70w MH light question

Hi all. I went into town today and I picked up a 70w MH light and a ballast. Now my question is how far away does the light have to be from the tops of the plants?

I am able to have it 18 inches from the tops. Is there any way that I can tell if its to close from my plants?

Do the old hand trick if its to hot then its to hot for plant. OR get a thermometer.

Thanks. How long dies it take till the light is working at max brightness and heat?

with a 70w you can put them almost right up to the plants... it will only take a few minutes to heat up... you put 600watts 18 inches away tops

Thanks. Yea I could almost drop it to a foot away if anything but I'm not going to do it to fast since I'm a virgin to using MH and HPS lights

Now my other question is since I know that its possible to by a 35w MH bulb and ballast would you guys recommend me using one with my 70w HPS light for flowering?

Know since you said this you should ditch what you have and get a 400mh/hps ballast. Its literally no power used. I think 20bucks or less a month when running 18/6 but don't quote me on that shit. Just read up Power is not a issue for me so I don't care.
Or a sweet 4 bulb 4ft T-5 setup does really nice buds and uses only 256w..I use for veg and it grows nice big plants.

TheOrganic said:

Know since you said this you should ditch what you have and get a 400mh/hps ballast. Its literally no power used. I think 20bucks or less a month when running 18/6 but don't quote me on that shit. Just read up Power is not a issue for me so I don't care.
Or a sweet 4 bulb 4ft T-5 setup does really nice buds and uses only 256w..I use for veg and it grows nice big plants.

Click to expand...

Can't run a 400w cuz it will produce to much heat. A guy that I know showed me his setup and the 400 puts out way to much heat to use in a small area and I don't have the space to run 4 foot lights hence why I stoped using CFLs and T5 lights because I need alot more and ordering a ballst and such online isn't an option and one of those kind here cost around $200 to $400. The space that I am using that's in my grow journal is pretty much the space I can use and here the wattage isn't the problem its the amps that it draws.

Also I'm not doing a seed to harvest setup.