create the feeling.
pass it on!
Check out our website www.plagron.com for tips & tricks
THE MAKING OF HYDROMAG... Editor Christian Mason christian@hydromag.co.uk Technical Assistant Editor Bill Sutherland bill@hydromag.co.uk
OH SHIT…
…This is, without doubt, our most incendiary issue yet. We’ve dug ourselves in at HYDROMAG HQ with our tin hats firmly in place, a veritable Dad’s Army, bracing ourselves for an onslaught. We’ve stocked up on tinned beans, spotted dick, and bottled water. We’ve boarded up the windows, lined the doors with sandbags, and are busily building a latrine in the basement (Nico, our Sales Manager, has been using it already despite the fact we still have working toilets upstairs). What could possibly have inspired such a precautionary commotion? What the fun is going on at HYDROMAG? Well it’s a little like this… Regular readers will have noticed that our by-now world-famous product tests have been producing a few spectacular, often shocking results. In the name of transparency and all that is good in the field of journalism, we’ve rolled these grenades into the room with suitably grim expressions on our faces, and with a certain degree of embarrassment. The hydroponics industry is a small family - we don’t like ruffling feathers for the sake of it. But we do want to get to The Truth. The tests have been as accurate as our testing processes allow (which is pretty accurate we think), but we’ve always steered away from giving our opinions, preferring instead to just present the data in a simple, cold, dispassionate manner – rather like thrusting out a china plate of peas and mash with no meat or gravy. That is UNTIL TODAY!! Readers have been screaming out for the figurative gravy! And we’ve been itching to give it to you – our views on certain product features that we hitherto kept to our chests. We’ve been shaking like excited secretaries who’ve discovered Elaine in Marketing is pregnant but have promised to keep our mouths shut. Issue 17 of HYDROMAG is about expressing ourselves openly and without (too much) fear. We have already lost several advertisers because of our test results – we know what we’re letting ourselves in for. But please, remember that underpinning everything is that simple desire for transparency. And not to have to see Nico in the latrine. Signing off,
Christian Mason (stand-in editor) P.S. We can barely open the beer fridge in the office for unclaimed prizes. Each desk is inside its own grow tent, while we sit atop piles of ballasts and pots. Competition winners – claim your fucking prizes, you ungrateful sons of bitches!
Thank you to our distributors:
Lifestyle Christian Mason christian@hydromag.co.uk Lifestyle Buddy Mason buddy@hydromag.co.uk Managing Director Pete Turner sales@hydromag.co.uk Project Manager / Sales Administrator Megan Corless sales@hydromag.co.uk Art Director Emma Godley emma@hydromag.co.uk Design Kim Tinker kim@hydromag.co.uk Design David Sugden david@hydromag.co.uk Accounts Claire Kennedy accounts@hydromag.co.uk Sales & Feature Manager Nico Hill nico@hydromag.co.uk
HYDRO PUBLISHING LTD Ellerslie House, Queen’s Road, Edgerton, Huddersfield HD2 2AG T: +44 (0) 203 384 8940 E: info@hydromag.co.uk W: www.hydromag.co.uk PRINTED IN THE UK
HYDROMAG is designed in partnership with PARA www.paraltd.com
All editorial is copyright. All rights reserved. No part of this publication can be reproduced or be stored in any retrieval system in any form without the prior permission of the Publisher. Whilst every effort is made to ensure accuracy no responsibility will be accepted for inaccuracies however caused. Contributed material does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the Publisher. The Publisher cannot accept responsibility for any unsolicited materials. It is assumed that any images taken from sources that are widely distributed such as the Internet, are in the public domain. However, since such images are passed between sources such as websites, the original source is not always possible to trace. The editorial policy and general layout of the publication is at the sole discretion of the Publisher and no debate will be entered into. No responsibility will be accepted for illustrations, artwork or photographs while in transmission with the Publisher or their agents unless such commitment is made in writing prior to receipt of such items.
04
ISSUE NO. 017 01.2016
Featured In This Issue... 08 10
GRAPEVINE Trawling the depths
Here we respond to your badly-spelt, ill-educated questions and frankly idiotic opinions.
FEATURE Fan Test
44
FEATURE LED Test
50
STUFF TO BUY Grow Gear
59
COMPETITION WIN, WIN, WIN
By this stage we feel like the average 11-year-old British kid who’s so jaded by relentless tests that he’s started self-harming and wetting his bed again.
We love our joke that John Lennon should have come to us before choosing Mark Chapman as a fan so much that we’re going to use it again. FANS!!
16
FEATURE Coco Test
24
FEATURE Ballast Test
Watch us pull out every testicle-related euphemism under the sun as we get testy with coco.
Never mind the ballasts, here’s HYDROMAG! And we bring you the results of years of painstaking research… Do we ever hear a “thank you”? Fuck no.
32
FEATURE Filter test
Jesus Christ. More tests!!!? Well this is our SPECIAL TEST ISSUE! Better get used to it. In this feature we explore – you guessed it – filters.
It’s Christmas – the season of rampant capitalism! Maxed out your credit cards? No problem, visit a loan shark… Sorry, “payday loan company” as they’re now known, and BUY MORE STUFF!
Can’t afford the 6000% APR on your payday loan? No problem, pick up your hydro kit for FREE – that’s right – for FREE, by entering our simple-arsed competition.
38
FEATURE Soil Test
That’s right folks, we’re looking at soil, and we don’t mean the contents of our pants. We’re talking real soil. Or is it?
06
GET SOCIAL
GRAPEVINE
With the art of letter writing (and general educational standards) being on a terminal slide, we’d like to welcome you to our newest feature - HYDROMAG’s Grapevine. Here we finally give up waiting for letters and instead plumb the depths of the murky world of social media to bring you some of our warts-and-all interactions with the hoi polloi. And my were there a lot of warts…
Some HYDROSHOW.TV Appreciation...
“We are just glad people are able to get something out of what we do, it makes it all worthwhile...”
Comment on: Youtube / EP2 - SE1.1 - Pimp my Growtent, with new bits...
Comment on: Youtube / What growing media or medium should I use with hydroponics #49
Dave Rozek, Chicago
Q: In the vid the guy mentions that inert mediums have no nutritional value but doesn’t coco have trace amounts of potassium??
As a lighting inventor and an LED Grow Light manufacturer I have recently been to a lot of universities and non for-profits that have set up hydroponic farms. My biggest challenge is that many of these were built with the idea of teaching and growing organically, but none were really built with the idea of turning out a great harvest and a profitable one. Many of these wonderful hydroponic farms were built with substantial operational cost and need to be revised. They were cool to build 5 and 10 years ago, but now they need to produce the right way, so I am so very THANKFUL that I found your channel. I am forced to take my lighting knowledge back to school to focus on some of the very issues you show covers and help these institutions get on the right track and make organic produce that provides jobs and a healthier lifestyle in the states. Again, proud of the work you folks are doing. Cheers from Chicago. H: Aww, cheers Dave! It warms our cockles when we hear stuff like this. We are just glad people are able to get something out of what we do, it makes it all worthwhile when people actually get some sort of tangible benefit from our tireless efforts.
08
To quote Samuel L Jackson: “Check out the big brains on Brad”. Yes, but the main word you need to focus on in that statement is ‘trace’. There is some there but not at any sort of usable level. When the coco is quite old and has started breaking down fairly significantly it may then begin to release more potassium, but even then not at levels that your plants are going to be able to make use of. For all intents, purposes and classificatory reasons it is an inert medium. You need to use fertiliser for a plant to grow in it as its nutritional values will be zilch unless you get it in there yourself. We do like your train of thought there though fella, it’s always good to quiz and question things you see and hear. Particularly with how the government constantly pulls the wool over everyone’s eyes at the minute, never believe anything you are told. Honestly? I wouldn’t even trust anything I’ve just said. In fact you’re probably best off never reading or watching anything just in case it isn’t true.
Er, are you sure?
Hyperfan, too expensive?
Comment on: #46 - 600w Digital vs Magnetic Ballasts New Ballast technology (2013)
Comment on: Youtube / Hyper Fan & Phesh Filters @ Grow Expos Manchester 2013
Statement: MAG. BALLASTS ARE THE BEST WAY TO GO.. MY MAG. BALLAST IS TEN YRS OLD STILL RUNNING STRONG! ELECTRONIC ./ DIGITAL= THEY FIRE UP TOO QUIK!!! WHICH FRYZZ BULBS!! GO AHEAD LEARN FOR YOURSELF!!! THE MAG.600 LOSES 5% (EFFICIENCY)..... DIG AND ELECTRONIC = 10% + LOSS IN EFF. REAL TALK ! PEOPLE TELL U ANYTHING TO SELL SELL SELL !!
I won’t deny the Phresh range are VERY high quality, but they are absurdly expensive.
Yeh Blud, that be the real talk right there yo. Like totez effishballs ya get mi? Few things though: Firstly, fire up too ‘quik’? We’re not sure if you have measured the time it takes for digital ballasts to get up to 600w running power, but it’s actually not that ‘quik’. While they increase from ignition at a different rate up to 600w than that of magnetics, it’s generally not at a faster one. Which leads on to the ‘Fryzzing’ of lamps. Yes this can happen but no more so than with magnetics, particularly if you use the recommended compatible lamp. Thirdly the efficiencies: Magnetics can fluctuate massively with the changing input voltage on the supply line, and when you have large numbers in series, the outputs down the line will end up taking a toll. With digital ballasts, the output is compensated to always be 600w (if you have a decent brand of course), how more ‘efficient’ do you want than that? Lastly yes, people will tell you anything to sell sell sell, so it’s all about who you can trust. I had a fantastic series of emails with a Nigerian prince and he left me totally reassured my new investment would triple in a week.
H: Hello... We can see your point, however this is not entirely true. In our tests, when the ducting run was setup correctly with elbows, The Hyperfan outperformed the Systemair to the tune of roughly 69 m3/hr - whilst consuming 24 watts less power. It also comes with a fan speed controller, and is much more compact than the systemair, making it more suitable for certain applications. With all that in mind, there is a reason that Systemair is the UK’s most popular fan - reliable and reasonably priced, but there’s simply no knocking the build quality of the Hyper range. What this test did prove, is that no one fan is better than the rest across all disciplines, and you should always take into consideration what you’re looking to get from your fan.
A random check on ebay, Hyper Fan 200 (8 inch) is £190 and a Systemair RVK L 200 (8 inch, the large version) is £95. Performance wise they’re almost identical. That £100 cannot easily be justified. [more on youtube]...
“Magnetics can fluctuate massively with the changing input voltage on the supply line, and when you have large numbers in series, the outputs down the line will end up taking a toll.”
THE HYDROMAG SURGERY IS OPEN FOR BUSINESS Get in touch with us by writing to us at: Ellerslie House, Queen’s Road, Edgerton, Huddersfield, HD2 2AG or alternatively email us directly info@hydromag.co.uk You can also get in touch via our social networks:
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twitter.com /hydromagazine
youtube.com /user/hydroshowtv
hydromag.tumblr.com
GROW TEST
FAN COMPARISON
Words: Charles Chillington
So then… extractor fans. I’m going to assume you all know why you need one of these. As it happens, I could do with an upgrade soon myself, and seeing as how there’s chuffing loads available now it would be good to know if there is any discernable difference between any of the various types before making my next purchase. All I really want is to get a fan that’s going to actually work well enough to keep my room cool. Simple as that. I’ve been looking at all the fans and their different ratings and trying to figure out which one I’m actually going to buy. In this day and age, this should be a relatively simple task. As a modern day consumer I expect products to work as well as the marketing jive claims they do. For those that don’t know me, I’m a fairly sceptical fellow, and quite rightly so: I’m sure the veterans of the hydroponic industry reading this can testify how sometimes products aren’t always what they are cracked up to be. There is now a lot of choice as to what fan you should be buying. Many companies are all after the coin in your purse, and will try to get it by any means necessary. You need to make them work for your cash; don’t just give it up straight away like a cheap slag. So before we go any further, I have put together a chart so you can quickly see the base statistics of the fans we are going to look at, and get an idea of what your initial options are. It’s not quite as intricate as the tent one last issue thank god; that one nearly gave me an embolism putting it together.
