How should I setup my lights, small question

I have my box pretty much setup, but I'm kinda curious to ya'lls opinion of how to balance the white and yellow lighting. I know in general white for veg and yellow for flower.


I have at the moment a rectangular box. On each of the two long sides, I have a pair of CCFL tubes mounted horizontally, but upright, so the two tubes face inwards, not down.

Hanging from above are 3 light bulb sockets. Currently with two small incandescents to create heat, and one big ass 3k lumen white spiral (its huge).

So I have about 9k lumens at the moment, 7 of which are white light. Temperature is pretty good.

When I go to flower, I'm going to replace the incandescents with 500w halogen tubes. Brighter than an HPS and 8000 lumens each at 3000k color.

What I was considering now for Veg is this: Which would be better:

Hanging the two incand's and the big spiral like I have now

7k lumens of white, 2k lumens of yellow.
OR

Hanging ONE halogen in the middle (8k lumens of 3000k light)
and TWO big spirals (6k of 6700k)

The 4 CCFL tubes will stay white in either case (4k of 6000k)

The first case has less total light, but more white. The second case is a shitton of light (18000 lumens) but its a more even split of white/yellow.

Which do you think would be better for Veg stage?

Halogens burn way too hot

i say save your money on that fire hazerd ur brewing and get a 150 or a 250 hps..and dnt kno if i missed it how bigs the box and what sre you gunna do about heat bro thats a big question to ask your self and those halogen secrity lights are way to hot bro ive had a 60w cfl burn my plants so watch it man and good luck im not trying to bash your system

Try ebay or a hydro store for some big cfls-> 130W or 200W.
I got a couple, for veging and keeping mother alive.
They have ballast inbuilt, nice and cheap too.

What you want is blue spectrum for vegetation and red spectrum for flowering. If you're using either incandescent or halogen light for growing weed, you're wasting your time and money. Florescent lighting is much better, but it doesn't have the intensity needed to grow mature plants through to harvest. Buy some HID lights (MH for veg and HPS for flower) and you'll get much better results. People often complain about the costs of running HID bulbs, but they actually give you the most lumen/wattage. The only downside is that HID lights put out considerable heat, but with proper cooling and ventilation you'll be golden.

Yeah dude halogens do burn hot....in my opinion depending on your space a 400w high pressure sodium light would be good for bloom i dont have experience with fluorescent lights i know they can do good for veg but they say HPS lights are better for bloom....but if you like ur results now just get a larger size of whats there.New equipment usually has a learning curve at least with me lol....stick with what ya know its usually the best

If your grow area is tiny, consider using High-Output T5 florescent lighting. You can pick up a T5 ballast and bulbs at most aquarium stores. They're great for growing in very small spaces and produce minimal heat.

Well the box is pretty small, good for four plants. And yeah I tested the Halogen and it does burn hot, but I have a fan blowing in from the side pretty good.

I tried all CCFLs for a bit, and it just was too cold. Maybe if summer here starts heating up, which it should.

Ordering stuff online is a PITA cause I'm in Peru. I can find HPS and MH and all that, but its expensive as balls here. An HPS setup was gonna nail me like 200 bucks, and I cant float that right now.

The box has plenty of room to grow upward though so I don't think I'll burn them unless they get real close, in which case I'll be harvesting I think.