I am using 2-175w mh and 1-250w mh all are 20k. My question is, does it make a difference if they all come on at the same time?or should they be staggered? Does it really matter?
Staggering them gives the simulation of sun rise, but that is really only beneficial to you, I’ve read that the animals don’t really care. Personally I would stagger them to keep from shocking the animals by going from night to noon in 6 seconds.
Only matters to your breaker. Hey, dont you have any flourescent 420nm actinic? those bulbs mostly peak at 453nm Blue.
Yes ken I have vho also.they are on from 8am to about 930pm and the mh are on from 10am to about 730ish
[quote=“beadlocked450r, post:1, topic:5228”]
I am using 2-175w mh and 1-250w mh all are 20k. My question is, does it make a difference if they all come on at the same time?or should they be staggered? Does it really matter?[/quote]
I think your question is whether the have those MH lights to come on all at once or make the 3 to come on one at a time, correct? and nothing to do with the actenic.
If you can control those MH to where one of each can come on one at a time from 1 at 9am, 2 at 11am and 3 at 1pm. Since those are the time at high noon where the sun are at it brightest.
My lights are on for 12hr. Starting at 7am the actenic comes on and stays on till 7pm. I can not control each of my MH, but both of my MH comes on at 9am and goes of at 5pm. And my moon lights are controlled by my APEX and it comes on or not depending on the lunar cycle.
What matters is how you run your lights. You didn’t mention your light schedule.
Any MH can be turned on at any time using a timer, so if you want to turn them on one at a time, each MH would require a timer.
When I had a similar light setup like yours, the actinics came on first for 2 hrs, then the left side MH came on, then the mid MH came on 15 mins later and finally the right side MH came on 15 mins later. And the reverse would happen at night starting with the left side MH and so on.
This was done to first simulate sunrise and then total daylight and then sunset.
Just my opinion, seemed to work for me.