Growspace and lighting req. ? 250vs400

I am finishing up with a cfl project atm where I have 7 females with decent cola buds in their 5-7th week of flowering. I'm not really satisfied with the results of the 12 cfls i'm using.
My question is, in a space of 15"X24"X30" would it be overkill to buy a 400w hps/mh? Should I invest in a 250w instead?

Also, are there any specific products that anyone around here could recommend?

Sounds like a small space. Unless you were using cooltubes and a vent fan, both the 250 and the 400 would cook things up pretty hot. HPS is what you want for flowering if you choose to go to HIDs.

What CFLs are you using at the moment?

Actually a 150 would be more appropriate for that space, assuming the 30" is height.

Jonus said:

Sounds like a small space. Unless you were using cooltubes and a vent fan, both the 250 and the 400 would cook things up pretty hot. HPS is what you want for flowering if you choose to go to HIDs.

What CFLs are you using at the moment?

Click to expand...

I am currently using 12 2700k 26w cfls.

Hmm so a 150w might be better?

Yea it's 30" grow height minus the space needed for the light itself and the space needed between the light and plants.

I'd probably only veg them for a maximum of one month. With my current setup I have some 16oz cups I used from seed, 12/12 from seed to be exact. They range from 6" - 1' in height atm, so I have about a foot of wasted space that could occupied with buds.

I'll think about it. Thanks


Actually now that I think about it, I could have a possible 60" of height to play around with using my entire cab(only using half now) so height wouldn't really be an issue.

in that space id just get a 120watt flouro

Go with a 100 or 150 watt HPS! For sure...Def will need a cooltube though to keep the light cool so you can keep the plants close since your height is limited...

good luck

Admitedly, I looked at your space and not your current lighting. Mea culpa. You have 312 watts of year in there. Two 150's bwould he perfect if you can deal with the heat, and definitely more light than the cfls. Even with ducted reflectors , a 400 will cook. As you have seen, multiple small heat sources don't radiate out as much distance. However, one or two intense light sources will penetrate much deeper into the plant tissues and produce more yield, vs a cfl setup.

cooltube should only be use veeticaly in that space with the plants growing around. In that situation I'd use one 250. The cooltubes suck at distributing light back down evenly.

You do not need a cooltube with the 150's, just fans blowing on the bulbs, the same fan you have to blow the tops of the plants and then if your current exhaust is enough now it'll be enough for 300w of hid as well. If he's running 312w of cfl now then 300w (two 150's) is the way to go for sure. One 150 might not be enough of an improvement though he would save half the energy if that mattered and work out about equal.

If you want to use the whole height of 60" you mentioned later and grow tall sativas or something then you could cram in a 400 with a cooltube maybe, but otherwise ***two 150's is ideal***.

Econolight sells the 150's for $20 ea complete with bulbs and ballasts, with shipping you'd be looking at around $55 for two. Try and try hard to beat that.

I'll give you the link if you can't find it, it's all over this site, we've posted it many many times now, many people are using them.

Landragon is wrong about vertical 250 in a cooltube being the way to go... No, you'd have to convince me. A 150 on each side horizontally in a normal arrangement is sure to do better.

For the best results I suggest you leave the cab as is and veg in the extra space with a couple flouro's rather than devote all the space to flowering, but if you will veg in another cab then that's up to you. Only a true sativa will use 60" height in the confines of your small cab, so maybe that will help you decide.