Ballast Light

if i get 1000w ballast can i use ne bulb on it under 1000w

no. you'll burn your house down.

kp

so i have to get the right watts n bulb

yep, that's right gott be careful... fires suk

should i get 400w for 5 plants

yes 400 watt would be fine for 5 or 6 plants.You can get a digital 400 watt switchable ballast new at Maryland Hydroponics for $99 and a decent littl reflector from Sunleaves :: Indoor and Outdoor Gardening Products, Light Systems, Hydroponics Systems, Organic Fertilizers, Growing Media and more. called the Lightwave for $29 .You could upgrade to a 600 watt light in case you want to double that amount of plants for $119 at same site.Bulbs are about $25 for enhanced spectrum new on ebay. Good grows.Oh and digital gives 30% more light then old type ballast, are silent, have built in fan so ballast stays real cool and are silent no humming and weight only about 5 lbs vs 35 lbs

wats digital ive never heard of it

Digital is a new long lasting low electricy use type of ballast.It what most places sell now versus the old big heavy ones.They allow you to overclock your lights so a 95000 lumne lamp will give almost 300 % more light and they use about 30% less electric to run which means cost less to use them.They also run cool so they dont add heat to a grow area and they are auto start no waiting for long warm ups.I grabbed 2 600 watt digital from that web site and love them. I paired them with 95000 lumnes of enhanced spectrum bulbs then with the 30% extra from my bulbs have massive 247000 lumnes coming out and only using about the same energy as 800 watts of electric meaning more light then 1000 watt setup more coverage less heat and less electric cost.I got a light mover made a homemade almuinum cross bar and it moves both lights for me.