need to know, round hood vs rectangle

[asauve]

ive looked everywhere and cannot find any kind of information on the difference.

my dad has a friends who grows, he sold us 2 ballasts 2 hoods and 4 bulbs (2 hps,2 MH) the ballasts are 1000w and bulbs 400.

growing in a 7x7x6 room, 12 plants.

3 questions,

1) is there a difference in the circle vs rectangle hoods?

2) will 400watts be good enough for the first few weeks?

3) will a 1000w ballast blow if i use 1000w bulb? or should i use something lower..

 

[Airwave]

ive looked everywhere and cannot find any kind of information on the difference.

my dad has a friends who grows, he sold us 2 ballasts 2 hoods and 4 bulbs (2 hps,2 MH) the ballasts are 1000w and bulbs 400.

growing in a 7x7x6 room, 12 plants.

3 questions,

1) is there a difference in the circle vs rectangle hoods?

2) will 400watts be good enough for the first few weeks?

3) will a 1000w ballast blow if i use 1000w bulb? or should i use something lower..

1. The only circle shaped hoods that I know of are the parabolic reflectors. I wouldn't use them myself, but it's all preference.

2. Match the bulb to the ballast. i.e 400w bulb in a 400w ballast. 600w bulb in a 600w ballast, etc.

3. No, that's what you are supposed to do.

 

[asauve]

well he knows this guy pretty well, and he said they were pretty expensive.. but we got them for 200 for it all.. so i figured we would use them untill we got on our feet

 

[Jack Harer]

ive looked everywhere and cannot find any kind of information on the difference.

my dad has a friends who grows, he sold us 2 ballasts 2 hoods and 4 bulbs (2 hps,2 MH) the ballasts are 1000w and bulbs 400.

growing in a 7x7x6 room, 12 plants.

3 questions,

1) is there a difference in the circle vs rectangle hoods?

2) will 400watts be good enough for the first few weeks?

3) will a 1000w ballast blow if i use 1000w bulb? or should i use something lower..

Airwave pretty much nailed it. I just wanna ad my own personal experience. I was using the cheap "bat-wing" reflectors my first couple of grows (Even made 2 of my own), then I bought 4 of the Sun System Yield Master air cooled hoods. I'll never buy them again. Even though they look real nice and in theory should be better, I don't think they were any more efficient. They were poorly designed, and made out of very cheap metals. The glass in them was low quality, so light loss from the glass became a real issue (about 25% loss!!) Hard to remove the glass for cleaning, etc.
If I have it to do over again, I'll probably go with a good parabolic reflector (with the "German" aluminum and no glass to try and remove without three hands) or even go to a metal fabricator and have some hoods made to my own specs. I priced them out and I can get a better built hood for right at, or a bit less even, what I paid for the Sun Systems. Unless you are willing to pay for high quality optical grade glass, air cooled hoods (and cool tubes) are very much over-rated IMHO. Closer to the tops with less light, or a bit higher with full light. It's a trade off no matter how you look at it.