how much light

if i wanted to cover an 18 gallon rubber maid container approx 2ft by 2 ft with ho flourescents how much light would be suffecient for the veg stage. all help will be appreciated

how many plants? you said 2'x2' so i would go with as about 10 t-5 bulbs. You can never have to much... Then again why not a 400wt metal halide. You can get 400wt conversion bulbs that are both metal halide and HPS and run off the same ballast.

just think 10 50 watt lights is 500 watts and five hundred watts of flouros is not even close to four hundred watts of HID.

A HPS bulb make 50,000 lumens for 400wt

a T12 puts out 2880 lumens for 40watts 40 watts x 10 = 400 watts or 28,800 lumens

Its up to you but i would get a Metal halide ballast that will run a 400 watt HPS bulb for flowering. Then all you gotta do is switch bulbs and change your timers

i have a 1000 hps n need another for my project n i just herd that the flourescents r better for veg for closer nodes but have never personally tried but your insight was helpful

bullshit t-5 ho bulbs if you have 8 bank of lights is equall to 600 watt hid 6 4 ft t-5 is equall to 400 watt hid do the research plus you get true wattage no wasted electricity to ballast t-5 rule