Fluorescent lighting question?

You can work with that. You have the budget option of regular T-12 Flouros or the higher priced T-5 flouros. I purchased 6 4 ft shop lights from Home Depot, they are like $7 each. Connected them using a pieces of 1X1 stripping so they were connected closer together. I purchased the bulbs at Home Depot as well, they were about $8 per set. I bought 8 red spectrum and 8 blue spectrum. I used 8 blue and 4 red for veg and 8 red 4 blue for flowering. I grew 3 females in this area in 5 gl containers to about 4ft and yielded just under 6 oz's.

You have to switch spectrums to maximize your yields. More blue during veg and more red during flowering. It can be done though.

You could also find a bargain 400 W HPS(I paid $125 shipped on eBay for mine) and just do the whole grow with that, but you will need to have decent airflow to control the temps.

 

I grew one NL #2X5, and 2 NL #5 X Big Bud. The space was just an inch or so over 4 ft wide, 30 inches deep and about 6 ft high. I started the 12/12 cycle when the plants were about 2.5 ft and the NL #2X5 was just under 4 ft and the others were right bout 4 ft give or take a few inches. The flowers were full and dense and full of trichs. The quality was just as good as anything I grew under HID, only under HID I would have a slightly bigger yield. However $ for $ considering cost of this room vs cost of HID room, IMHO the end results were just as good. Nobody could tell the difference, a few even felt the floruo grown stuff was a bit more potent.

Whatever way you decide, if you go cheap with the regular flouros, you need at least 10-12 tubes. T-5's, which considering you can get a good 400 W HPS for about the same price as a 8 tube T-5 or even less, I would go with the HID. A 400 W HPS would fill that area good with light and give you a nice 3 or 4 plant harvest.

 

This light is the best for the space your working with I'd buy it if i didn't allready have a 3 foot wide 8 tube. Hell i might still