FAN, FILTER AND 360 DEGREE SPIRAL IN 4M DUCTING (IDIOT LOOP) I was actually quite surprised by the idiot loop results, on two counts. I thought that the airflow drop from an idiot loop would be roughly double that of the elbows (twice the curve). It is more than, but not as much, as I initially thought (varying from brand to brand). Also, whether it was quieter than with elbows varied a lot from fan to fan. Strange, but thems the results. This has all been a bit word heavy so time for some easier on the eye visuals. The following bar graphs show all the fans lined up next to each other and how they performed in each duct run. The first is in terms of airflow and the second is in terms of sound level. This way you can quickly see how they all compare:
10
ISSUE 009
Fan Comparison Article
To see the full fan test article, visit the Hydromag website... www.hydromag.co.uk
The initial airflow of the fans was by far the biggest surprise to me. Even if you ignore the exact figure and just look at the bars in the graph as comparative airflows, many fans rated higher than the RVK simply aren’t blowing out as much. Which by the wonders of logical progression, means that they are blowing less than they are rated at. It’s worth pointing out that these are just the results for the 8” versions. Each different size of fan within each brand has its own unique pressure curves and will therefore operate differently. This is a good indication of how fans vary between brands but is by no means a ‘be all and end all’ set of results. Disregarding the whole ‘initial airflow’ quandary for a minute, of all the bars of data there are shown here, the one I think I’m most interested in knowing about is the idiot loop. My duct runs often have stupid bends and unnecessary kinks in (I’m an idiot), so I really want to know how the fans cope in these harshest of environments. This completely rules out box fans for me. Despite them being very quiet, they simply crumble under pressure: 60%
less than rated is not what I need. They generally all use the same style Torin motors so are all highly likely to perform in a similar way. Also simply getting one with a higher rated motor in is just going to give more pressure loss, and a greater reduction of airflow from the rated amount. They are quiet, which is a good thing, but not at the expense of airflow. There are two, almost three fans (answers on a postcard) that catch my eye after looking through the above charts, but even so, before I can narrow it down further I need to consider all the other ins and outs that affect my grow room and analyse all this data further (plus any more that’s out there). Then when I’m confident enough in my decision, I’ll go and shower a lucky shop-keep with the entire contents of my man purse. That’s also exactly what I recommend you do. Think about what the fundamental requirements are specifically for you, whether it’s: noise level, airflow or simply price. Apply these requirements as you deduce from all the data in this article (and elsewhere) which one is most likely to fit your needs, then go buy it (or wait till the next trade show you go to and see how lucky you can get on the blag!).
HYDROMAG’S OPINION
What we thought of each fan in the test...
SYSTEMAIR RVK We pretty much used this as a benchmark for the other fans’ performances. Systemair RVK fans are basically a staple of any hydro shop, their performance and longevity tried and tested over many years, providing a work horse of a fan for countless growers up and down the country. Seeing as we knew this one was likely to perform as it should do, it gave a great point of reference as to how all the other fans performed. The combination of a decent price, great build quality, good performance and ease of installation meant that our previous opinions of this fan were entirely justified.
CAN FAN Knowing that Can generally make excellent products meant we had high hopes for their fans. Also having a smoking hot Romanian sales rep helps to keep our opinion of them quite high, on a purely professional level of course. Unfortunately the fan’s performance didn’t quite match our preconceptions. Although the base statistics indicate that it should have outperformed the Systemair, it fell short at every opportunity. Not by much mind, but enough for our paranoid and delusional minds to begin thinking “these guys might just be flattering to deceive.”
VENTS These guys started on a bit of a back foot, with a crippled leg and spasticated brain functions. The reputation of Vents fans really don’t do them any favours; just ask a shop keep’s opinion and they will likely tell you they are usually sold as the cheap shitty brand, as a good point to upsell from. We were hoping this would be ‘dark horse’ scenario and they would actually do really well. Unfortunately for Vents, they didn’t. Box fans aside, they were the worst performing fan we tested in both air flow and noise levels. On the plus side, if you are looking for a cheap option, this one is for you.
FANFLOW At the opposite end of the spectrum to Vents, the FanFlow actually performed really well. It wasn’t even hindered in any way by the stupid leathery gimp mask it comes with. The appearance of this fan gives the impression it was manufactured by someone heavily into their obscure sexual fetishes, in some sort of Fritzl cellar to the ambient moanings of chained up family members. Okay maybe that’s an exaggeration, but it does look pretty stupid. Fortunately it performed better than any of the other centrifugal fans we tested. Now rebranded as Red Scorpion fans, if you are after a good performing entry level fan, this is the choice for you.
S&P Great build quality on this one. From the sound damping qualities to the rubber security seals around the flanges, it’s clear that a lot of development has gone into this. Except the mounting bracket. If you try to pick it up with this, it has a tendency to basically fall apart. Anyway, the first reading we got for it was bit of a baffler: It wasn’t even getting close to what the other fans were reading. Once we set it up with the filter and ducting bends though it held its own very well against the others. Definitely edged its way up our Christmas list after this.
12
CANFAN ISOMAX Having known countless satisfied customers of this one, there wasn’t really any question this was going to do well. The three speed settings that the six and eight inch versions have offer a great bit of functionality for those working with smaller areas. The larger models can of course kick out huge amounts of air flow, while still keeping noise levels down to something reminiscent of a squirrel fart. One of my favourite things about these fans are simply the little hanging hooks built into it, they are super simple but highly effective. The overall functionality and performance of this fan means it is at the top of our list when it comes to getting our next upgrade.
CANFAN MAXFAN This performed very well. It boasts an amazing performance on paper and to be fair, it pretty much trumped everything else when it came to the free-ish flow and the filter runs. Comparatively quiet to the others as well when you look at how much air it’s actually moving. It was only when we put the idiot loop on that it started to buckle under pressure, but even then it was only very marginally. So in a nutshell, not only does it look really nice but it gets the job done as well. No, we aren’t talking about their rep again.
HID HYPERFAN One of the new breeds: It looks sexy, it blows like no other and has a lovely low maintenance cost. No we aren’t talking about the new eastern European nanny you just employed. She will probably have one up on the fan in so much as she can be whisper quiet when needed. This was really our only concern for the Hyperfan, but now they have the silenced version those worries are no more, it just means you have to splash out a bit more cash obviously. They have inbuilt temperature control which is actually very fortunate, as with it being an EC fan you can’t simply connect to any old fan controller like you can with all the other types.
FHD MF200 This was truly a surprise. The price tag on this would have you think “Hold up guvnor, this is surely going to be a massive pile of wank”. This combined with the cheap looking plastic housing really didn’t do it any favours on the first impression side of things. Normally these assumptions can be justifiable, but on this occasion it turns out they weren’t. Also, when it came to the decibel side of things, it was much quieter than the other comparable brands of fans. Whether it will break after a few weeks or not isn’t something we tested for, so with that benefit of doubt, this fan quickly became a top choice for us.
TORNADO BOX FAN Almost entirely the same performance as the Gekko. Considering they are made from almost exactly the same components, it would be a bit weird if it didn’t. They now come with mounting brackets as well, which is nice because they are a pain in the balls to set up without them. One strange thing we noticed about the tornado was an odd low humming noise coming from it when nothing was attached, this didn’t happen on the Gekko, presumably because the shape of the hole cut into the wooden housing was different. Once again the only saving grace of this fan we could see was that it was super quiet when fully attached to the filter and ducting. Although when you are moving a fraction of the air of the others, you would generally expect that to a degree anyway.
GEKKO BOX FAN The box of this box fan was pretty well built to be fair. Really great hanging brackets meant that mounting it was straightforward. Saying that they are bloody heavy though. Compared to any of the other fans, box fans are much bigger, much heavier, and with the outlets not being on opposite faces of the box, it can make installation into some areas tricky. The air flow compared to the others was really pants. This was no surprise to us to be honest. The motors may be rated at the airflow each model claims, but once it’s mounted inside the box it turns into a different ball game altogether. The biggest saving grace was the level of noise. Truly mega quiet once the filter and ducting was attached.
14
GROW TEST
NUT SACKS: SUCK ‘EM AND SEE... We slapped our nuts on the table for your perusal in the past. In this issue we probe your favourite brands of coco – AGAIN - and see if they’re all they’ve cracked up to be. Coco is now arguably the media of choice for most growers out there. Unfortunately, as is usually the way with any product that sells in high volumes, many companies have now jumped on the bandwagon to claim their stake in the pithy loveliness that is the coir pie, possibly in an attempt to give their end of year profit/loss sheet the boost it needs. Coco looks like a fairly uniform product to the naked eye, so it’s hard to tangibly see what the differences are between the brands. With something that looks as innocent and homogenous as coco, surely any variances among the brands would be negligible bordering on non-existent, right? So surely I should just go for the cheapest one I can find? Or should it be the one with the swankiest looking packaging? Hmm; decisions, decisions. Unsurprisingly, the answer you will get from me to all these questions is a blunt and rudely delivered “No”, possibly followed up with a dry back-hand pimp slap. Call me sceptical, but I rarely tend to believe the stated figures for whatever product it is that I’m looking at, but instead use them as a rough guide as to how they should be performing, and even then you can often be in for a surprise with their performance. So what can be looked at in a bag of coco, and how can it be tested? Well, in this article we will be focusing on three fundamental properties of a bag of coco, then seeing how all the brands compare with each other, and also with their own stated specifications. If you have soaked up most of the information in the hilariously titled article ‘From Nut to Sack’ you should really be able to guess what we are going to be looking at. For those with less than average brain smarts, I will lay all the cards on the table:
16
1. VOLUME Something that for years I took for granted. It says 50 litres on the bag so I must be getting 50 litres, right? I think you can probably see where this is going... 2. EC AND PH Each bag states what EC/pH is in the contents. The EC particularly is a good indication of how well it has been washed during the production process, and how many of those nasty salts have been flushed out. 3. BUFFERING Something that isn’t stated on the bag, but every brand will have gone through a calcium buffering process (hopefully). I did look at ordering in loads of Barium Chloride to do this test, but I didn’t want to look like some sort of terrorist so I left this bit up to the guys down the lab.
“There is a competition going on for availability of the exchangeable cations within coco, and calcium will only become freely available to the plant when its ratio to potassium is high enough to easily out compete it.”
