1000,600,or what?

Yes i have been doing much research on riu but have a question of many that keeps bugging me. I plan on getting a grow going and it will hopefull ybe done in a basement. I will have 2 seperate tents to grow in both being approx. 6ftx6ftx6ft. now the lighting possiblities are whats concerning me. can i count on a 600w hps to the trick or should i just putright buy a 1000w just to be on the safe side.but the main problem i have is then i would need to put a 1000 in the veg room but it beeing a mh. or could i manage to have a 600mh veg and a 1000w hps for flowering. I am going to try to get 16 plants in the tent and im sure i can do it. The method in which im gonna grow as of lst,scrog or sog is yet unknown im gonna try the first grow normally.Im gonna be using soil.
the main problem with going with the 1000w is that i dont want to flip a breaker as i will have a 424 inline fan in each tent with teh lights and other odds and ends. let me know what you think.

id use 600hps for flower and same in mh for veg,better output and less power

You think the 600 is enough to cover an area of about 5x5 feet im guessing the plants will cover? the money aint the issue its just blowing breakers.lol

I'd get the 1000 watt HPS to flower, the brighter the better results. You could use Flourescent strip lights to Veg with or a 600 watt HPS to veg with.

If you want, you can convert a 600 watt HPS light to burn metal Halide for the price of a switch so you could burn both in it. You just need to remove the ignitor out of the circuit to burn metal halide.

Well see thats what i figured teh 1000W would be better and more able to expand if that was in the future for me. I though about going with t5's for veg secially seeing as how i would have 9 weeks to veg for and i wouldnt need that as i would have mothers to take clones off of.but the metal halide would be cheaper in the long run than getting enough flourescents to man 16 plants and mothers. I know they have the lights that can run hps or mh so i would get a 600w one of them.i plan on dropping 2500 on this grow and expect only great results as ive learned so much here.all ive been doing is studying. but if i did go with the 6 bulb high out put t5's how many you think i would need to cover 16 plants(4 rows of 4) just from a quesstimate.....

I use a 1000 watter. It will cover a 5x5 area pretty good. 4x4 area is much better.

The T5's are pretty bright so you should be able to use them without a problem. If you get a 6 bulb fixture you can probably take 2 of the bulbs out and still be good for vegging. and also have the choice to add 2 more for experiments, but I think 4 bulbs over a plant would be plenty for veg.

You'd have to get the measurements of the light fixtures and make sure you had coverage over the plants and you would be good to go. Without the measurements I wouldn't be able to tell you haw many fixtures you'd need.

The cheaper way will probably be a 600 on one side and the 1000 on the other or two 400's on the veg side for better coverage.

Personally I'd be all over 2 x 600 watters.... Every way you look at it WATT by WATT 600 watters will outperform 1000 watters.

600w: 90,000 lumens/600w=150 lpw
1000w:140,000 lumens/1000w=140 lpw

Now factor heat into the equation and you can see there will be problems with 1000 watters.

Let's try 3000w as an example since this is a number both 600w and 1000w are divisible into.

5x600w=3000w: 90,000x5=450,000 lumens
3x1000w=3000w:140,000x3=420,000 lumens

See the efficiency at work and btw 3x1000w will be hotter than 5x600w and you can allow for a more even distribution of light with 600w.

That's just my .02


-potlike

The 1000 has it all over the 600 as far as covering space and they have deeper penetration into the canopy. Two 600's per tent would be primo as you can have proper plant spacing if you keep it to 16 per tent. The 600 runs a little cooler and can be placed closer to the canopy producing nice nugs. Air cooled hoods with co2 injection would keep you in kind bud year around.

Alright...see i thought about that to the 2 600w.i like the sounds of that just for the better coverage in the tent. it would def allow more light all around and could space the plants out a little more giving them more room to grow. My only concern about this is can 1 room handle all of this electric pulled from it on an average?
I def already planned on getting air cooled hoods with and inline fan to make sure the babies are happy with the temp.placed in the basement to insure a cooler climate. Thought about co2 but i dont want to do it my first grow,maybe come to the flowering stage but i want to feel certain with the rest of my grow concerning the lights,airflow,and nutrients before i add co2. but knowing me ill end up with adding some my first grow while im into it.
thank you all for your advice.
with using the t'5s for vegging..i might still do this.it will be more pricy buying the units but it should only take 2 if im thinking of it right.that and i can keep the light close to the plants making sure there is limited stretching...im still in debate with myself over this....

Is the circuit you are on 15 amp/ 20 amp??? Is it dedicated to your grow room or is it sharing? I hear the general rule of thumb is not to load a circuit to 3/4 of its' capacity so on 15 amp service to the room that is around 11-12 amps... on 20 amp service that is around 15 amps.

