Lighting...your thoughts

My babies (8x) are almost a week old now.. but even with 2x 250w MH lamps burning 24/7 they are stretching for light. The bulbs are 10000k Ushios that I used in my reef tank. I fear that they may be a bit to heavy on the blue side of the spectrum. I found this one today while surfing.. do you think they will work for both veg & flowering. The initial lumen is very impressive.

CT INFORMATION Manufacturer Product Code Ordering Code Stock Status ANSI Code Lamp Type Base Bulb Bulb Finish Wattage Rated Life Lamp Enclosure Type (LET) Operating Position PHOTOMETRIC CHARACTERISTICS Initial Lumens Color Temperature (K) Color Rendering Index (CRI) DIMENSIONS Max. Overall Length (MOL) Bulb Diameter

Welcome to the forum. Something is wrong here. 2-250 watt hid lamps should provide enough light for 8 plants. How far above the plants is the light? VV

blue light inhibits stretching, red light encourages it.

VV most likely hit the nail on the head with the issue being distance.

The lights are 24" from plant top...but I did read that the lumen are dramatically reduced based on bulb age. The bulbs are a year old so it's probably due for a switch. I'm running them on a B-Line Electronic ballast which is suppose to lengthen bulb life and reduce electric use by 25%....guess not. I ended up ordering 2 new bulbs...the ones posted above along with this 85w CF twist bulb. It' s 5500K and rated at something like 5200 lumen. A double row of 3 would be sweet.

For now I've got straws supporting my stretched plants.

I don't understand this at all. you have 2-250 watt hid lights over 8 plants, so 500 watts of power, 41000 lumens total. A single 400 watt hid light, 43000 limens 400 watts of power. I vegged, flowered and harvested twelve plants under the 400 watt light. I did have it closer to the plants then 2', and they were new bulbs, maybe I'm missing something here. VV

im wondering the same thing..... sounds like TONS of light for the amount of plants you have.......
how big is the growing area?
do you know the strain of the plant?... seeds come from a 14' mother?
Remember you lose alot of light for every 12" your plants are away from the bulb. Maybe move them down a bit to only 18" above the plants. Also the blue spectrum keeps plants short between the internodes and develops better roots..... Red makes them stretch and flower.... using blue spectrum bulbs?