VOLUME Brand
Type
Weight of 20L
Weight of bag
Weight of stated litres based on 20L weight
True Volume in the Bag (L)
Deviation from Stated (%)
Nutrifield
Coco 50L
10.9Kg
4.3Kg
10.75Kg
50.72
+1.43
Biobizz
Coco 50L
17.8Kg
7.2Kg
18Kg
49.4
-1.16
GoldLabel
Coco 50L
16.8Kg
7.16Kg
17.92Kg
46.9
-6.20
Canna Professional
Coco 50L
17.73Kg
6.76Kg
16.91Kg
52.44
+4.88
Canna Natural
Coco 50L
16.5Kg
6.26Kg
15.67Kg
52.66
+5.33
Coco Green
Coco 50L
13.4Kg
5.86Kg
14.6Kg
45.71
-8.58
Plagron
Coco 50L
16.8Kg
6.53Kg
16.33Kg
51.45
+2.89
GoldLabel 60/40
Coco Mix 50L
16.16Kg
8.7Kg
21.75Kg
37.16
-25.67
Alpha Rocks
Coco Mix 50L
20.6Kg
7.83Kg
19.58Kg
52.6
+5.21
Plagron Coco Mix
Coco Mix 45L
20.23Kg
8.93Kg
20.1Kg
45.41
+0.90
Atami
Coco 40L
16Kg
8.26Kg
16.53Kg
38.71
-3.22
Platinium
Coco Mix 40L
14.8Kg
7.2Kg
14.4Kg
41.1
+2.78
uGro
Compressed 70L
23.16Kg
6.06Kg
21.23Kg
76.42
+9.10
EC AND PH Brand
Stated
Type
EC
pH
Our Test Results
Lab Test Results
EC
EC
pH
pH
Average EC
pH
Nutrifield
Coco 50L
0.1
5.5-6.5
0.30
6.00
0.30
6.07
0.30
6.04
Platinium
Coco Mix 50L
0.1
5.5-6.5
0.08
6.35
0.07
6.70
0.07
6.52
Biobizz
Coco 50L
0.2
5.5-6.5
1.12
5.40
0.90
5.72
1.01
5.56
uGro
Compressed 70L
0.3
5.5-6.5
0.24
6.52
0.12
6.72
0.18
6.62
Plagron
Coco 50L
0.2
5.5-6.5
0.09
6.27
0.07
6.21
0.08
6.24
Canna Professional
Coco 50L
0.2
5.5-6.5
0.08
6.22
0.06
6.11
0.07
6.17
Canna Natural
Coco 50L
0.4
5.5-6.5
0.27
6.00
0.22
6.13
0.24
6.07
Coco Green
Coco 50L
0.2
5.5-6.5
0.36
6.30
0.32
6.56
0.34
6.43
GoldLabel
Coco 50L
0.4
5.5-6.5
0.63
5.88
0.52
6.01
0.57
5.94
GoldLabel 60/40
Coco Mix 50L
0.4
5.5-6.5
0.79
6.13
0.75
6.32
0.77
6.22
Plagron Coco Mix
Coco Mix 50L
0.4
5.5-6.5
0.40
6.27
0.39
6.32
0.40
6.30
Bionova
Coco 50L
0.8
5.5-6.5
1.13
5.15
0.97
4.60
1.05
4.88
Alpha Rocks
Coco Mix 50L
1
5.5-6.5
1.04
5.57
0.90
5.78
0.97
5.68
Atami
Coco 40L
0.7
5.5-6.5
0.56
6.60
0.34
6.90
0.45
6.75
BARIUM CHLORIDE Ca
K
Na
mmol/L
mmol/L
mmol/L
Nutrifield
9.26
0.74
1.88
12.55
Platinium
7.45
2.40
0.78
3.10
BioBizz
6.61
5.98
2.22
1.11
Gold Label Coco
7.44
2.67
0.85
2.78
Gold Label 60/40
7.35
2.85
1.05
2.58
Canna Plus
7.68
0.85
0.38
9.00
Canna Natural
6.40
4.73
1.63
1.35
Alpha Rocks
8.27
3.49
2.00
2.37
CocoGreen
4.04
4.08
3.34
0.99
uGro
9.22
1.64
1.51
5.62
Plagron Coco
7.78
1.39
0.62
5.59
Plagron Mix
7.44
1.03
2.11
7.22
Atami
7.36
6.12
1.39
1.20
Bio Green
7.95
5.28
0.68
1.50
Brand
Ca:K
ISSUE 010 ‘Nut Sacks: Suck ‘em and see’
To see the full coco test article, visit... www.hydromag.co.uk
COMPARISON OF VOLUME VARIANCE FROM STATED LITRES IN %
EC LEVELS
STATED EC
TESTED EC
0.97
1
1.05
0.45
0.4
0.4
0.4
0.40
0.2
0.24
0.2 0.07
0.08
0.2
0.18
0.2 0.07
0.34
0.4
0.57
0.7
0.77
0.8
1.01 0.3
0.30 0.1
0.1
ATAMI COCO
GT ALPHA ROCKS
BIO GREEN
GOLD LABEL 60/40
GOLD LABEL COCO
PLAGRON COCO MIX
COCO GREEN
CANNA NAT’
CANNA PRO
PLAGRON COCO
BIOBIZZ
UGRO
0 NUTRIFIELD
UGRO
0.2
PLATINIUM
+6.42 Ltr
+1.1 Ltr
0.6 0.4
PLATINIUM
ATAMI COCO -1.29 Ltr
PLAGRON COCO MIX
0.8
-12.84 Ltr
GT ALPHA ROCKS
+0.41 Ltr
1
+2.6 Ltr
GOLD LABEL 60/40
COCO GREEN
+1.45 Ltr
PLAGRON COCO
CANNA NAT’
-4.29 Ltr
+2.66 Ltr
+2.44 Ltr
CANNA PRO
GOLD LABEL COCO
BIOBIZZ -0.6 Ltr
-3.1 Ltr
+0.72 Ltr
15 10 5 0 -5 -10 -15 -20 -25 -30
NUTRIFIELD
PERCENTAGE (%)
1.2
PRE-FERTILISED
This graph barely needs any interpretation. Green = Good. Red = Bad. The volumes are displayed here as a percentage in difference to the initial volume stated. The actual difference in litres is printed above/below the respective bar.
This shows the difference from what is stated on the bags, to the results we obtained from our tests. Most notable is Biobizz’s. The EC values here are the result of a test based on a 1:1.5 extraction. Biobizz uses a 1:5 extraction, what is based on European standard EN 11265. The result from this extraction is EC 0,1 and is published on their official communication and packaging.
SODIUM LEVELS
CALCIUM TO POTASSIUM RATIO
MINIMUM IDEAL LEVEL
IDEAL LEVEL
4.00
15.00
3.00
As a rule, particularly with un-fertilised coir, you generally want the levels to be 2mmol/L or under. However with pre-fertilised coir these levels may be slightly elevated from the coco initial base levels, depending on the fertilisers used.
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BIO GREEN
ATAMI COCO
PLAGRON COCO MIX
PLAGRON COCO
UGRO
COCO GREEN
GT ALPHA ROCKS
CANNA NAT’
CANNA PRO
GOLD LABEL 60/40
GOLD LABEL COCO
BIOBIZZ
BIO GREEN
ATAMI COCO
PLAGRON COCO MIX
PLAGRON COCO
UGRO
COCO GREEN
GT ALPHA ROCKS
CANNA NAT’
CANNA PRO
GOLD LABEL 60/40
GOLD LABEL COCO
BIOBIZZ
PLATINIUM
NUTRIFIELD
0.00
0.00
PLATINIUM
1.00
NUTRIFIELD
10.00
2.00
This shows the comparative levels between brands. As a rule you would need a minimum of a 1:1 ratio to stop your coir stealing away the calcium from your nutrient solution. As a rule of thumb, the higher the bar, the happier it makes me.
SUMMARY
Well I’m not sure about you, but this here test certainly has thrown a few curve balls my way. Some of the data was particularly suprising (no prizes for guessing which), but then reassuringly, some was just as you would expect it to be. As is the way with most sets of large data, there can often be numerous ways to interpret it all. Hopefully this article has served as a good guide through the core aspects relating to Coco’s physical properties and you now have a good idea of what to look out for in a bag. When you are looking at the EC and buffering results, you need to really bear in mind that all coco is actually usable, regardless of the state it is in. The readings obtained here merely give you the indication of how much in the way of preparation has been done for you on the product by the manufacturer already. You can pre-treat any type of coco yourself quite easily. Either: a quick water through if the EC or salts are too high for your liking, and/or the introduction of a calcium rich nutrient solution (cal-mag additive will do), if it does not have the buffering levels you require. Then Bob’s your uncle, you will be fine to use it. Laziness however is most growers’ biggest problem. Most simply can’t be arsed with all that and just want to get on using it straight from out of the bag.
“Hopefully this article has served as a good guide through the core aspects relating to Coco’s physical properties and you now have a good idea of what to look out for in a bag.” Whatever your motivation that goes into choosing a bag of coco, these results will surely help as a good set of comparative data across all brands. The one you choose will undoubtedly be based on numerous factors, such as the ones we have tested for in this article, or simply down to the fact that it is a cheaper price. The main thing is to pick the one that you feel would be most suitable for your specific grow. NOTE: Since performing this test, Gold Label is now labelled as 45 litres
This little device uses a piston weighted by gravity and ensures that each sample of coco which was taken was exactly the same in volume (60ml).
HYDROMAG’S OPINION
What we thought of each brand of coco in the test... NUTRIFIELD Whod’ve thunk that a newbie on the block like Nutrifield could swagger their way into the UK and all of a sudden provide you with some of the best coir you can buy? Not me that’s for sure. After Fosters, Jason Donovan and the general apathy for refugees they have I’m a little wary of anything antipodean. This coir blew my stereotypical left wing bigotry out the window though. Nice full bags, one of the lowest EC readings and by far the highest calcium buffering of all the brands. Very pleasantly surprised by the performance here, and with their full range soon to drop in the UK, things are boding well for these Oceanians.
PLATINIUM This relatively unknown brand of coco turned out to be a nice surprise. It was really clean, had a great bag volume and a lovely low sodium level. The only area that would have seen it maybe pip someone at the post was if the calcium buffering were slightly higher. Not that it was bad, but it could have been the clincher in securing itself a spot in the top three had it have done slightly better. Still, a great product all round though, one that we would happily use ourselves.
BIOBIZZ Oh Biobizz. Deary dearingtons. We used to think you were such a reputable brand before this. Having been a big fan of the range for many years, we were hoping this was going to be one the top contenders, leaving the others in its wake and smugly gazing back as each rival fell agonisingly short of glory. What actually happened was the complete opposite: The volume was just under. The EC was mega high (over 1.0!). The pH was below 5.5. The calcium buffering was almost the lowest of them all and the sodium level was above acceptable levels. Quite simply: terrible. Turns out they are the only brand to use a horticultural stamp that uses a 1:5 extraction, rather than the 1:1.5 under the RHP everyone else uses. Some might say this is quite a sneaky way to state a lower EC value on the bags in an effort to pass off an inferior grade of coir as a high grade one, therefore making a fuck-ton of illegitimate cash in the process. Not us though, we’d never say that. By shear coincidence they stopped advertising with us after this issue.
GOLD LABEL COCO / GOLD LABEL 60/40 Bit of a shocker to be completely honest. Having been round the factory at Gold Label and seen the high level of production they have there, I was expecting big things. The main thing that caught people’s attention was the volume, especially of the 60/40. They were labelled up as 50 EN Litres, and came up 26% short! Over twelve litres below the stated volume. After the tests, when we spoke to Gold Label, we were told that this was because the pebbles are absorbing the coco. Of course! I can’t believe we hadn’t realised this ourselves earlier! Then there was the EC being almost twice as high on the 60/40 than it states on the bags, essentially due to the additional EC from the clay pebbles. Strangely enough since these results, the product information on the bags has changed, now stating 45 EN litres and reflecting the higher EC on the 60/40.
CANNA PROFESSIONAL / CANNA NATURAL Two types of coir: Professional plus and the Natural. The professional plus was ridiculously good. Super low EC on it, so squeaky clean from all the salts and a great calcium to magnesium ratio. These results combined with the general physical quality of the actual coir meant that this was the top performer. It was essentially leaps and bounds ahead of the majority of the competition, Plagron and Nutrifield being the only two brands that came close to this level of quality. In fact the Canna Natural is a good example of the general quality of a Canna product. It is supposedly their budget version of coir, having had the least amount of washing and buffering treatments out of their whole range. Despite this it still managed to have a lower sodium level, lower EC level and better buffering ratios than a lot of the others that are supposedly meant to be more premium quality products. Massive win here all round for Canna.
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ALPHA ROCKS These turned out to be another pleasant surprise. I received these in unbranded plain grey bags direct from Growth Technology. They came back really well on volume, almost 5% over. So as well as great value for money, they have one up on Gold Label in so much as they seem to have developed a type of pebble that doesn’t absorb the coir it is packed with. They are a clever bunch them lot at Growth Tech (Except ol’ Jonny two hats). We were a bit apprehensive when the EC came back at 1.0, this was a tad high. Growth Tech rushed off to their technical bods though who confirmed that it was indeed pre-charged to exactly this level, and so nicely avoided a potential conflict.
