Alright, I'm gonna give a little background before my question. I just bought a lumatek 600w Ballast, a sunleaves air cooled reflector, and a 6" can fan max all for $200 from someone on Craigslist. (Pretty good deal) The guy threw in a 600w HPS bulb and a 400w MH bulb. My question is: Should I invest in a 600w MH bulb or should I just use the 400w he gave me? I'm gonna be running 4 autos. I'm gonna have 4 t12 32w bulbs (I know they're not the best, but I have them laying around my house so I thought to use them for extra lighting) for side lighting and 8 23w CFLs hanging (2 in each corner) for a little extra lighting. Would going from 400w to 600w make that huge of a difference?
There is a difference, it just depends on the area that you want to cover. A 400 watt light will cover a 32" x 32" while a 600 will cover 40" x 40". It just depends on how large of an area you want to cover. You could do four plants in each example, but the larger tent will produce bigger heavier plants. For veg if you just want to place the 400 a bit closer to the plants so that its not covering as large of an area, thats fine also. If you have your plants in a large pot which takes up a lot of room, then the 600 for veg may not be a bad idea. It all depends on the space that you are using. They don't quite need as much light during veg as they do during the flower season. But you don't want to have the light so low that they start stretching for the light either. Just try to keep things at at/near 50 watts per square foot or higher.
Well I'm going to be running in a Secret Jardin DR90, so I should be fine with the 400w. With the 400w MH, 128w from the T12s, and 184w from the CFLs, I'll be at almost 80w per square foot. Then when I flower I'm going to run the 600w HPS, the CFLs, and the T12s and have about 101w per square foot. Is that super overkill?
Well, cfls or florescent lighting is actually only half as efficient as hid, so when it comes to those, you actually want 100 watts per square foot. When you look at watt per watt of electricity consumed, an hid will put out about double the amount of lumens are light as compared to cfls. Thats why its 50 watts per square foot for hid or 100 watts per square foot for cfl florescent. Depending on the size of your tent, there is probably no need for the cfls. Provided that your hid is putting out at least 50 watts per square foot, then there is no need for cfls.
There isn't really a point to use the cfls if you are already using hps. Hps is far brighter than cfls and should provide good coverage provided that you have at least 50 watts per square foot and that your plants are not competing for space. If your plants don't compete for space, then there really isn't a reason for side lighting since they would still receive light from the main light or hps light. Growers that use hps don't use cfls along with it. They may use cfls for the first week of veg for seedlings, but then after that most switch to hid and only use hid. Hid also puts out double the amount of lumens compared to cfls so that in itself is like saving money on electricity vs cfls because its more efficient.
For what it's worth and purely as a reference point for you: I ran a DR90 with 400w MH/HPS setup for my last grow. I had five plants under it (one was a runt) and I didn't do any topping, trimming,etc...just let them grow jungle style. Yielded exactly 7 ounces with just 4 weeks of veg and 9 wks flowering, which is more than enough for my needs. I am no expert grower (5 grows under my belt now) but to me 400w in a DR90 tent gave me everything I needed, and more. Can't wait for the next grow...coming soon.
hi mate that 400w and 600w are plenty for your area no need for cfls, and to answer your question there wont be much of a difference in the 400 and 600 during veg, so that being said id stick with the 400w for veg and 600w for flower but that's just my opinion.
There is a huge difference between flowering with a 400 vs 600, mh or hps, though I've never used a 600w mh bulb. Buds will be much larger and denser. Ideal to veg with the 400mh and go 600hps for flower. The low level side lighting never worked well for me. Better to manipulate your plants to get better high intensity lighting.
A fishy would suggest you just go with the lower wattage MH, veg them nicely and then put all your time/energy/money/sweat/blood into the flowering process. DO your research, learn, have fun. Vegging with MH really isn't an issue, it'll have more than enough lumens if you get it a foot away (12-15 is what the fishy does. Have fans cooling it or ducting).
Can you post or pm me pictures of this if you have any? I literally just posted a thread on this subject and probably just should have scrolled down the page some.
http://forum.grasscity.com/indoor-grow-journals/1137925-400w-mhhps-soil-tent-growmns-black-widow-g13-sour-jack-dinafem-amnesia.html
I am assuming with it being a lumatek it is dimmable. I was just getting ready to.voice the same concern just in case.