Can you do this? Caveats? Basically the 6" Cool Tube I bought seems like it is designed for a 1000w bulb. The 600w lamp is kind of dwarfed in it barely reaching halfway up the cool tube. In the interests of keeping things symmetrical, I thought I'd run a 1000w bulb using my 600w lumatek digital. So whats the skinny? Problems? Drawbacks? Concerns? Anybody done this?
It sounds like a bad idea to me. Your ballast would be less than the bulb wattage. Not good. They really should match for safety. I think you're asking for problems, even a fire, if you do run it like you said. I've never used HID lighting, though. I could be wrong.
Bulb will light it just wont put off very much light. The 600w bulb will put off more light in that ballast than the 1000w Like texrx said its a safety issue don't do it. Just drop the cheese for a 1000w ballast or a new hood.
If you decide to get a new ballast, Lumatek is being phased out. They are now called Galaxy. They offer a Multi light (both MH and HPS), Multi wattage (runns 400,600 and 1000 watt MH or HPS) ballast. I bought my for $416.00. Very nice ballast. Their is even a setting to increase the power to 110% for your old 1000 bulbs, to get all the lumens out of them as you can.
your're gonna start a fire. check out my grow http://forum.grasscity.com/general-indoor-growing/531815-1000w-mh-hps-lst-scrog-dwc-first-grow.html