HID or HPS for full growth or flowering

[indochronic]

hello

The only lights i havent tryed are HID and HPS. im looking to get mainly just a HPS for flowering as iv seen great results in yielding and im just woundering could i use a Hps for the whole cycle ? And do i need a ballast? i only plan on getting a 150 to 250w bulb.

 

[JuanCarlos]

Yes, you can use HPS for the whole cycle. Yes you will need a ballast.

 

[indochronic]

sounds good so so if i get a 400w bulb and dimable ballast. can u switch from 400w to 250w or other lower wattage? not 100% about ballasts yet and what there job is, cheers

 

[Kingsnake235]

sounds good so so if i get a 400w bulb and dimable ballast. can u switch from 400w to 250w or other lower wattage? not 100% about ballasts yet and what there job is, cheers

always match your bulb wattage to your ballast wattage - 250W bulb in 250W ballast, 400w bulb in 400w ballast; even if its a dimmer ballast.

when you run your ballast at 50%, if fires the bulb up at 100% to get things going and then dials back down, so if you put a 250W bulb into 400W ballast run at 50%, you're gonna fire 400W thru that 250w bulb and could get hot shrapnel all over your grow space.

 

[newbiegrwer]

You can get an El cheapo on ebay. 600w dimmable with both bulbs ( mh and hps ), reflector, and ballast for less than 100 and it should dial down to where you want to be but will give you the option of turning it up later of you so choose.

 

[newbiegrwer]

The ballasts job is to control the amount of power flowing through the bulb. The bulb creates an open short in the electrical current and if the ballast didn't control the flow of power it would basically turn the bulb into a little bomb and you could end up with an electrical fire and at the very least shards of glass everywhere.

 

[indochronic]

Right so the ballast is a must unless i want to blow up my grow room and make a mess haha. cheers for that guys il have to look into wheres good to buy a decent lowish watt one. So there Mh / Hps and Hid, witch is pure white i believe ? so when it comes to spectrum does the Hps come in just one kelvin or is there certain good brands ?

 

[newbiegrwer]

I believe both mh and hps are both considered hid. Mh is for vegetative growth and hps for flowering. Unless you go really low wattage you will pretty much get the same k throughout the wattages.

 

[newbiegrwer]

600 Watt 600W Dimmable HPS MH Grow Light System Set Kit | eBay

 

[newbiegrwer]

Hope that helps. This one you can dim down to what you want.

 

[Kingsnake235]

Right so the ballast is a must unless i want to blow up my grow room and make a mess haha. cheers for that guys il have to look into wheres good to buy a decent lowish watt one. So there Mh / Hps and Hid, witch is pure white i believe ? so when it comes to spectrum does the Hps come in just one kelvin or is there certain good brands ?

There are mainly Metal Halide, and High Pressure Sodium; both of which are a type of High Intensity Discharge bulb.

MH is more whitish, and has a spectrum that falls into the blue range, around 5000K-6500K ("daylight") used for vegetative growth
HPS is more yellow, and has a spectrum that falls into the red range, around 2700K-3500K ("soft white") used for flowering

Like anything, there are lots of brands, cheaper and expensive, so you probably get what you pay for. My bulbs came with my ballast i got similar to the one linked above that are just cheap generic grow bulbs, so i will be upgrading next time; figured i may as well use them.

Lots of people use Hortilux bulbs, to get you started.