COCOGREEN Yet another brand that promised the Universe but fell short when it came to producing it. After the poor performance of the Tornado in the fan test I was expecting this brand to exonerate Century Grow Systems, showing everyone that they do actually have good products. So what happened? You guessed it, the opposite. The highest sodium reading came back from this brand. The lowest calcium buffering levels were also from Cocogreen. To top it off it was also nearly 10% under volume in each bag. Literally the worst performing coir we tested. It almost tempted us into coming up with a wooden spoon award for the shitest product each issue, but I thought Century would all take turns in punching me in the face if we did.
U GRO COMPRESSED Massively surprised by this brand, but in a good way thank god. We’d seen enough bad results as it was, and were pretty well braced for further arguments with manufacturers. Compressed blocks of Coir generally get very bad press when it comes to how well processed and buffered the coir actually is. That press is certainly not deserved by these uGro blocks. They smashed it in pretty much all areas: Low EC values, super high volume, low sodium levels and great calcium buffering levels. With a cheap price and easily transportable packs to boot, this became an instant new favourite of ours.
PLAGRON COCO / PLAGRON MIX A very high performing brand. The pure coir was only just pipped to the post by Canna as it had a slightly lower Calcium buffering ratio. The combination of the low EC reading, fantastically low salt levels and great bag volume means you can’t really go wrong when purchasing coir from Plagron. The pebble mix also came out really well: Over volume, low EC, low sodium levels and a great calcium buffering. There isn’t much else you could really ask for! Out of all the pebble mixes we tested, this would be the one to grace our pots with its presence.
ATAMI Unfortunately Atami didn’t have much to write home about here. I think really one of the few positive points to come out of this is that they aren’t too high on the levels of sodium left in the coir. The calcium to potassium ratios in the coir were pretty appalling; if you are to use this coir we would heavily recommend that you use a cal/mag supplement or you will quickly run into nutrient issues. Supposedly precharged to an EC of 0.8, you should be able to pot up a plant into this coir and pretty much start using just water. The EC reading we got came out just over half what it should have been though, so that’s definitely not something we would advise either. Come on Atami, stop fucking around dressing up in that tammy costume and giving out promotional lighters that don’t work! We love you guys but why not spend that time and money on perfecting your products?
BIO GREEN We only got these bags in time to do the EC, pH and exchangeable cation tests. They performed fairly averagely in calcium buffering and scored quite low for their sodium level. Most shockingly though, the pH came back at 4.88! Root scorchingly low! Not particularly advisable if you want a decent root system. If it wasn’t for the pH they would have been ok, but I suppose at the very least you could say that they could have been the best of a bad bunch.
GROW TEST
BALLASTS COMPARED The importance of a ballast in an indoor grow-room is something that really doesn’t need much explanation. If these products weren’t in existence, it’s likely that the entire indoor growing scene wouldn’t be either. As usual there are many types of ballasts around nowadays, and they come in many forms. There’s also a multitude in ways of which you can compare and assess ballasts. In order to get a full and complete picture of every type of ballast we are looking at here, we would need a considerably more room in the magazine, time and not to mention ridiculously expensive equipment to measure with. In order to fit it all nice and concisely into a bite size article is a little bit unrealistic to say the least, so to correctly represent the ballasts we’ll be conducting these tests over a series of articles and over a number of issues of the magazine. So, what exactly are all the factors we could consider? Well, a few examples (but by no means everything) are as follows: 1. POWER CONSUMED AND DELIVERED What the ballast is actually drawing from the wall and how much it is actually delivering to the lamp. 2. COMPONENTS USED / SAFETY FEATURES Safety with electrical equipment is paramount. Components used should be in line with safety regulations/standards to ensure minimal risks to health, no hazardous substances used etc. 3. IGNITION SEQUENCES How does the ballast actually strike and ignite the lamp? From the initial pulse creating the spark in the lamp, to the time taken to get up to full running power. 4. TOTAL HARMONIC DISTORTION How well does the ballast replicate a sine wave and deliver it to the lamp? Looking at the various harmonics.
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5. FREQUENCIES EMITTED Particularly for digital ballasts. All sorts of shielding are used nowadays to prevent this from happening. But how well do they work? 6. FUNCTIONALITY What features has the manufacturers put in place on their ballasts to give you more control over the product? This is the first stage on the journey to understanding all your options regarding ballasts available to you on the market. Much like Frodo Baggins in ‘The Lord of the Rings’, any childlike innocence will slowly be eroded away as the adventure reveals more and more detail about the true workings of the world, in order for you to easily distinguish your White Wizards from your Ring Wraiths; The first thing to decide is which direction we should head in. Our in-built hydroponic compass firmly pointed us in the direction of what many people see as the fundamental nature of ballasts. How much Wattage is actually being drawn from the plug socket and then in turn being delivered to the lamp? All 600w ballasts will fire up and get a 600w lamp to give off light, but the components used and manufacturing processes involved will dictate how well each ballast is burning a lamp, and whether it is producing 600w at all. Burning is the key word in the last sentence. That is essentially what your ballast is getting done in the lamp as its main function. It is heating up the gases in the lamps by passing an electrical arc across them and burning them to a specific temperature. The light that is given off is really just a by-product to this reaction. It’s a bit like how my brain switching off is a by-product of when my wife is dictating her current list of chores for me to do. The rate at which she reels these chores off and how she phrases things directly relates to how quickly and how much I actually switch off. Conversely for ballasts, the rate at which they supply the electricity, and the quality of the signal they generate will generally dictate how well the lamp will burn, and therefore also the quantity and quality of the resultant light given off.
Magnetic Ballasts Manufacturer/ Distributor
Model
Wattage Drawn
Lamp Wattage
Power Factor
Frequency
Maxibright
Eurolux
661.7
600.5
0.89
50
Maxibright
Compact
664.7
592.9
0.89
50
Maxibright
Compact Pro
665.7
608.7
0.89
50
Maxibright
Ipac Pro
661.5
599.2
0.88
50
Highlight
Pro-Gear
706.4
642.5
0.88
50
Lumi
Compacta
625.5
571.3
0.89
50
Century
Mini Corona
658.6
593.5
0.89
50
Sunmaster
Comet MKII
657.7
599.8
0.89
50
Sunmaster
Comet MKIII
662.79
593.8
0.89
50
Eden
Omega
666.5
608.2
0.89
50
Ikon
Growlush
693.4
634.1
0.88
50
600w Make / Model
W Stated
W Drawn
Dimlux Extreme
600
634
Dimlux Extreme mk2
600
Solistek STK600
600
Lumatek 600W Dimmable Lumatek Proffesional
More information in our other test issues...
Issue 011
Waveform Test
Issue 015 Ignition Test
Digital Ballasts
Overdrive W Delivered
Issue 013
Output Test
W Stated
W Drawn
598
660
697
634
598
660
661
622
660
600
632
598
600
631
598
Adjustawatt
600
633
Lumi Digita
600
Hacienda Digital
600
Sunmaster Digital Nanolux
First Dim W Delivered
W Stated
W Drawn
657
400
428
694
655
480
697
657
440
660
698
657
660
707
670
595
660
698
564
533
660
648
613
660
600
642
603
600
624
586
iSun
600
604
Darkstar
600
638
Second Dim Frequency @600W
W Drawn
397
250
276
254
0.99
62404
508
476
440
469
438
0.99
63998
474
442
400
440
409
0.99
63495
400
424
399
250
270
250
0.99
51716
440
475
445
250
272
253
0.99
52168
662
400
433
404
250
278
253
0.98
62042
642
608
440
413
386
400
343
319
0.99
68837
683
646
450
490
460
360
398
371
0.99
71264
660
706
663
400
420
388
250
258
235
0.99
68103
-
-
-
450
440
410
300
292
269
0.99
42301
567
660
661
622
450
440
409
250
327
303
0.99
53218
604
660
689
657
400
428
392
250
281
258
0.99
62143
400
416
390
250
268
246
0.99
50118
440
476
439.5
400
433
398
0.99
76993
Maxibright Digilight
600
628
596
660
684
Gavita Digistar E Series
600
648
606
660
710
666
W Delivered
Power Factor
W Stated
650
W Delivered
MAGNETIC BALLASTS
3% tolerance range
660 640 620 600 580 560 540 520 Eurolux
Compact
Compact Pro
Ipac Pro
Pro-Gear
Compacta
Mini Corona
Comet MKII
Comet MKIII
Omega
Growlush
DIGITAL BALLASTS 800 700 600 500 400 300 200 100 0 Dimlux Extreme
Dimlux Extreme MKII
Solistek STK600
Lumatek 600W Dimmable
Lumatek Proffesional
Adjustawatt
Lumi Digita
STATED OUTPUT
Hacienda Digital
Sunmaster Digital
RECORDED OUTPUT
Nanolux
iSun
Darkstar
Maxibright Digilight
Gavita Digistar E Series
HYDROMAG’S OPINION
What we thought of each brand of ballast in the test... MAXIBRIGHT EUROLUX Once derided as being a cheap and underperforming ballast, it was good to see that the Eurolux had gone through a bit of a revamp in terms of its output. Available from Century and MaxiBright, who needs a sexy looking ballast when you have a workhorse like this? Along with its very competitive price you can’t really ask for much more when it comes to the all-round package.
MAXIBRIGHT COMPACT & MAXIBRIGHT COMPACT PRO / MAXIBRIGHT IPAC PRO Considering we were using the test equipment from ‘Genuine Quality’ which was set up in part by MaxiBright, it would have been hilariously ironic if these hadn’t have done very well. As humorous as it would have been, the entire situation was of course avoided as all of these ballasts performed fantastically in all areas. Wattage outputs were totally spot on and the ignitors were all timed and showed decent (if not the best) ignition curves when they were on the oscilloscope. Not mentioned in the previous articles is the quality of the build and components. Having needed to open out all the ballasts to look at the ignitors, these models were bang tidy inside. Everything fits together nice and neatly, no wires flapping about everywhere and quality looking components are used throughout. Out of all the magnetics we looked at, any one of these would likely be our ‘go to’ option.
HIGHLIGHT PRO-GEAR If you’re after a high output ballast, with a decent build quality, then this is the one for you. One of the few ballasts to carry the ‘mark of quality’, you can rest assured the overclocked performance will be one of the safest you can buy. The only thing that it could do with is a timed ignitor and it would have all our thumbs reaching for the sky.
LUMI COMPACTA Unfortunately for Hydrogarden, the less said about the performance here the better. We aren’t going to go on about how it was the worst performing magnetic ballast like you might expect us to, it’s barely even worth bringing up again. No amount of email campaigns showing cooked eggs and caricatures of MaxiBright owners will throw up enough smoke and mirrors to avoid the fact that the Compactas were vastly under where their performance should have been. Bad Hydrogarden… Very naughty.
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CENTURY MINI CORONA These actually performed well enough in all areas. That might sound like we were a bit surprised, which is because we were. The basic box packaging, small size of unit and general blandness of the ballast showed us once again that you really shouldn’t judge a book by its cover.
SUNMASTER COMET MKII & SUNMASTER COMET MKIII Seeing as how these are essentially the same as the MaxiBright Compact range but with slightly different fonts and different coloured casing, we weren’t surprised when the performance was matched in a similar fashion. You could hardly expect anything less though, with them all being made in conjunction with Venture Lighting, their output and quality was never really under question. This was a bit more like going through the motions for these ballasts really. To us though it definitely helped to show the overall quality of gear that does come from Venture. Even though their main bread and butter is street / commercial build lighting, that experience shines through in all their products.
EDEN OMEGA We had heard on the rumour mill that this was one to watch out for. We were fully expecting this one to fall short in wattage, but this simply didn’t happen. It does feel quite cheap though - give it a shake and you can hear stuff jiggling around inside. This always tends to slightly put me off with electric stuff.
