so many dif types of ballasts!

ok, so i have a question, in about a week, i'll have enought money to buy my first hps/ballast. so, i know i can buy a ballast for a hps or a mh or combo, whatever, that makes sense, different wattages, that makes sence, but when i look on sites for these things, there's like ten different types!! all with different names, techlonogies, pros cons, can anyone make sence of this to me and i'm sure many other people out there??

also, i got twelve plants that have been in flower for almost a week, they are real scraggly cause i used (3) 500w halogens (work lamps) they stretched my plants, but anyway, if i install at least a 400w hps, how much of a difference will that make being i'm already two weeks into flower??

is half a pound reasonable for twelve plants with the 400w hps?? thats a little over half oz per plant?

thanks

anyone? comment?

im not sure where you live, but if you were running 1500 watts of halogen you can get at least a 1000 watt hps and get rid of all the halogen and save power and get allot better growth!

in canada you can get a regular ballast and cheap reflector with a light for around 200-250 $ the 1000 watts are not much more expensive than a 400 and will yeild allot more!

jus buy a ballast that has the correspondint wattage to the size bulb u want... if i was you this is what'd id do... buy a HPS bulb with a ballast that corresponds to its wattage and can function with an hps bulb... then once u got that hooked up use that for ur flowering... then if u start another grow... use cfl's or floros to vegetate along with the hps bulb and ull be set... get rid of the halogens... they're sucking up alot more energy and give really bad results.

Do you need both MH and HPS? If the answer is yes, you should consider a switchable ballast. I've never used the digital kind but would probably buy one if i were currently in the market.

They also sell a dual-spectrum ballast/reflector (which is what I use) but is kind of pricey. If you are interested, let me know and i'll explain it better (or check out my GJ for pics).

It's fine to veg and flower under either HPS or MH all the way through the plants grow stages. To many people get hung up on this. Now a MH bulb is BETTER for veging and HPS are BETTER for flowering, they both can take the plant all the way through the grow.

You could just skip all of that and buy a Ceramic Metal Halide bulb which is better than both HPS and MH all the way around through veging and flowering. Phillips and Venture Lighting sell them. Pulse Start Ceramic Metal Halide, the Phillips bulb runs on a HPS ballast of the same wattage, the Venture, I think requires their ballast......but I'm not sure, I bought the Phillips. Ceramic Metal Halide bulbs also put out much lees heat. It beats the "ENHANCED" horticulture bulbs for both MH and HPS in the light spectrum output. They are half the cost of those enhanced bulbs too. I bought a 400 watt bulb for $53. They will not run on Digital ballasts, they require a hard strike.