Basement setup good equipment?

Im Going with a Brand called Thunder. i would like a two light setup with cool tubes instead of conventional hoods. it's pretty obvious where i would put the lights based on the picks. side by side longways over say 4 plants scroged out. The little high rise area id like to block off and utilize it for cloning and such if anyone has any tips on how to do that that would help aswell. I'm really just concerned about if the cool tubes are a good idea and has anyone ever used these Thunder ballasts they have a 5yr warranty and i called there help center and a person answered right away so I have high hopes for customer service if anything does go wrong but i have about a 500$ budget so i took the deal where i could and 378 for 2 ballasts and two cool tubes seems like a hell of a deal to me.

That looks good as a room.

Brands and this and that, are meaningless. A good ballast is one that lights up. Thunder, Plunder, doesn't matter. I go with magnetic, because they last longer and are cheap.

Forget the gearhead stuff. Can you grow? That is the only question. Take it from me, who spent a year building a setup that I could not grow in.

Your experiments are valuable, your gear brands are not. Hope it helps.

Check out Apollo as well. They are super cheap, come with a 3 yr warranty on the ballast and a lot of ppl on this forum use them. Just search for Apollo on Amazon or ebay.

$160 for the whole setup including ratchets, bulbs, timer, hood, etc. Good deal!

http://www.amazon.com/Apollo-Horticulture-GLK600CT24E-Digital-Dimmable/dp/B00521B894/ref=sr_1_3?s=lawn-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1391541256&sr=1-3&keywords=apollo+600watt

I paid like 360 for 2x 600w complete setup delivered. Bought on ebay from 'lo-baller'. They are great to work with. One of my cool tubes was not complete, so they sent me an entire new one. Needless to say with $1.08 in nuts/bolts I fixed it and esentially got a free cool tube from them!
Also, maybe a good painting in that room, perhaps with mold resistant paint? You don't want mold....at all.

You definitely want to do a bleach-water scrub down and then like others have said, add a layer of flat white paint that contains mildewicide(most brands add this to all their paints by default, but you can buy a packet of it at the paint counter in Home Depot as well. You have the right idea to consider the warranty as one of the most important factors with Digital ballasts. I like Apollo as well, never had one break down yet and they claim to have a decent warranty as well. If you want to turn that tall shelf into a clone area, you need to box it in order to prevent like leaks while you are flowering in the other space.

Sounds good but I'd ditch the cool tubes and run bare bulbs

i use lummi ballasts and hoods and they work well for me
i used to use powerplant but my hydro shop doesnt stock them anymore but i see no difference at all
As doer said its your imput that will make or break
i always like to say "All the gear but no idea"

All the gear but haven't got a clue. Very to the point...ouch.

That was me!

Doer said:

All the gear but haven't got a clue. Very to the point...ouch.

That was me!

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Fortunatly enough i was too poor to spend loads on gear before i knew what i was doing lol

Unfortunately for me I was stupid.

i would remove the table that is 1 foot from ground you are gonna want that extra 1 ft if you use hps lights. otherwise what they said.
peace and love

Sure is nice to get a warranty swap from my local dealer on both a lumatek 600 and repair on an extrasun 1000 mag. Both purchased used on CL.

DCobeen said:

i would remove the table that is 1 foot from ground you are gonna want that extra 1 ft if you use hps lights. otherwise what they said.
peace and love

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Yeah. I need to move my light up again. I have the reservoirs under the table.