http://www.htgsupply.com/viewproduct.asp?productID=53025 OR http://cgi.ebay.com/Sun-System-150-...ryZ42225QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem So far only thing i like is that the sun system looks easier to hang. What do you guys think I should get? Thanks for the help!
How many plants are you looking to grow? 150w isn't very much and can probably only grow 2-3 plants max. Edit: I've always been told to go by the 100w/plant rule for best results.
Either one looks fine. Check this out while you shopping for hps fixture pick up a metal halide bulb same wattage use it in same ballast in place of hps for veg. hps ballast will power metal halide but not the other way around. use hps for flower. it will help you keep them more bushy than stretched out. I wish I knew this like 3 monthes ago lol. You can also supplement light with some inexspensive cfl bulbs. good luck
persoally, i like the compact design for the sunsystem and i actually have had great luck with the company. i have a sunsystem 400w and its like 6 or 7 yrs old and still works great!! unless your growing one small plant 150w is very low power, you could score a 400w off egay for roughly 100 bucks if you try hard. the specs. of the 150w claimed 16,000 lumens, not too shabby but in contrast a 400w H.O. will put out 55,000. big diff. but of course with that comes extra heat, cost and possible noise. just givin you some info. good luck!!
Hey thanks for the help. All I have is 3 plants so i figured the 150 watt would be enough. I dont have a ton of room and it needs to be somewhat stealthy so i thought the 150 watt would be good for me. Will it flower 3 plants?
150w could maybe flower 3 small plants but I would rather have it flower one big one and get a bigger yield. You could probably start off vegging three expecting one or two to be male and end up with one or two females, which would be fine for 150w.
Well now I want a 250 watt....How hot will this get???? How high abover my plants will the light have to be?
as close as possible... probally around 12- 16" just dont burn them. with some decent airflow it should be fine.
I have that exact fixture from HTGsupply.com only thing I had to do was ghetto rig air cool it, I bought "L" brackets and got a piece of glass form lowes custom cut to surface size of reflector, I then cut two holes in one side of the reflector and cut a 3" hole on the other side, I put a 4"-3" reducer in the 3" hole and walla... Custom build air cooled reflector, my plants are like 3" from my glass, you can lay your hand on the glass all day long never burn. I built a small cabinet and I needed a smaller wattage light to not be too hot, also good thing about the HTGSupply light is that the ballast isn't attached to the reflector, I have mine outside my cabinet hanging on the side and it keeps temps down inside the cabinet. But seriously if I had to do it again, I would probably go with a bigger cabinet, not too much bigger and get a 400watt digital light form HTGSupply.com with a Cooltube reflector. 150 will work but now that I have it I wish I would have gone bigger. Everyone I talk to says yea I got a 150 I wanted bigger, or I got a 250 I wanted bigger, so on so forth. You can't go wrong with a 400 watt, make sure you get a proper air cooled reflector though, IE tempered glass, 150 doesn't throw that much heat but a 400watt would. And 400 watts would be plenty for 3 plants. Hope this helps.. Also a guy said a few posts back you can put a Metal Halide bulb in any HPS fixture, that is not true, first off they don't make regular 150watt Metal Halide bulbs, You need a Metal Halide CONVERSION bulb to go into a HPS fixture, OR you could go with a digital ballast, most digital ballasts take both MH or HPS bulbs, no conversion required, but regular MH bulbs only come in specific wattages, not like HPS that come in like every wattage...