IKON GROWLUSH Another ballast that seemed to defy expectations when it came to wattage. Kicking out about 630w to the lamp, you can be certain you aren’t going to undersupply your lamp with these ballasts. The price they come in at as well will no doubt be enough to swing the choice for a lot of consumers. It’s a hard sell to convince someone to deprive themselves of the Big Mac Meal and packet of fags that they would be able to buy with the money they saved on buying this over a competing brand.
DIMLUX EXTREME & DIMLUX EXTREME MK2 Basically the crème de la crème. Every setting was spot on with where it should have been – it was the closest of all the ballasts by far when it came to delivering what each setting says it delivers. The high build quality of these ballasts is beyond doubt in our eyes, along with the super sexy nature of the design these make the top of our Christmas list every time. We just need some people rich enough to get them for us as presents now. The only criticism is with the boxes on the full fixtures, I can’t help but get paranoid the handle will break and the contents will fall out. Nothing would be more devastating than smashing your new 630w CDM on the floor as you skip out the shop with it.
SOLISTEK STK600 Strangely, the standard setting on these ones was about 25 watts or so over what it should be. Besides that all the settings weren’t too far off. That is a fairly fundamental flaw though to be honest; personally I’d rather the unit deliver what it actually says on the setting you have put it to. It may be at a higher rate because it is tuned for their own manufactured range of lamps, or it could just be a mistake. Talking of the lamps, we do like the metal halide range here. The 10K version, with its enhanced UV spectrums, is a bit of a winner when it comes to finishing flowers off in the last few weeks.
LUMATEK 600W DIMMABLE & LUMATEK PROFESSIONAL These were another brand that actually performed really well in the wattage testing. Every setting was within a nice close range either side of what it should be; no complaints here at all. Also the great thing about the professional versions is the ability to fire up whichever 240v or 400v lamp you care to throw at them. What we haven’t checked all the ballasts for yet is the RF interference. Given Lumatek’s recent history in America with how emitting high amounts of RF can land you in a rather large spot of bother, you’d expect them to have sorted all that out. It’s something we would love to put to the test and find out. Watch this space.
ADJUSTAWATT These were another brand that actually performed really well in the wattage testing. Every setting was within a nice close range either side of what it should be; no complaints here at all. Also the great thing about the professional versions is the ability to fire up whichever 240v or 400v lamp you care to throw at them. What we haven’t checked all the ballasts for yet is the RF interference. Given Lumatek’s recent history in America with how emitting high amounts of RF can land you in a rather large spot of bother, you’d expect them to have sorted all that out. It’s something we would love to put to the test and find out. Watch this space.
LUMI DIGITAL Once again the Lumi range of ballasts didn’t particularly shine here (shockingly, the lowest and worst results we got back from any ballast we tested). Roughly seventy watts down on what it should have been delivering on every setting, this truly won the wooden spoon for this comparison. We visited Hydrogarden after these tests and we were told that their factory in China had changed some components in its design and they hadn’t yet had time to quality check that batch before getting them to us for the test. Seemed a little bit convenient to us. That being said, since the initial test we have seen a new batch of the digital ballasts that do actually give the correct outputs. Unfortunately, we can’t yet say the same of their magnetic versions.
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HACIENDA DIGITAL One thing you can count on with these ballasts is that you are definitely going to get at least what it says on the settings! Pretty much every setting was the same proportion over what it should be. Well within the tolerance of three per cent as well, so it does so with minimal impact on the lamp’s performance. Considering the value for money you get with this range, it really is a good option if you want to enter the digital age, yet find yourself restricted with the lack of funds after your recent Christmas blowout.
SUNMASTER DIGITAL A solid performance here from Sunmaster, which shouldn’t really come as much of a surprise. It may have helped that the lamp was also a Sunmaster brand, but taking that into consideration you would maybe expect it to have produced slightly more favourable results. It was by no means the best performing, but definitely held its own here against the others.
NANOLUX We were expecting big things from this small box. Its slim line and professional looking design leads you to think that the performance will be there to match. Unfortunately this was not the case. Every setting was roughly 30% under what it should be. Combine that with there not being a 10% boosting option, you will never see 600w being delivered by this unit. Nanolux have all new ranges now on the market and we haven’t had a chance to take a look at them yet. Considering they look like they have totally ripped off Gavita’s designs, hopefully they took a leaf out of Gavita’s build quality too. As optimistic as we’d like to be, we’re currently fairly dubious about them.
ISUN
We were expecting big things from this small box. Its slim line and professional looking design leads you to think that the performance will be there to match. Unfortunately this was not the case. Every setting was roughly 30% under what it should be. Combine that with there not being a 10% boosting option, you will never see 600w being delivered by this unit. Nanolux have all new ranges now on the market and we haven’t had a chance to take a look at them yet. Considering they look like they have totally ripped off Gavita’s designs, hopefully they took a leaf out of Gavita’s build quality too. As optimistic as we’d like to be, we’re currently fairly dubious about them.
DARKSTAR A surprisingly good performance here from the Darkstar ballast. Being a new name on the scene at the time we weren’t expecting much, but it actually did alright for itself. It’s always nice when you’re unexpectedly surprised, like when two packets of crisps fall out in the vending machines; the tiniest victories can sometimes seem like the greatest achievements. The only problem with it was that it had a European plug on it, so we had to get an adaptor - a tad annoying to say the least. If we had actually gone out and spent our hard-earned money on the unit this could have been majorly irritating. Hopefully that one has been sorted out by now.
MAXIBIGHT DIGILIGHT Last but by no means least are the MaxiBright ballasts. They didn’t seem to be quite as accurate on some settings as, say, the premium branded ballasts of the likes of Dimlux, but overall they most certainly get the job done well. Taking into account the performance, feel and decent price tag of these ballasts they make a sound investment for any aspiring indoor gardener. What I want to get my grubby hands on are the new CDM lights they have out. If anyone has any knocking around, please feel free to send them to the HYDROMAG office.
GROW TEST
FILTER COMPARISON: THROUGH THE FLANGE HOLE The jewel in the crown that is the hydroponic grow room: Carbon Filters. Whether you use these puppies to scrub and clean air in a closed loop environment, or in the more conventional manner of a one pass and out style, you’re going to want to have the peace of mind that they are actually doing the job that they’re intended for. Cue the HYDROMAG eye of scrutiny. This issue we cast our beady eye over the main factors you will need to understand when it comes to air cleanliness. What exactly are the qualities to look out for when purchasing a carbon filter? Manufacturers are (almost) all using different grades of carbon, have different size carbon beds and use different materials for the housing cages as well as many other physical differences. Whilst all these things no doubt contribute to how well the filter performs overall, we’re more concerned with how it’s actually doing its job and also how it is affecting our overall airflow.
So how exactly can we go about comparing filters? The problem with filters is that there is currently no standard way in which they are measured directly for the application that they are used for: namely clearing airborne volatiles. There are standard procedures that assess carbon for a fair few of its physical properties: hardness, ash content, grade, moisture and apparent density. These attributes give an indication of the overall quality of the carbon, but not necessarily how it performs filtering air. The other two things that most manufacturers currently state as performance measures are adsorption rates of carbon and pressure drop curves. Pressure drop curves tell you the effect on the overall air flow you can expect when attaching a carbon filter. The adsorption rates come from liquid phase iodine, butane or CTC (Carbon Tetrachloride) tests. As a generalisation, these give you an approximation of the surface area and pore size of the carbon used, and therefore an indication of how many and what type of volatiles it can adsorb, but still not exactly how it performs clearing volatiles from an air source.
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Er… You what? Tell me about it mate. This is where it all becomes a bit murky; airborne Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) operate entirely differently to liquid ones, so the iodine, butane and CTC tests can only really be looked at as an indication of performance. It’s a bit like trying to compare apples using oranges as a unit of measure. You would have thought that with this global industry being the size that it is there would already be in place a standard airborne VOC test. Peculiarly there is no such standard test method in place, at least not that we could find. So after a lot of back and forth with a few filter nerds, I have come up with one that so far everyone has agreed would be a good way to at least start the ball rolling.
Break it all down for me please, I’m a bit special. Okay, so as well as listing the physical aspects (specifically for 8” filters across each brand) this comparison will be a focus on testing the following aspects of filters: 1. PRESSURE DROPS: How does simply attaching different filters to the same fan affect the drop in airflow. 2. ADSORPTION LEVELS: Is currently accepted as the most industry standard way to look at the total adsorption of the specific carbon type used. 3. AIRBORNE VOC CONTROL: How well the filter actually clears airborne volatiles. Looking at and testing these aspects in particular will give you an unprecedented insight into the performance of each filter; how they will affect your airflow, comparative adsorption levels under current testing standards and how they actually work with airborne particles in a real life situation.
ISSUE 012
Filter Comparison Article
To see the full filter test article, visit the Hydromag website... www.hydromag.co.uk
SUMMARY
CANFILTERS
Base Stats The following table is a chart displaying the data from each brand of filter as stated by the manufacturer. This chart just focuses on 8” short filters used in this comparison. We have also added average prices we found at the time of print. Aren’t we good?
Make / Model Phresh Standard Phresh Inline Prima Klima Eco Prima Klima Industry Red Scorpion Rhino Hobby Rhino Professional CanFilters Lite CanFilters Original Bulldog B/O Buddy B/O Even Flow Ram
Carbon Type
Bed Depth
Weight
Length (mm)
Max Airflow m3/h
Avg Price £
46mm 46mm n/a n/a 38mm 30mm n/a 50mm 50mm n/a 25mm 50mm 38mm
Ask Ask 9.4kg 9.2kg n/a n/a n/a 11Kg n/a n/a n/a Ask Ask
600 600 500 500 600 400 400 330 750 220 600 600 600
1000 1000 1000 1090 850 900 800 1000 700 710 1000 1175 850
146.99 179.99 95.99 126.99 88.66 100.29 143.95 100.24 135.99 139.99 94.99 152.99 87.76
Adsorption
RC 4/8 RC 4/8
1050mg/L 1050mg/L PK44/CTC70 1050mg/L PK44/CTC70 1050mg/L RC412 n/a RC412 1050mg/L RC412 1050mg/L CKV-4 1050mg/L CKV-4 1050mg/L n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a RC412 1050mg/L
For the scope of this comparison, we looked at one size of filter on one type of fan. Other size filters on other brands of fans will give differing performances, particularly when it comes to airflow. You can view this data as a broad representation of how a brand will perform, but it only specifically shows you how this size performs on this fan.
Airflow Results
Difference
Diff ’ %age
740 740 740 740 740 740 740 740 740 740 740 740 740
494 464.2 451 447.3 424 420.1 398.2 389.9 372.5 359.2 319.8 306.3 253.1
33.2 37.3 39.1 39.6 42.7 43.2 46.2 47.3 49.7 51.5 56.8 58.6 65.8
0.0 4.0 5.8 6.3 9.5 10.0 12.9 14.1 16.4 18.2 23.5 25.4 32.6
0.0 12.1 17.5 19.0 28.5 30.0 38.9 42.3 49.4 54.8 70.8 76.3 97.9
Bulldog
CanFilters Lite
Rhino Professional
Rhino Hobby
Prima Klima Industry
Phresh Inline
Black Orchid Black
Black Orchid White
over others.”
Drop as a %age
Prima Klima Eco
instant advantage
With filter (m3/h)
PERCENTAGE OF DROP IN AIRFLOW
Red Scorpion
the largest filter gives
No filter (m3/h)
70 60 50 40 30 Phresh Normal
“Physically being
CanFilters Original RAM Phresh Normal Red Scorpion Prima Klima Eco Black Orchid Buddy Black Orchid Even Flow Phresh Inline Prima Klima Industry Rhino Hobby Rhino Professional CanFilters Lite Bulldog
RAM
CanFilters Original:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
CanFilters Original
CAN’s Original filter topped the charts here, but then it is by far the largest (and heaviest) so you would expect that to be the case. From the RAM to the Prima Klima Industry point, the filters were of a similarish size so differences between their air flow drops are more telling. From the Rhino point down, even though the stated airflows are comparable to the rest, their performances all seemed to suffer from simply being too small in length for the job.
