Doug wrote:

I did some light meter samples yesterday and found that I'm actually getting
about 1/3 the light I need regardless of where because I've arranged the plants
based on their light requirements. Yikes!!

A 1000 watt bulb would be about right. But I can't imagine living with just the
sodium color. Yuck!

So I've been in a bit of a quandary about this. The consensus I'm getting is to
go with the combination. I'd get more light with a 1000w mh then the 800w
combination, but, as I'm growing indoors I do have a safety concern. MH makes me
nervous. I've done some more reading and discovered the protected bulbs. They've
a quartz sheath over the arc to contain the plasma if something goes wrong.
They're affordable at 400 watts but not really at 1000 watts. And there's the
heat. That'd be a benefit during the winter as I'm currently using a ceramic
heater during the day to get 79-81 degrees. But it wouldn't be too good in the
summer when temps get above that without the added 1000w heat.

You're right about 2 fixed lights giving better coverage than 1 and they could
be arranged so that I could basically leave the plants in the same position.

So now I'm looking at a Sun system 7 to run both. Be nice if it had separate
on/off switches for either light but I don't think so.

A Plantastar hps looks like a good choice.

Thanks for the input, hope someone else benefits too.


Doug, since you faked your email address (I spoof mine too) I can't
email you directly, but I have a used dual bulb HID fixture for cheap...

I never had a problem with just MH lights. As a sole source of
light it was fine. I don't much like HPS, the yellow color is
unsettling to me.

Rob

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