400w cfl... but want more? +rep for help!!

I am currently growing 8 plants under 400w of cfl. today is the first day of the sixth week flowering, and theyre lookin pretty nice, couple dense tops whatever. I want to upgrade for my next grow, should I go with 2 250w hps, or 1 400w hps? my room is 5' long, 2.5' wide, and 30" tall. i plan to cool tube whatever i get, if that makes a difference idk. some help please!

Evlaar said:

I am currently growing 8 plants under 400w of cfl. today is the first day of the sixth week flowering, and theyre lookin pretty nice, couple dense tops whatever. I want to upgrade for my next grow, should I go with 2 250w hps, or 1 400w hps? my room is 5' long, 2.5' wide, and 30" tall. i plan to cool tube whatever i get, if that makes a difference idk. some help please!

Click to expand...

i have pretty close dime. to wut u have and i have a single 400watt and im wanted to get another one for my next crop, but

i would say u should get 2 250watt one MH and one HPS, u get both light spectrum and 500 total watts, and get the super hps blub its ~80 dollars but worth it.

Evlaar said:

I am currently growing 8 plants under 400w of cfl. today is the first day of the sixth week flowering, and theyre lookin pretty nice, couple dense tops whatever. I want to upgrade for my next grow, should I go with 2 250w hps, or 1 400w hps? my room is 5' long, 2.5' wide, and 30" tall. i plan to cool tube whatever i get, if that makes a difference idk. some help please!

Click to expand...

i also am currently using cfl bulbs but soon will be using a 600w digital ballast so that i can use mh and hps and i will also use the cfls i paid good money for to widen my light spectrum as well. but know matter what use a digital ballast so you dont have to buy mh and hps systems.

get a 400 watt mh for vegging and a 400 watt hps for flowering. and get an aircooled one too,and oh get a electronic ballast they use 20% less energy.

I forgot to mention im going to start doin sog, throwing freshly rooted clones into flower. I won't need any MH light, i was simply wondering if the 2 250s would be better because they would give better light distribution and a little less than 10000 extra lumens. if its better to have the 400 for more concentrated light, id probably have to move it every day to get coverage over the whole room right?

Two HPS lamps will do more just than one 400. You will have more wattage, and more area coverage. Your plants will grow more uniform

Evlaar said:

I forgot to mention im going to start doin sog, throwing freshly rooted clones into flower. I won't need any MH light, i was simply wondering if the 2 250s would be better because they would give better light distribution and a little less than 10000 extra lumens. if its better to have the 400 for more concentrated light, id probably have to move it every day to get coverage over the whole room right?

Click to expand...

well just bc your going to throw them in flowering doesnt mean u dont need a MH light,

it makes a better spectrum of light closer to that of the sun's

thats y i said 2 250watt lamps MH/HPS one each, but hey use 2 hps if you think its better, ur just on a site that ur asking for help on

30" high wont cut it.
10" for the pot and a minimum of 12"s from the globe to the plant tops, and another 8"s from the globe to the ceiling and there's no room left for the plants.
Anything under 5 feet will be difficult to use HID lighting.

haha alright. thanks for the help guys. im not looking for spectrum or room size advice (especially you spiked1. youre retarded.) simply is the extra 100w for my power bill worth it since its less than a 10,000 lumen increase, because the 250s dont put out as many lumens per watt as the 400s do. does anyone have any experience with doing this?

Evlaar said:

haha alright. thanks for the help guys. im not looking for spectrum or room size advice (especially you spiked1. youre retarded.) simply is the extra 100w for my power bill worth it since its less than a 10,000 lumen increase, because the 250s dont put out as many lumens per watt as the 400s do. does anyone have any experience with doing this?

Click to expand...

dude your retarted

with the spectrum, it would make a difference in growth(so have fun with bud that could have been better!)

and spiked1 is right it is to short for HID lighting

ur blowing every ones advice and saying we dont know anything

youre just answering a different question man. im going to use some 6500k cfls for balancing the spectrum. putting an mh and hps in there would be like having half the plants under mh spectrum and half under hps with only the middle few plants really getting both. nevermind man. people on this site are too quick to get all pissed off its ridiculous

Evlaar said:

youre just answering a different question man. im going to use some 6500k cfls for balancing the spectrumridiculous

Click to expand...

That's a good idea in my opinion. I did the same thing. I used a 400w HPS and 4 - 42W 6500K CFL's and built it all under one shade so i got nice even distributation. But concidering the length of your closet, 2 250's might be a better choice.

Evlaar said:

I am currently growing 8 plants under 400w of cfl. today is the first day of the sixth week flowering, and theyre lookin pretty nice, couple dense tops whatever. I want to upgrade for my next grow, should I go with 2 250w hps, or 1 400w hps? my room is 5' long, 2.5' wide, and 30" tall. i plan to cool tube whatever i get, if that makes a difference idk. some help please!

Click to expand...

thats just not enough height for hid lighting. have you thought about LED? a couple 50 or 90 watt UFO's would make a 2.5 by 5 area absolutley explode! that is, if you have the cash for it.

OH i missed that part, yea 30" is deffinently not tall enough for HID, Maybe a 70w or 150

I'm on my second grow and am determined to get an HPS system now. I have about fourteen 42W CFLs, nine of which are 2300k, the other five are 6500k.

CFL's aren't awful, but they are not as efficient and hassle-free as I'd like. If I could do it all over again, I would have invested all that money into a nice HPS. However, not all is lost- It seems that different having a good mix of light spectrum is beneficial in flowering, so I'll just keep the 6500k's to help out the lower growth of my plants, while the sun-god HPS shines happiness from above.

Snak said:

I'm on my second grow and am determined to get an HPS system now. I have about fourteen 42W CFLs, nine of which are 2300k, the other five are 6500k.

.

Click to expand...

Yea I started CFL, and still love them for micro grows, but i have my 400W HPS. And it's a great light, I'm workin on a cool tube cabinet now. I'm gunna let 4 plants hog the whole thing.

Evlaar said:

haha alright. thanks for the help guys. im not looking for spectrum or room size advice (especially you spiked1. youre retarded.) simply is the extra 100w for my power bill worth it since its less than a 10,000 lumen increase, because the 250s dont put out as many lumens per watt as the 400s do. does anyone have any experience with doing this?

Click to expand...

Me retarded?
Your'e so thick you can't be helped.
Why ask questions if you can't accept advice form people who have been there and done that, especially when you have obviously never grown anything.kiss-ass

Get some T5s in a space like that.

I have grown with this height before in a different place under 1 250w hps. i sold it when i moved and i mean dont get me wrong, it definitely is hard to keep them under control, but with some solid lst it can be done. i think im going to go with the 2 250s after this harvest because of the even distribution. along with 6 6500k cfls... should be cool. ill make a journal and show you guys its possible to do it in that height

I'm sure it's possible. Just difficult. HOWEVER, build your hps into cool tube units, then you'll be rockin.