Lighting Question about HPS and MH lights

[jayp]

I need a little help from you all at AFN. I was needing to know if you could only buy one type of light which would it be a HPS or MH?
I have a MH right now but its only a 100 watt and was wanting to get either a 250 watt HPS or 250 watt MH. Or if you think the 100 watt MH light is ok and then buy a 250 watt HPS but I'm not sure about the 100watt so please help me out.:thumbs:

 

[mwsmoker]

Get a 250w hps and run both together. If u had to choose one hps is preferred and pits out more lumens per watt than mh

 

[jayp]

Thanks bro for the help truly appreciate it.

 

[SCARHOLE]

if your needing full spectra hid I'd recommend CMH.
The best hid spectra
But you need a old magnetic ballest

I'd go with a couple of the 145w or a 330w ones...

 

[jayp]

Thanks Scarhole what are CMH and not sure if i have seen HPS or MH come in 145w or 330w

 

[SCARHOLE]

CMH is a ceramic metal halide.

They are conversion bulbs made by Phillips.
Weird wattages, but the lights are nice.

DNA lighting has a good site with info on CMH.
1000bulbs.com sells em cheep.

 

[jayp]

Ok what kind of ballast are you guys using? Magnetic or not? And where is the place to get them the cheapest.

 

[jayp]

Anyone care to share their setup what kind of ballast or if you have a homemade ballast what did you use?

 

[Cosmic Charlie]

If I had to chose one I would go with Hps because you can run it all the way through with much better results then you will get doing that with a mh ... Mh works great for veg but not so great for flowering. You can find hps bulbs that do have a little of the blue spectrum in them but they are typically more expensive. Another option is that most digital ballasts and light setups are dual and are capable of running both a mh and a Hps . If money isnt too big of an issue I would get an adjustable digital ballast that can run both and get both bulbs but really you would be just fine with a good hps! Hortilux superblooms have a little blue in their spectrum and are great bulbs ...not sure what watts they come in I have 1000 but the bulb alone was $ 135.00. I would recommend staying away from magnetic ballasts as they run a lot hotter and arent capable of providing as good a quality light as even a low end electronic or digital ... I use a Quantum horticulture 1000 watt digital adjustable and I love it! Sucker runs cool as a cucumber I think I payed $250 again not sure what watts they offer though... Hope this helps a little and Good luck with your future lighting arrangement! I can provide a link for all of these products if you are gonna want to look at them.

 

[jayp]

That is one thing I cant do is go wild with $ I have 3 kids and a wife to take care of so $ is something I wont hardly spend on myself so I'm going to try and spend as little as possible. So if anyone knows where to get these cheap then I'm all ears hell no matter how much I still want to hear your comments. I have been looking at finding used ballast or complete grow lights so if you guys know of anywhere or anyone who has these lets hear about it.