Need some light guidance

Hi, i plan to start growing some big bud real soon, the seeds are germinating now. My grow room is 2'x3' wide and 4 1/2' tall. I plan to keep my two strongest females and place them in 4 gallon pots. How much lighting would be good. I was planning on using either a 250 watt or 400 watt hps light coupled with a 125watt growing compact flouresent. Also, will a hps work for vegatative state? I have heard it is more of a flowering lamp. Thanks

My grow room is about the same size as yours, but i do have more height to work with. I use a 400w and it seems to cover the area petty good. Yes hps is a flowering light, but can also be use for vegging as many people do it this way.

Yes the HPS will work for Veg. and some people prefer it, others would say it is a waste of watts. Do you have a good ventilation system planned out? this will be important. How many plants are you going to try and grow in that 2x3 area? What strain are you germinating? If you don't have a good ventilation system ready to go, I would go get a T5 set up. this will promote tight nodes, and create very little heat. Then when you put them into a 12-12 cycle, have your 400w Hps with digital ballast ready to go with a good air cooled reflector..and you will not need that compact flouresent..I can't stress enough the importance of the air circulation in that tight of a space with a big HID. It is going to be hot!

That is an interesting suggestion. Why use the hps at all. You can get a 2' t-5 8 tube light and use it for the whole thing in that small of an area. Less of a heat isuue, more lumens to the plants, more even lighting. one of the advantages of the t-5 lighting is it will use either blue or red spectrum bulbs, so it can be used for both by just purchasing the bulbs. VV

I plant to vent it with a 6inch in-line duct fan, and have a can 33 charcoal filter on the end. The exhause duct would be right above the hps light for extra cooling. I am also looking into the t-5 setup. for using blue and red spectrum, would 50-50 be a good idea, or would it be better to favour one spectrum over the other?

GonnaRobYa said:

I plant to vent it with a 6inch in-line duct fan, and have a can 33 charcoal filter on the end. The exhause duct would be right above the hps light for extra cooling. I am also looking into the t-5 setup. for using blue and red spectrum, would 50-50 be a good idea, or would it be better to favour one spectrum over the other?

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You want to emphasize more blue light during veg, and more red light during flower.

i went down to my local hydro store today and had a good talk with the owner..he said that the 8 bulb t5 setups would use over 400 watts, (50 something watts a bulb) and he recommended to buy a 400 watt hps ballast and a mh light for vegging and a hps bulb for flowering. Also, he said that mh bulbs will work in hps ballasts, but hps bulbs wont work in mh ballasts..And if i duct the heat out with the inline duct fan it should keep the temp down.

I have yet to use T5's,but I have used T12's, and T8's, and neither of them produce growth like a 400w HID. Although I have heard very good things about T5's, so, for veg. I think the T5's would be kick ass, because of relatively no heat problems, but, when it comes to flower, flouro's don't have good canopy penetration "I like using that word". And so IMO you would have to purchase a HPS light at that point, and more money will be spent buying both set-ups...But mabey the T5's would work with alittle side lighting? Gl, let us know how it turns out! Hey, what kind of pricing did you find on the T5's?

daddychrisg said:

Hey, what kind of pricing did you find on the T5's?

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The guy there said around $350 for a 8 bulb 4 foot fixture, and the bulbs i think were around $25 bucks each. After dwelling on that for a few minutes i figured that buying an unwired 400 watt hps ballast (which is backwards compatable with mh lights, just not officially) and a light fixture and batwing style reflector with a 400 watt regular mh bulb was around 200 bucks, and the fan i want to buy is just under 200 so i figured it would be a better buy to go with the hid lights over the cfls because you can interchange the mh and hps bulb, and with the fan i plan on buying, heat should not be an issue.

daddychrisg said:

I have yet to use T5's,but I have used T12's, and T8's, and neither of them produce growth like a 400w HID. Although I have heard very good things about T5's, so, for veg. I think the T5's would be kick ass, because of relatively no heat problems, but, when it comes to flower, flouro's don't have good canopy penetration "I like using that word". And so IMO you would have to purchase a HPS light at that point, and more money will be spent buying both set-ups...But mabey the T5's would work with alittle side lighting? Gl, let us know how it turns out! Hey, what kind of pricing did you find on the T5's?

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I used to have to go through canopy penetration,,,,then she started getting a Brazillian Wax,,LOL

Keep on Growin

HoLE