trying to find the best lighting set up

I would use the MH and HPS for flowering, double your lumens. Plants use both red an blue for flowering.
Cause they are off 12 hrs so it dosent cost more than Vegging under the Mh for 24/0.

Keep em close to the lights With out burning em to get the most out of your lights.

yeah, if you have separate Mh/HPS fixtures, use both for flowering. You could also use both for veg, but with smaller plants, many people cut veg wattage to conserve juice (I veg under half the wattage I flower under). If they are the same ballast, veg under MH, flower under HPS. If you want to discourage vertical growth you could run the MH 1 week into 12/12 then switch to hps. The fluorescent you described , I believe, is a power compact. Those are the only longer tubes I see that U. They aren't bad, but kinda have fallen out of favor since T5's hit the scene. Unless you don't want to bother replacing bulbs and paying for the 50w, I would use them to supplement the HID, basically put it so it illuminates the sides, improving penetration (that is when it's not on seedlings ). All this assumed you can keep the temps in acceptable range in whatever light setup you choose

cheers people appreciated

would i be able to run 2x50w bulbs it this fitting if the tranfomer on the bak only say 2x25w?

I would use them to supplement the HID, basically put it so it illuminates the sides, improving penetration (that is when it's not on seedlings )

... is this really worth my while i see your meaning that it will penatrate light to the lower leaves. But do you mean acctually fit the light to the wall so the bulbs are facing outwards ? how high? and i assume this wont raise the temps in the grow room much as i already have the 2 of them running at the same time & the temps starts of about 25oc & at the end of the day are about 29oc ?

Also use said keep the lights as close to the plants as possible without burning them or raising the temps to much the rule i was told with a metal halide bulb is that it has to be between 18" - 24" away from the top of the plant with good ventalation ?? is this correct ??

If your growing larger plants it definatly worth it to put some side lighting up in about the middle of the plants. If they are (1-2ft) smallish the HID should penatrate enough, but extra light cant hurt as long as its not to hot. Temps are the priority, dont roast em , but they can a bit extra heat as long as they get water.

Use your hand to judge the how high the light should be. If its hot on your hand its to hot for the plant, 12 to 18 inches ish at firt an raise it up as they grow cover the whole canopy with intinse light.

Not sure about the Higher watt flouros, but it wont hurt your ballasts or anything if you try it, just dont try this with HIDs lol.

I like how your researchin about Light , it the single most important factor in great yeilds.

Check out this site light/yied calc its pretty dam cool.
http://www.angelfire.com/cantina/fourtwenty/yor/yieldcalcadvanced.htm

Thanks for all the great feed bak m8 the main reason for this is a found my self with a shit load of diffrent lights and wasnt sure if i was getting the best out of what i had i look at it as theres always room for improvement and am happy to listen to peoples suggetions on diffrent subjects iv also done a bit of reserch on the subject on weedfarmer which was pritty useful and a couple of other googled websites an found out more than i needed to know about lights and would recommend anyone else looking fo info on this matter to do the same as a result iv got my lights in a good rotation and things are flowing and feeling alot better

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