I know i should be in lighting but this is the first time ive ever asked this. so its a beginners question. if i bought 120/240V 400W Lumatek Sun System E Ballast 400 Watt - eBay (item 250707567962 end time Oct-13-10 16:47:05 PDT) what else would i need with it? does dimming mean like to lower wattage lights? I assume i need a hood, and a cord set? and bulb anything else? also any suggestions on hoods that are cheapish? nothing over 150 id say. Also is 400watts to much for a tent thats 64"tall 20"deep 36 wide? sorry for the questions but im gonna have to spend some moulah on a light here soon.
Most HID bulbs are not your standard socket, as such they fit a mogul socket, if you buy a hod/reflector, which is a good idea anyway it usually comes with a socket for your HID light bulb. For HID's your choices are Metal Halide High Pressure Sodium These you need one of each if you plan on going with them, MH for veg, HPS for flower if I'm not as high as I think I am so I may be corrected lol. MH conversion bulb - These contain both spectrums, for flower and veg Ceramic MH- also dual spectrum and closer to the suns spectrum than anything I've seen when you start looking at charts and info. only downside is it goes only up to 400watts so far. both of these will work on HPS ballast, magnetic only on the CMH or either on the MH I got a hood set with ballast and the two HID bulbs, but I'm going to use a MH conv. bulb I already have. My bid won out at 126...hope its not too cheap of quality lol. I get it on Tuesday so I'll let you know how that works out
You are correct in thinking that you need a hood and bulb. Nice thing about the ballast is that it is digital. CAN"T use CMH as the poster above suggested! The best one to get is a cooltube. You can find them on ebay from 65-85 dollars. The hood should come with a chord set. Make sure the hood you purchase has the right plug on it. Different companies use different plugs. That is a nice ballast. Lumatek makes some of the best ones and yes it is dimmable. (You can turn down the wattage and use a smaller bulb.) The fact that it is digital means you can run MH or HPS on it. Just get 2 bulbs and switch to the HPS when you go into flower. I would say that the 400 should be sufficient for your tent. I wouldn't go any bigger in grow area with the 400 though. I also wouldn't pack as many plants in there as I could either. Give them space. Probably only run like 3 plants in there. Those 3 could give you the same yield as 5-6 packed in there. Good Luck!! Here is a goo deal! EBAY
Right. I was just talking about the ballast he had the ebay link to. It is Digital. So he couldn't use one. I wasn't trying to say you were wrong,just agreeing with you.
Use Sun Pulse bulbs about $90. They are specifically designed for electronic ballasts. Other bulbs will burn out way too quickly and spill nasty chemicals on your plants. I read about this on Hight times. Hydrofarm reflectors are good and cost about $110 with cooling attachments. Or, you can buy a cheapy $40 reflector if you don't plan on cooling. That ebay seller is new, seems a little sketchy. The dimmable 400W can go down to about 250W, and the 600W goes down to 400W. You also need a $10 cord adapter to go from Lumatek to Hydrofarm.