Indoor Lighting question

[grga]

I just started a DWC grow with two think differents currently on the go.

Currently I have 1 400w MH and 1 400W HPS, both coil ballasts, I will deal with the buzzing and inefficiency of these old brutes for this grow but on round 2 I will be looking to get digital ballasts,

my question is this (considering I am only doing auto's):

Should i get a single 1000W dimmable, switchable (MH/HPS) ballast and run the MH during the grow phase, then the HPS during flower or........

Get two 400W (or 600W) Digital ballasts (one MH and one HPS) and run them at the same time, or.

Just get one 1000w HPS, or just one 1000 MH????

I noticed that most people stick with HPS why is this? I thought you needed the blue spectrum for vegging that MH provides.

 

[namvet25]

I'd go 1000 mh for grow, and 1000 hps for bloom. I guess the hps is working well enough for vegging also.

 

[Beal]

I use 2 600w dual spectrum hps so have 1200w running that why u have best of both worlds both veg and flower in one and the girls love it

 

[Muddy]

HPS can be used for the whole grow, start to finish, if you have bulbs like the Eye Hortilux, Digilux, or others that have an expanded blue spectrum. If you want to use both MH and HPS, then I would suggest getting a switchable ballast rather than two separate ballasts. As far as how many watts to use, what is the size of your grow space? You want at least a minimum of 50 watts per square foot, if not 60.

 

[agito]

depends on the foot print of your grow area

 

[grga]

ive got 12 square feet (4x3) so right now im running 66 watts per square foot. Probably less then that with the crappy old commercial ballasts I have now but it will have to do with this grow. For the next round I will probably go with a single 1000w digital ballast and run a cool tube. that will give me 83 watts per square foot!!!!!!! I didnt know they had HPS bulbs with blue spectrum now.