I get by dealing with electrical but it isn't my specialty and there are TONS more qualified people here to answer electrical questions.... I'd hit up Lorenzo or BigBudBalls(BBB) off the top of my head because their advice would be more sound than mine when dealing with electrical.

I believe 600w ballasts generally draw around 5-6 amps. If you have two different circuits(not just outlets) in the room I would consider balancing the amperage between them.


-potlike

yes i do know this and it may sound stupid but i cant grow yet.im learning everything i can as im starting and it sucks but im overseas right now with the army and have no way to check out the area im gonna be growing in.i have some people i know go take some pics for me but they dont know why of course so they are probablly fail miserablly at letting me know what i need. but i am getting a basic start and think i got everything mapped out in my brain so i think i should be alright.it all depends on what the breakers are.i am gonna ahve an extra room and the basement so ill split it up if need be but id prefer not to....either way im gonna get my grow on!lol

Alright I want you to know that 600 watt hps are all the rage and they aren't that easy to find all the time. I'm only just now finding this out myself. I only bought one with the set up as they say they last 24000 hours but now I find they blow all the fucking time. So if you do go for a 600 please make sure you buy more than one bulb so you can keep your grow going while your in the middle of trying to get a new bulb as fast as you can. Just a word of warning,that no one gave me.

A great 600w ballast is a Digital 600w Lumatek Ballast and that is a good price for it. Right now the best PPFD and more important PUR ratings that are known belong to an Osram Plantastar 600w bulb .

-potlike

so ur gunna have a veg room and flowering room? So once ur done flowering u will move the other plants in from the veg room and grow thous? So u would have bud every month or so and just keep doing that cycle?

gimmethespliff-YEah thats the plan but its not gonna be every month its only gonna be every 2 months cause its gonna take 8 weeks at least to flower so im counting on 9.rather go to long then not enough from what i read.

maryjanedoe-thanks for the word of advice.i def wil be getting extra bulbs as you never know what the hell can happen and its better to be ready than scrambling ya know.but thank you i didnt know the 600 were harder to find...that may impact my decision.

potlike-sweet,thanks for all the info.i knew there had to be a supreme bulb and a better ballast. def gonna invest in the bulb from the start and after my first grow ill prob end up getting that other ballast.then keep the others for backup just in case some crazy shit happens.which we all know happens all the time in life.lol

and i thought over the fact of doing t5's with the vegging room and kinda like the thought of that more and more....im pretty damn sure it would only take 2 4 foot 6bulb..which isnt so bad....im more concerned about heat with all that lighting going on. i think once i make my mind up im gonna start odering everything i need and sending it home to get ready....damn im so excited about all of this.always wanted to do it and now that i am im gonna make sure i do this shit right.
thank you all

Glad to hear you are gonna do it right, most people don't.

Don't base you decision on heat to get the T5's, HID and Flourescent put out the same heat, they are using the same watts to convert to light so it produces the same amount of heat. The only difference might be from magnetic ballasts might add to the heat issue.

I think you'll be fine with the T5's also but wait till you try and touch one of those babies..................

2 - 600's and 2 - T5 fixtures should give you a pretty good setup but to be sure after you get done you'll have to invite us all over to sample the goods. Like was mentioned you should have some spare 600 watt bulbs laying around, 400 and 1000 are far more common.

I still think you can get by with 4 tubes in the 6 light fixtures, you'll see what I'm talking about when you get them, it's good to be able to burn 6 if you want brighter and depending on how crampt things get in the veg room, still get the 6 bulb fixture.

Sounds Awesome.

Are you soil growing or hydro ?

If money's no issue, the 600's are great. They are harder to find and do seem to cost even more than the 1000's, in many cases.

Well with the t'5s and the mh light im 50/50 on it so well see.and i have heard that the heat is still intense from them also so i have factored that in to my decision. I dont know well see what i end up deciding im hoping iwth a 6x6 tent that being crampt wont be a problem but well see when i do it. alot of this is speculation and i will know better once i try it out.im sure i have given it enough thought though for everything to fit as i plan it with the size of lights and the tent and plants.
as for starting im gonna do it with soil and then after i get the hang of it i will probablly end up switching to hydro but i was told to start with soil as it is more forgiving. i dont want to start out and mess it up cause i wanted to be high tech with hydro.lol. so im gonna start soil...

i run 2 -600 watt Iights both with hortiIux buIb, amazing yieId , and Iow heat . easier to maintain. runs good. your best bet . the pros go with the 600 aIso , a smaII vaIue Iine vortex fan cooIs it perfectIy.go to www.discount-hydro.com , the extreme baIast comes with Iifetime warranty ,get theIume cooI refI. for cooIing the Iite. if your buIb burns out under warranty wiII send it overnight free. but need to keep spare for any Iite.thiers the best.here is one of my growrooms.just fini set up for this one.