Make / Model
VOC Results All the filters (I say all filters, the Bulldog was pretty borderline), cleared at least the amount of volatiles generated from in the tent. Background levels floated around the 300ppb range(+/5%), the exhaust from the tent would usually fluctuate between 30-80ppb higher than this. All the filters cleared the plants’ volatiles and then a considerable amount of the entire background ones as well. So to massively generalise things for a second: All of these filters work, but some clearly work better than others.
IODINE VALUES
Make / Model
Model
Phresh Inline Phresh Normal Black Orchid Buddy Prima Klima Industry Ram Black Orchid Even Flow Rhino Professional Red Scorpion CanFilters Lite Prima Klima Eco CanFilters Original Rhino Hobby Bulldog
“ A high carbon quality doesn’t always mean better
50
build quality of each filter
40
here.”
Normal Inline Hobby Industry Even Flo
Percent from Top Performer
1066 988 974 920 907 890 864 864 851 826 802 786 407
0 93 91 86 85 83 81 81 80 77 75 74 38
Performance Percentile 0.0 7.3 8.6 13.7 14.9 16.5 18.9 18.9 20.2 22.5 24.8 26.3 61.8
PERCENTAGE OF TOTAL VOC CLEARANCE RATE
performance. The entire reflects how well it performs
Buddy Original Lite Eco Edition Professional
Lab Test Result (mg/L)
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Bulldog
Rhino Hobby
CanFilters Original
Prima Klima Eco
CanFilters Lite
Red Scorpion
Rhino Professional
Ram
Black Orchid Black
bypassing the carbon bed.”
Prima Klima Industry
Rush of air at the flange end
Black Orchid White
block not sealed to flange.
10
Phresh Normal
“ Low as a result of carbon
Phresh Inline
20 Bulldog Filter:
TABLE OF PERFORMANCE
Overall Results The keen eyed among you will have notice a couple of columns on each of the previous tables showing the data as a difference in percent from the top performer within that category. Averaging these percentage changes in performance gives us a good implication of performance as a whole: taking into account the results from all the tests and combining them to show an overall performance.
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Make / Model Phresh Normal Can Original RAM B/O Buddy Phresh Inline Red Scorpion PK Eco PK Industry B/O Even Flo Rhino Pro Can Lite Rhino Hobby Bulldog
Performance Percentiles Air Flow Centiles 17.5 0 12.1 38.9 42.3 19 28.5 49.4 30 70.8 76.3 54.8 97.9
VOC Centiles 2.5 32.6 13.9 22 0 22.9 27.3 10.8 9.3 22.2 26.5 37.8 73.5
Iodine 19 7 17 0 19 25 14 23 62 15 9 20 26
Average 13.0 13.2 14.3 20.3 20.4 22.3 23.3 27.7 33.8 36.0 37.3 37.5 65.8
Overall Score Out of 100 87 87 86 80 80 78 77 72 66 64 63 62 34
HYDROMAG’S OPINION
What we thought of each brand of filter in the test... PHRESH Not much needs saying. Decent pressure drop, a high VOC clearance rate and only being slightly let down with the iodine number (meaning potentially a shorter lifespan than you’d expect). Even the inline filter performed better than expected on the pressure drop test. What with the design of it and all, we were thinking it would surely have a huge impact on the air flow. When it turned out that it was better than some of the competitors, it really was a pleasant surprise. The option to mount your filter almost anywhere in your duct run really is quite a blessing. We can happily picture Santa trying to cram a huge Phresh filter down the chimney of the HYDROMAG office come Christmas eve. Plus a matching silenced Hyperfan please, those things are the shiznizzle.
PRIMA KLIMA
Prima Klima are a bit like the ‘Ronseal’ of the filter world. The workhorse that everyone turns to when they want something that does what it says on the tin. That being said it was bit of a shame that they didn’t do better here: average at best. We were expecting a bit more from these but, hey ho: Them’s the results. Being one of the few companies that use activated carbon derived from our good old friend the coconut in their ‘ECO’ range, they truly do pioneer the filter movement. Their newer CARBOCONE model that we didn’t have for this test is a good example of exactly that: The inner carbon mesh is flared from the flange to the base in order to produce an even air flow over the full length of the filter. A fantastic idea and one that we would love to put through its paces.
RED SCORPION
So this was one of the pleasant suprises of the comparison. This filter here is a lot cheaper than many of its counterparts, so you would expect the performance to reflect that right? We were anyway. When it turned out it trumped the majority, you could barely keep our jaws from scraping the floor. Supposedly exactly the same as the RAM filter from Hydrogarden except with different colours. That’s what everyone said anyway. When they didn’t quite match each other in performance we decided to take a closer look and it turned out the dimensions of them are actually slightly different. Only very slightly, but when it’s the build quality and design of the filter housing that has the greatest impact on the overall efficiency of VOC removal, small variances in design really do make a big difference.
RHINO Rhino Filters. Having seen first-hand how some filters don’t work, combined with having heard countless reports of the same from various stores and end users alike, it wasn’t a surprise when the results didn’t come back in Rhino’s favour. One thing Rhino does at least have going for it is a strong marketing presence. Perhaps that is there for an unrelated reason, but our paranoid suspicions tell us that the marketing may well be the main factor in Rhino’s success. That and you can’t help but love Ian Collins. The first criticism they had is that we shouldn’t have used that filter (the one that they recommend for the fan) and that we should have used the bigger one. Yes, we thought that strange too: Why bloody sell it then? The second criticism is that all the filters we tested should have been the same length. The fact that not all filters are the same length across all brands aside, this school of logic would dictate that all other physical dimensions of the filters should be the same as well. Yes, we thought it was unrealistic and illogical too.
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CAN FILTERS We were hoping for more from Can filters, but saying that they still did fairly well. Besides the average VOC clearance, the Original model totally trumped everything else. Being a bloody huge filter, it easily smashed everything on the pressure drop comparison. The Lite version only lacked here because of its tiny physical nature, just like my penis. It was really small in length, which supposedly the flaked nature of the carbon would compensate for, but didn’t. Most filter companies will tell you that their carbon has the highest Iodine number, it’s one of the classic tag lines you will see on the box or the website. Well, CAN actually did have the highest iodine value, so you can be safe in the knowledge that these will not only get rid of any odours but do it for a damn long time too.
BULLDOG The ingenious nature of their production aside, we couldn’t see how these would do well on the air flow test. We were told, just like everyone else, that the bonded nature of the carbon doesn’t impact at all on the rate of air flow. Its micro bonds are so small that they won’t even obstruct air molecules. Well, it turns out that they totally do. We were also told that because of the micro bonds, the iodine number is not affected. Well, turns out that it totally is: the company we used to test the carbon for us is the one that actually supplies Bulldog with their carbon in the first place. The issue you then have with a solid carbon block is adequately sealing it to the flange in an airtight manner. This was the Bulldog’s critical blow: It wasn’t an airtight seal. When maybe 20% of the airflow is bypassing the filter block, you can be pretty sure you won’t be removing many VOCs.
BUDDY
Again, a cheaper branded filter that actually did really well. From the build quality of the filter as a whole down to the Indiana Jones style faux crate boxes they come delivered in, you can tell there has been attention to detail here, even for a budget range. Let down only with a low iodine number, if you do use these filters just bear in mind they will probably need replacing slightly more often than you are used to.
EVEN FLOW
This was a disappointment to be honest. Other than its poor performance we were also a bit doubtful of the black pre-filter. Its selling point is that it is carbon impregnated. Besides this being an arguably pointless idea, it means you cannot tell when the prefilter is dirty and when you should be changing it. With one of the highest iodine numbers coming back, this was a good example of how you need more than a good quality carbon for an efficient filter.
RAM RAM filters did really well, a cheap and cheerful option like Red Scorpion that actually do what they say. They claim to use a slightly different grade of the holy grail ‘RC’ carbon that Phresh use. After the piss poor performance of Hydrogarden’s Lumi ballasts in the previous issue, it was a nice bit of redemption for them. Not everything cheap has to be crappy, sometimes you do find diamonds in the rough.
GROW TEST
GETTING FILTHY WITH A BUNCH OF DIRTBAGS This issue we cast the Hydromag eye over the current types of potting compost you will find gracing the shelves of all good grow stores, and even some of the not so good ones. Soil? Why the bloody hell is a hydroponics magazine looking at soil? That is what we’re looking at here, isn’t it? I mean, everyone calls it that don’t they? How many times have you heard “Ten bags of that there soil me ol’ china, that’ll do me”? Must be called that then, eh? I’m sure you can see where this is going. Strictly speaking, none of this is soil. Not unless your local growshop is quickly nipping out the back door and scooping some dirt out of the ground and into a bag to sell you, which wouldn’t surprise me. The word ‘Soil’ directly means the upper layer of earth in which plants grow, and is made from a mixture of organic matter and rock type particles. Maybe loads of broken glass, too if you are really lucky like me on my allotment. I can sense the questions brewing in your mind already. ”OK smartarse, what is it called then?” and perhaps “Why does that even matter?” from the more cynical of you. In answer to the first question, I like the term ‘dirtbags’ but I don’t think that will catch on. Commonly it is referred to as ‘compost mix’ or ‘potting compost’ but even that can be slightly misleading sometimes, as it rarely contains actual compost. The answer to the second question takes us to an even more important issue altogether. Where does the line between what is seen as conventional hydroponic media
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and these ‘compost mixes’ begin? Hydroponics is essentially defined as growing without the presence of soil. Hydroponic growing mediums are all produced following the same basic processes. A natural substance is harvested out of the earth. It is processed and treated to get rid of undesirable elements, and charged by supplementing with ones we deem beneficial to the physical properties of the end result. It is then bagged and sold. These dirtbags we all buy, thinking we are being all lovely and organic, are subject to exactly the same principles: A material is harvested out of the earth: Peat. It is cleansed/treated and then supplemented with extras to make it plant suitable (worm castings, guano, etc or chemical fertiliser for nutrient content and usually some sort of lime for pH buffering). Then it is bagged and sold. Due to the manufactured nature of its creation and basic fundamental properties, it cannot be seen in any way as being soil. As already established, Hydroponics is the growing of plants without soil. It therefore follows that anyone buying and using these dirtbags is actually growing hydroponically. Boom/ Crack/Smash! Don’t mind that noise, that’s just the sound of your perception’s back doors being smashed in. A big sorry to all you ‘organic’ growers out there, things are never what they seem to be, eh? Speaking of things never being what they seem, lets crack straight on shall we?
Volume
RESULT CHARTS
PERCENTAGE VARIANCE
Canna Terra Pro Plus Plant Magic Soil Supreme Canna Bio Terra DNA Mills Cork Mix Plagron Royal Mix Canna Terra Professional Atami Bi Grow Mix Cellmax Universal Soil H&G Batmix Plagron Bat Mix Platinium Light Mix BioBizz Allmix New Age Aqua Mix Atami Kilomix Plagron Growmix GT Alpha Mix Platinium Royal Mix Platinium Growmix Atami Lightmix Ikon Vita-Mix Pro Gold Label Special Mix BioBizz Lightmix Guanokalong Complete Mix
-12
-9
-6
-3
0
3
6
9
12
Above you can see what sort of value for money you are getting out of each brand. A few litres here and there when purchasing one bag may not make much difference to you, but when buying in bulk you are likely to notice the variances in volume much more. Verve John Innes No. 2 Verve John Innes No. 3 Poundland Multipurpose Compost Growth Technology Alpha Mix Plagron Growmix H&G Bat Special Plagron Batmix Plagron Royalmix BioBizz Allmix Gold Label Special Mix Guanokalong Complete Mix Atami Kilomix BioBizz Lightmix Platinium Royal Mix Platinium Light Mix Canna Professional Cellmax USM Platinium GrowMix DNA Mills Cork Mix New Age AquaMix Ikon VitaMix Atami Lightmix Verve Multipurpose Compost Atami Growmix Plant Magic Soil Surpreme Canna Bio Terra Plus Canna Professional Plus
The Lower the better 3
KG/METER
50
150
250
350
450
550
650
750
800
A low bulk density implies a high porosity and a low level of compaction, meaning you will have a nice free draining and well aerated medium. The physical structure of a soil is often overlooked but critical to a successful harvest.
