slightly disappointed.
As for credit card issue, can easily be resolved by a prepaid credit card, anyone can get those for like £5.
Travelling, you can blag lifts and if not, there are busses, trains and the good old legs, if you want to put time and effort into something but aren't prepared to walk a couple of miles to get what needed to make it go properly then again, may aswell not bother.

And lastly, doing it right doesn't mean doing hydro, it just means getting the basics down and working around the hurdles, all your problems so far have pretty easy solutions.

Keep the 35w going by all means, but for flowering if that is all you have, it will literally amount to bugger all so if I were you I would up that light at the very least, before you flip to 12/12

[gbcheeky]

about the "not everyone has the money to do so" thing u said. not many percie growers have major money to spend on lots of kit all at once, i didnt any way.
i was in your situation few years ago now...
but patients is the name of the game in this scene my friend! its a must!!
i started buy saving 20 quid a week and putting it into a jar(and buying one less 8th) still i got enough to get the light/ballast/contractor then pow!
started saving for something esle grow related, and so on and so on, and 2 years later i got all the kit and its my second grow! so if your persistent then youll get there in the end.. DONT CUT CORNERS AND USE BODGED LIGHTING!(500w halogen) U WILL HAVE A FIRE SOONER OR LATER.
sorry for caps but in this case i thought it was necessary.
GbCheeky

[JesusKills]

up in smoke your right, there is alot of ways to get passed it,but i live in NB canada man, its a realy small place with no stores what so ever lol, money is a big problem since the reason i wanna grow is so i can actualy smoke every day or when i actualy want, not when i get 20 bucks from a small job i just did, so maybe you guys did have it a bit easier and was able to save that money. but right now im not able to save fck all, and doing this is gonna save me alteast a few bucks for next year to maybe be able to buy a light, gbcheeky is right about being patient, ill be able to get every thing one day or another but not any time soon, so im gonna have to do with what i got till the snow goes away, so all i wanna know is my 35w gonna be good enough for them till they go out side?,

[relto]

i did my first 2 plants with a 125 cfl and a 40 watt 4 foot long fish tank bulb,,,came out ok....got about 30 grams of each plant...and they wernt very tall either...me i would try and up the fish tank bulbs upto 4 one in each corner...

[gbcheeky]

tbh mate they say about 50w per plant minimum.. and if you "i wanna grow is so i can actualy smoke every day or when i actualy want" you will need a proper set up mate, im not trying to knock what your doing, giving it a try and trail and error is always a good way to learn, but id suggest getting more power
http://www.thctalk.com/cannabis-foru...-cfls-together i understand u live well out the way of citys ect but surely u can get hold of a plug, bit of wire, few household cfls, and connectors? i hope that link will help u. the more power the more bud..

[JesusKills]

well i think i know what im gonna do for it, im gonna take the 6 foot light i got and screw like 4 of thos spyro lights to the casing (the ones that act like fluorescent bulbs, not sure the name sorry) and wire thos together and thos five lights will be good enough..