sooooo idk what happened i went to check on my plants this morning and the 600w was just hardly putting any light out and was a different color than before.. does this mean my bulb went bad? or my ballast? and how can you tell the difference when one goes bad?
That can happen if the ballast doesn't start the bulb properly. I've had that occur simply from condensation, so don't give up just yet. Whenever you see the bulb flickering/very dim like that, turn it off immediately. Wait at least 15min while you very carefully check all circuits, both for connectivity & for condensation, and then try turning it back on. If the problem keeps recurring, the HPS ignitor may be bad.
Yep. If it's been off this whole time, go try it now. But like I said, check the equipment as best you can first.