What do I need to look for when buying these bulbs? I know to look for the highest lumens but does the 6500k or numbers like that matter with them? I know they do for cfls but didn't know if it did for these hid bulbs. I'm looking to get a 600w setup on htg but they don't give to much info on the bulbs besides the lumens. Do I need to worry about that? What do I need to look for. Thanks for the help!
Hortilux are good bulbs, they are more expensive though at around $60 a bulb. MH is for veg and HPS for flowering. You can also get a $20-$25 iPower or Apollo horitculture bulbs off amazon..what I use is one of the cheap MH ones for veg and a hortilux HPS for flowering.
hortilux bulbs are garbage and over priced and that's a scientific fact, just look at their peaks, they peak in yellow bands, very bad idea for plant growth. in my opinion Lumatek for HPS and Solis Tek \\ Sun Pulse for MH can't go wrong with those bulbs. you will need a digital ballast to run the solis tek or sun pulse bulbs btw, the lumateks will run on either magnetic or digital, but if you're buying new, digital is the way to go.
im still using stock bulbs with great results apollo horticulture will upgrade soon to a hortilux most likely
Ushio has some decent bulbs, i used to use their 20k bulbs on my reef tanks and they seemed to do well under them. just keep your eye out for bulbs that peak in the yellow bands as they should peak in the reds, blues\\violets or even greens are beneficial to plant growth but peaking in yellow is an absurdity in plant physiology. hortilux has rode the marketing train to fame and nothing else, certainly not because their bulbs were any good in comparison to many others. just look at the post above mine. lol
They've done right by me for veg/flower, 1kw hortilux bulbs can be found for $60 each but I would never pay 3x that like they charge at the hydro shop. I can't remember the site but you can get cases of basic HPS bulbs for the same cost as one hortilux, I used to get single bulbs for $7. Agromax does just fine too, I'd say they're a step above generic but cost less than hortilux. Never tried any other brands but I'm sure they all perform decently. Anybody have an opinion on the Hortilux blue? They're pretty goddam expensive at over $200 each, can't see spending that much for a veg bulb.
I actually am getting a digital ballast! One question though, will those bulbs work on a dimmable ballast? not sure if i have to buy different bulbs for the different settings or if the one 600w bulb will work at the dimmed setting. Probably a dumb question, but I'm still new so i don't mind sounding dumb as long as I'm getting the right info.
dumb questions are nothing more then the ones never asked. most new dimmable ballasts are digital or at least make sure that's what you will be getting. digital ballast= pulse start, magnetic ballasts= probe start, keep that in mind when purchasing bulbs and ballasts. also i would not recommend actually dimming your bulbs as spectrum shift can and does occur. i use a solis tek ballast that can handle 400, 600 or 1000 watt bulbs and i would not run a 600 in a dimmable position, i would run it at 600. if you want 400 watts get a 400 watt bulb, if you want 600 watts use a 600 watt bulb and not a 1k running at 600, see my point on that? so to sum it up, when looking into MH or HID bulbs there are two main differences and they are magnetic (probe start) or digital (pulse start). probe start high pressure sodium bulbs will work in magnetic and digital ballasts, probe start metal halide bulbs will only work in magnetic ballasts. pulse start metal halide will only work in digital ballasts. just keep that in mind when purchasing. nothing worse than getting a new digital ballast and having new metal halide probe start bulbs that wont work.