This shows you the starting level in terms of strength of fertiliser and what pH you will be at. Ideally you want the pH to be between 5.5 and 6.5. The level of EC you should go for very much depends on how old, and how well established your plant is that is going to be potted into it.
This graph is especially relevant for organic based mixes. Again you need to choose based on your plants’ particular nutrient demands. Nitrogen has been left off the graph as it is given in a percentage of total mass rather than the unit every other element is in. Calcium has also been left off as the level it gets to as a result of the liming process makes every other element look almost insignificant. High levels of magnesium can also be a result of the liming process, when a magnesium based liming agent is used.
SOLUBLE NUTRIENTS This graph shows you what sort of levels of each particular type of nutrient is present within your media. Obviously media with a lower EC will have lower looking levels on this graph. Choose your mix based on the ratios of nutrients that your chosen plant type demands. SOLUBLE N
POTASSIUM
PHOSPHORUS
CALCIUM
MG/LTR
MAGNESIUM
FINALLY... So there you go. You should now be armed with almost all the information you need to choose the type of mix that is most suitable for you. As mentioned earlier, we are going to be looking at the bacteria and fungal counts of the mixes some time down the line, and delve deep into the mysteries of the soil food web. For now though, happy growing our HYRDOMAG chums.
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HYDROMAG’S OPINION With the soil test we saw an unprecedented amount of brands that we decided to compare. It would be a little unfeasible to go through every one of them here, so we will go over some that stood out for us.
DNA MILLS The new kid on the block. A combination of minds from Holland and America. Performed great in all aspects: fantastic nutrient content (both available and long term), nice high volume and a nicely low bulk density. A little bit like the old Stella Artois saying: Reassuringly Expensive. One of the things we didn’t do for this test was a biological analysis, if we had then we would have seen if this selling point was indeed justified. Until then, if we were going to be using a soil it would most likely be this one.
CANNA
If there is one thing we have learned with Canna, it’s that their products are consistently of a high quality. The soil is no exception. One of the few brands where the contents of the bag (or bottle) consistently match their description. Where they shone in particular was the super low bulk density, meaning a fantastically well aerated medium that will result in a lot faster wet/dry cycles. Always a bonus.
PLANT MAGIC Mixed feelings about how this one performed. Being a UK brand we were rooting for this one the whole way through. A back breaking high volume in the bags, so you really are getting value for money here, but the pH of the soil being lower than 5.5 was really a bit of a turn off. Combined with a low nutrient content both soluble and in total, our previous raging hard on for this brand is now rather flacid.
GUANOKALONG
Another let down. Being a big fan of this range, particularly all their organic amendments, there were high hopes for this brand that unfortunately took bit of a nosedive when the results came in. Well over 10% down on volume, so the high price tag doesn’t even get you a full bag. Being marketed on having lots of added guano and other amendments, you would expect the nutrient content to be through the roof. Unfortunately it barely scraped the height of our low hanging, wrinkly, old man style ball sacks.
VITAMIX
From the good, to the bad, straight to the ugly. The only saving grace for this brand was the average bulk density it displayed. Unfortunately the ridiculously low pH level, combined with a low bag volume and then topped off with a limited amount of total nutrient ensured this brand’s secure grip on the wooden spoon for this round of comparisons. To be fair using it in conjunction with a good quality fertiliser would probably counteract any of these problems, but you shouldn’t really be reliant on a second product to fix the first one.
BIOBIZZ After the pretty poor coir results, we were braced for a similar result with their soil. In a perverse sense we were almost disappointed when they turned out not to be too bad at all. The Allmix contained a large amount of soluble and total nutrient while the lightmix had a proportionally lower ratio as you would expect. The only real let down was in the volume of the lightmix. It turned out very shy, but then when you’re buying lightmix you’re probably only going to be filling small pots so won’t need that much anyway.
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ISSUE 014
Soil Comparison Article
To see the full soil test article, visit the Hydromag website... www.hydromag.co.uk
GOLD LABEL
One of the few things we didn’t go into for this comparison is where the constituents of the potting mix actually came from. Unfortunately for Gold Label this ignored what we consider one of their main selling points. The premium white peat is sourced straight out of the Nordics, and amazingly done so in a sustainable manner. With all the panic on the streets about the decline and shortage of peat, we can all be thankful that Gold Label is doing its bit to help keep things balanced.
B&Q
Annoyingly quite good. Being a B&Q brand we were expecting the results to reflect the low price, but it really didn’t fare too bad at all. Nothing outstanding mind, but nothing we can really moan about. In fact that could be the most disappointing thing about it.
PLAGRON
Another brand where the products we’ve looked at always seems to do what they say on the tin, or bag, or whatever vessel of containment you choose. Consistently high in volume, and exactly the sort of nutrient content you would expect from each of the different types; Plagron got one big thumb up from us. The only thing that could have gained it the all-important second thumb would have been a lower bulk density.
PLATINIUM After how well Platinium performed on the coir comparison a few issues previous to this one, we were expecting them to turn out some decent results. We weren’t at all surprised when they did exactly that. The EC and pH levels were basically spot on with what you’d expect and their bulk densities came back fine. It was only coming back slightly shy on volume that marginally ground our gears here but other than that no quibbles.
H&G BAT SPECIAL
This came back with slightly less nutrient content than we were expecting, compared with the others, both on soluble and total content. Not by loads but being marketed heavily on the ‘added guano’ side of things, we were expecting a little more. Having been off the market for a little while now, you may have to look for an alternative to get your fix of premium bat shit based soils.
ATAMI
One of the best things about the Atami soil was that it was nice and easy to riddle through the sieve we used. After riddling through sixty plus bags of soil, it was a pleasure to riddle this. Other than that it performed fairly averagely, nothing major to write home about, but nothing major to moan about either.
GROW TEST
LED GROW TEST: That’s right folks. We only went and bloody did it didn’t we? Possibly the most contentious topic in recent hydroponic history just got a jolly good old seeing to by your dearest pals here at HYDROMAG. The furore and hype surrounding the use of LEDs for growing plants is basically second to none. It’s clear that consumers are champing at the bit for the next big thing in the lighting world. If you just take the time to read the letter we got from Nemesis One, you can literally feel the emotional attachment some keyboard warriors have for it all. Almost like back when they were a six year old who just got the new version of Nintendo’s console for Christmas, bursting at the seams with belligerent excitement about it and insulting people who are still having loads more fun playing on their Megadrives. Anyways, LEDs have appeared on the market in one form or another for many years now, and from the very beginning they were quick to make ludicrous claims such as replacing three times what you would expect of the HPS equivalents. Claims from the marketing departments of some companies still bandy those assertions about, albeit not to such an extreme. At the same time the technology actually has come on leaps and bounds in the past few years. So the obvious conclusion we came to was to get cracking with a lovely little comparative grow test. So that’s exactly what we did. Originally, we very kindly got given the Bysen LED to test and decided to pitch it against an HPS side by side in a grow test. “This will be quick and easy” we thought. Interest quickly grew though and every month or so we kept getting a new light sent our way. What started out as a small comparison between one LED and one sodium, escalated fairly rapidly. “Amazing” we thought, “now we just need to find a space big enough and get enough equipment to properly manage and control seven individual grow tents... shit”. If you don’t have the pleasure of knowing the inner financial workings of us lot here at HYDROMAG, I’ll break it down for you
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in one simple bite size sentence: We are completely skint. The problem with that is that it makes it tricky to get a load of equipment you need to perform such grow tests, let alone doing all the other stuff a magazine entails. So basically we put our best sad puppy dog expression on and went clawing up the legs of some of our chums in the industry and thankfully they did not let us down.
“The furore and hype surrounding the use of LEDs for growing plants is basically second to none. It’s clear that consumers are champing at the bit for the next big thing in the lighting world.” More on that to follow, but for now, please brace yourself dearest reader. Shit is about to hit the fan. We’ve been cleaning our fan in preparation for the deluge of faeces that will no doubt follow this going to print. In fact, it almost doesn’t matter in what direction the results of this swing: If there is one thing you can be guaranteed of it is that we will be on the receiving end of a purple shitstorm.
ISSUE 016 LED Grow Test
To see the full LED test article, visit... www.hydromag.co.uk
HYDROMAG’S OPINION
What we thought of each brand of LED in the test... BUDMASTER
We were expecting good results here and we certainly got them. If we had to put money down on a brand it would either be this or Spectrum King for sure. This unit come with hanging clips and wires which does make it much more convenient than most of the others to get it all set up. It’s still a little bit fiddly though just because of the size and shape it is; getting it nice and level is a bit tricky. Another nice bit of functionality this sports is the ability to leave half the LEDs off. If you’re rearing smaller plants, they aren’t going to want it on full wack, so simply use one of the power switches to turn them off. Blammo. The main thing I don’t like about this unit is the colour of the light. This sounds a bit childish yes, but after working in a room with just that light on for a while it really started to make me queezy. I’d need to go outside to get some fresh air, really weird. This alone puts me off it.
DIMLUX We weren’t at all surprised this yielded a lot more. You could see just from the uniformity of the plants over the tray that the sort of light levels were way more uniform and even over the area. From what we’ve seen HPS still has a long time on its throne, but then we haven’t tried the new Phillips LEDs recently developed with a kick ass output. Easy to hang and place where you want it, a nice long cable so you aren’t restricted at all with its length; these really are great lights. As was to be expected with HPS we had to use a larger fan than we used in the other tents to keep the environment at the same sort of levels. This is the most noticeable practical difference we saw between the technologies. It will definitely impact on your environmental conditions: less radiated heat into the canopy can be a good thing for some people and not so great for others.
BYSEN Surprisingly this unit actually turned out to be ok. The total yield was down on others yes, but that was clearly down to the lower comparative wattage being used. When you look at it on the gram per watt basis, it wasn’t actually that bad. The main issue we had with it was the footprint of the light given off due to the lenses that are over the LED chips. The footprint is an awkward circle-ish shape, and anything outside of this circle of light really doesn’t get anything. This means that you can’t really have the light any closer to plants than a metre away in a 1.2 metre square area. The footprint will focus and narrow, leaving the plants on the outer perimeter with no direct lighting. Another minor gripe is that the hanging clips on the back of the unit are pretty small; it makes it particularly tricky to get hanging clips or hooks through it. The four point connection also makes it slightly harder to get balanced and level, which is pretty critical with the way this unit kicks light out.
SPECTRUM KING Obvious thing we like about this the most is the colour it gives off. Nice full spectrum white lighting; it makes everything under it look so much nicer. We can’t help but be drawn towards the theory of growing under a broad spectrum too. As much as we know the orange of an HPS works, mimicking the wider spectrum of natural sunlight can surely only be a good thing. The wider spread of this light also tips the balance in its favour. You can easily see, just on the sides of the tents, that the light is at a more horizontal angle than its competitor’s. The main issue with this one is simply hanging it up, and then raising or lowering it. It’s really heavy so make sure you have some heavy duty rope ratchets or whatever you use, it’s usually a good idea to have someone there to help and make sure you aren’t going to drop a grand’s worth of equipment on the floor.
