I am currently using 12X26w cfl right now, in a 2X4X6.5' grow tent, and was considering buying a 400w hps/mh kit..... what does everyone think? Stay with cfls or take the plunge and buy a 400w kit? thanks
CFLs are good, and are overall cheaper. But over time the HPS/MH Bulbs last longer and get replaced free if they die within 1 year of purchase.. at least where I got mine... High Tech Garden Supply I would go for the 164.95$ kit its like 180.00 w/ shipping but you get the Hood, ballast, HPS Bulb & MH Conversion bulb & Timer. I run this same light. It's great my plants are healthy and growing well. I grew 2 harvests (bagseed) with this light and i seem to be getting alot higher yields than when I used to use CFLs with previous grows. This is by far the most bang for your buck, Check out my journal to see pix of my setup, plants, light etc.. Hope I helped
I'm pretty sure you're going to get tons of people chiming in on this out of the woodwork, but what it comes down to remains up to you. Can you afford a HID system? Can you afford the maintenance of it (associated energy costs, etc.)? What kind of yield do you want? It's pretty common knowledge that CFL's just can't produce the kind of dense buds that HID systems can. It's up to you, dude!
you can get a 150 watt hps with hood and external ballast from htg online for 69.99 plus 14 dollars shipping this would fit your room perfect and is very reasonable to run if that is the way you want to go. there was 1 other 150watt by sunsystems for the same but it had ballast on light fixture. i didnt like this. i just grabed mine from htg on ebay both can be seen there. hope this helps
GO WITH THE HPS / MH I have two rooms with flourecent light in one and hps/mh in the other. the difference in growth is retarded. why anyone wouldn't have a mh/hps. i've grown with cfls and the plants are much more lanky small. when i threw in my hps my plants took off. I have 38'' autoflowers now and the breeder says they are only supposed to be 20''! WTF HPS!