ok, the 500w MV is gone. replaced it with 400w MH. I can run a 360w HPS with this ballast. in the future, I'll swap the MH for another HPS during the last half of the flowering stage. would be something like this:
400w MH during seedling and first few weeks of veg stage. then add the 400w HPS after a few weeks veg, run it until harvest. then swap the MH for a 360w HPS about 3-4 wks into flowering...until harvest.
these are the bulbs:
1 400w MH, luminous flux 26,500lm, color temp. 6500k, ra 90. uncoated bulb.
1 400w HPS, luminous flux 23,000lm, color temp. 2500, ra 90. coated bulb (could have gotten an extra 1000lm uncoated, didn't know att).
1 360w HPS, luminous flux 47,500lm, color temp. 2,100, ra 25, uncoated bulb.
I'm just going for lumens and color here, should get some real dense buds!