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HYDROMAG’S OPINION CONTINUED
What we thought of each brand of LED in the test... GROWSUN This possibly had the most annoying colour of all the lights. A slightly deeper purple than the Budmaster which turned the appearance of plants underneath it almost black. Whilst plants might not mind that spectrum, it makes it really hard for the human eye to do the usual inspection of plants. It’s hard to notice deficiencies or other things when they are bright pink and purple. Fortunately this was a really easy LED to actually install and use. It has nice large hanging clips to attach to hangers and most conveniently can be operated remotely. The little remote can switch the unit to a few different power settings that tailors its output for plants in their most common stages: Seedling, vegative and flowering phases. Unfortunately, even with that convenience, we won’t be putting this brand on our Xmas list this year.
KIND
This was probably the most disappointing. With the money back guarantee that KIND offer on these lights, you would assume they would be at the top of the game. You can indeed get higher wattage units that will of course see you end up with a higher return, but this is the unit they pitched against a 600w. We were a bit disappointed with the results, but not entirely surprised. The colour of the lights are a sort of blue hue, which isn’t quite as migraine inducing as the Budmaster to look at. It has the added UVs as well so for a flowering and fruiting plant you should be able to expect a slightly higher quality of produce. We didn’t take this Pepsi challenge with the Radish, so we can’t really back that one up yet.
STRIP LEDS Even though they didn’t necessarily do as great as many others, I actually really liked these units. The placement of the LEDs down each tube, combined with using multiple fixtures means you really get a great spread of light. It’s obvious from the lack of shadows underneath pots and plant leaves that you are actually getting some good horizontal lighting here. Also, when the plants were in the seedling stage they seemed to much prefer these lights than others. I could very easily see using these in a nice propagation area, in fact designs have already been altered to accommodate them. In a main grow set up I can see them being fantastic for inter lighting between crops to supplement your main lights, but we won’t be rushing to use them in our prize flower room just yet.
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“Even though they didn’t necessarily do as great as many others, I actually really liked these units. The placement of the LEDs down each tube, combined with using multiple fixtures means you really get a great spread of light.”
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CANNA NEW CANNA CALMAG AGENT! Do you have problems with your water! Do you have problems with your water! STOP - look no further soft water growers we have the solution for you! By popular demand, we are pleased to launch the CANNA CALMAG AGENT; a product to harden your soft water. The product is highly concentrated; only 0-1ml per litre of water is needed. Calmag Agent is available in 1l, 5l and 10l sizes. For more information about the product please visit www.canna-uk.com
Manufacturer / Product Website: www.canna-uk.com
PLAGRON TERRA GROW AND TERRA BLOOM Complete mineral fertilisers for the growth and flowering phase. Together, Terra Grow and Terra Bloom guarantee the highest yield. By growing with Terra Grow and Terra Bloom, you can benefit from a stable self-regulating pH-value. The results are visible in only one day because the roots are able to absorb these fertilisers directly. Terra Grow is a highly concentrated mineral basic fertiliser that can be used in the plant’s growing phase. This liquid fertiliser ensures optimum fertilisation during the plant’s growth and supports and promotes a solid foundation. Terra Bloom is also a mineral fertiliser and can be used in the flowering phase. This basic plant food supports and promotes flower development. Together, Terra Grow and Terra Bloom are the perfect partnership for optimum growth, flowering and yield – and a much better flavour! The advantages of Terra Grow and Terra Bloom: Terra Grow : Immediately absorbable Guarantees optimal growth Suitable for all watering systems
Terra Bloom: Immediately absorbable Guaranteed optimum flowering and fruit setting Suitable for all watering systems For the best result, combine Terra Grow and Terra Bloom with Plagron Lightmix or Growmix. Do you have any questions? servicedesk@plagron.com For additional information about Terra Grow or Terra Bloom, www.plagron.com
Manufacturer / Product Website: www.plagron.com
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SOLER & PALAU VENT your hot air with S&P The VENT range comes with an ultra-compact metal casing and is fitted with a powerful backward curved centrifugal fan for high performance suitable for use with carbon filters. The range extends from 4” (100mm) to 12” (315mm) to suit a variety of room sizes. Motors are fitted with maintenance-free ballrace bearings for long-life. All models are also provided with thermal protection built-in to the motor for safeguarding against overheating. This range also comes with a 2 year warranty and provides cost effective ventilation solution.
Manufacturer / Product Website: www.solerpalau.co.uk/product/ comercial-public/in-line-duct-fans/where/category/in-line-circularduct-fans/vent.html Distribution by: Distributors shown on website
SOLER & PALAU Quiet & economical Box fan from S&P The CAB range offers 2” (50mm) of V0 flame retardant acoustic insulation on all faces of the enclosure to prevent unwanted noise from the motor and fan. The range extends from 4” (100mm) to 12” (315mm) to suit a variety of room sizes. Suitable for use with supply or extract air, the fan consists of a double inlet forward curved impeller running inside an optimised scroll to generate an excellent combination of airflow and pressure without noisy turbulence. Spigots are fitted with rubber seals to ensure that leakage from the ducting is eliminated and the lid features quick release turnbuckles to aid cleaning.
Manufacturer / Product Website: www.solerpalau.co.uk/product/ comercial-public/acoustic-cabinet-fans/where/category/cab.html Distribution by: Distributors shown on website
GROW GEAR MAXIBRIGHT Xpert 600W power pack A low cost, vented, powder coated metal enclosure ballast with 600W of Genuine Power. The Xpert power pack has a precision wound ballast, a matched digital SmartTM igniter and is manufactured using quality components from Venture Lighting Europe. The compact size of the Xpert (L: 245mm x H: 110mm x W: 120mm) makes it ideal for wall mounting and grow room use.
Find your local supplier: www.maxibright.com/where-to-buy/ Product Website: www.maxigrow.com
MAXIBRIGHT Xtreme Gardening Compost Tea This compost Tea brew oers a quick and eective means of adding life back into your soil. Applied as an instant extract or as a brewed compost tea in an aerated brewer. Simply pour the brewed tea around the base of the plant once a week. The microbes will rapidly break down nutrients into particles your plant can absorb right away. With more nutrients and minerals available, your plants will grow stronger and faster! See Diagram: Add 1 Tea brew (5 or 50 gal sachet) into the water contained in the compost tea brewer. Squeeze the Tea brew sachet several times and add 1 x activator packet. Turn on the air pump with the air-stone connected (a fountain head water pump can be used to reduce froth and agitate the brew). Brew for 48h for growing or 24h for flowering/fruiting plants.
Product Website: www.maxigrow.com
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GROW GEAR KAHN Choose your weapon! KAHN Climate Control introduces the ATOM, LITTLE BOY and FAT MAN as an ‘off the shelf’ option to its bespoke Climate Control units. Atom deals effortlessly with 12 x 600 w lamps in a sealed or non sealed environment, has ‘True Intelligence Auto’@ mode – simply set the desired temperature for ‘Day’ and ‘Night’ and these bright boys work it out for themselves. Single phase (domestic) electric supply is sufficient even for its bigger brother and comfortably deals with up to 36 x 600w lamps! As with all the Kahn range there is NO WATER REQUIREMENT at all. Flexible rubber connection pipes are standard on all units (no copper pipe!). Combine that with quick fit / easy connection system including a refrigerant recover facility ‘in built’ means that these are simple to install – and easily moved from site to site without any specialist kit!
ATOM
Kahn Climate Control - Atom 12k - 12-14 x 600w Kahn Climate Control - Little Boy 18k - 22-24 x 600w Kahn Climate Control - Fat Man 28K - 32-34 x 600w Distributed by: FDP Wholesale
KAHN Choose your weapon! Control your environment effortlessly with ‘true Intelligence Auto’: Simply set the desired temperature and the unit does the rest 365 days a year!
FAT MAN
Manchester based Kahn have now come up with an ‘off the shelf’ product for any size room that uses NO WATER and works off a standard domestic electricity supply. It’s so simple to install even YOU could do it – no copper pipes, no gas to charge, and a truly silent indoor / outdoor unit with an efficiency curve that goes off any scale. Imagine the equivalent of up to 28 Kw of output from a normal domestic electric supply, but consuming only 300w of power on ‘tick over’! Double DC Inverter circuitry gives you not just an edge, but unimaginable power. The resulting performance of these units will literally blow you away. All at a price that makes them accessible to all!
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LITTLE BOY
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THE WORLDWIDE REFERENCE NEW ENGLISH EDITION INCLUDING INDOOR & OUTDOOR URBAN GARDENING
Available through GROWTH TECHNOLOGY , HIGHLIGHT HORTICULTURE , Hydrofarm, BWGS, Avalon Wholesale and major distributors worldwide. MAMAPUBLISHING.COM
GROW GEAR NUTRIFIELD CRYSTALIC Nutrifield Crystalic™ is a new bio-stimulant which promotes secondary metabolite production. This aids in the synthesis of terpenoids and polyphenolic compounds which are responsible for the creation of essential oils and trichomes in flowering plants. Trichomes are hair like structures on the surface of the plant where essential oils and terpenes are stored. As they are tiny and reflect light, they appear crystalline yet much of your crop’s flavour and aroma are stored within them. Applying Crystalic™ to your feed regimen helps produce vigorous, fragrant, and sweeter fruits and flowers. Available Sizes: 1 litre, 5 litre & 20 litre. Distributed by: HID Distributor Website: www.hydroindustrydirect.com Product Website: www.nutrifield.com.au
GEOPOT G-LITE Geopot is a breathable fabric plant container that air prunes your plants’ roots when they reach the edge of the container. The air root pruning process forces the roots to branch out with more fibrous feeder roots which are much more efficient in taking up water and nutrients. This very durable geotextile fabric is porous, allowing air into the root zone and provides great drainage creating a healthy environment for the roots. This combination of air root pruning and aeration of the root zone allows your plants to reach their fullest potential. Geopot Lite is also available for cost conscious growers, slightly thinner material with less stitching but with all the benefits of an original Geopot. Available in a range of sizes from 2 litres to 114 litres. Distributed by: HID Distributor Website: www.hydroindustrydirect.com Product Website: www.geopot.com
SHIELD VAPORISER & SULPHUR CREAM Shield’s electronic vaporiser and sulphur cream sets a new standard in plant care products. Built around a high quality temperature controlled heating element, the Shield vaporiser is a safe and easy way to help control mould spores and pests in any growing area using only natural ingredients. Combining sulphur with Shield’s natural carrier oils has created Shield Sulphur cream. This melts when the vaporiser is turned on, vaporising and filling the growing area. When the vaporiser is turned off the remaining cream solidifies once more - ready for use on another day. Use as necessary, but normally every 2-4 weeks should be sufficient. Only use when lights are off or light is low. Distributed by: HID Distributor Website: www.hydroindustrydirect.com
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COMPETITION Competition Time You lucky bastards. You lucky, lucky bastards. Our friends at IKON, flushed with the Christmas spirit (and possibly some other forms of spirit) have, in a moment of madness, donated the incredible Agrowtent Vertical for one of you ingrates. The ideal solution for those working with limited space, this revolutionary tent design will maximise your light source, optimise your yields, and blow your tiny minds! Just like Kim Kardashian it comes with a double bottom, but unlike our Kim it will reduce the risk of water damage and is easy to clean. Are you THAT loaded that you can turn down the chance to win a grand’s worth of kit? Thought not… So don’t just sit there in your pants with your mouth agape – visit our website and fill out our competition form!
AGROWTENT VERTICAL GROW TENT Worth Over £950
THIS MONTH’S PRIZE...
Sponsored by IKON
HOW TO ENTER...
As of HYDROMAG ISSUE 008, there is a new way to enter competitions. You must now go to www.hydroshow.tv/competition and enter your phone number and email address into the form. Winners will be chosen at random before the publication of our next issue. Your information will not be shared with third party companies. *Full terms can be found at http://hydroshow.tv/competition-terms
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Discover the new CANNA CALMAG AGENT
www.canna-uk.com