Experienced 400W growers, Bulb performance discussion !

Whats up fellow 400 watters !

I, and im sure many others would like to have the best bulb for our lamp.
there is a lot of different choices between

Hortilux
Argomax
Sunmaster

who ever else you guys have used ?

in particular hortilux has several different types of MH bulbs for 400W


any one who has experience with any bulbs .... please speak up !

if you flower with MH , or HPS and have tried both.... tell us your thoughts !

switched out your bulb for something else ? let us know what you think of your new bulb vs the old one

bump.....................

I now run a 600 digital HPS on a light mover, but for quite a few yrs I flowered w. 2 400 watt HPS. Of course I bought the most expensive bulbs to start but when it came time to change i went to home depot. Really didn't notice a difference. $100 for a bulb or $25. Unless your going to use a dual spectrum bulb I'd say it's not worth it.

bump......it up

I use Sylvian GROLUX , It has 58000 lumens as compared to the others 52000. HPS all the way, heck ur only in veg 3 weeks anyway. Better price, round fifty bucks. Been using one for just over 2 yrs Still going very good. My latest, 39 days into flowering.

heres a pic of my room with the 400 MH on, i think i might rotate the bulb every week

I just use the normal HPS bulbs, I think the last ones I bought were $4.

There is a 430 watt bulb out by one of those companies (I think, cant remember which one), thats your best bet imo. I use it for vegging. Its a hps bulb with a blue spectrum in it which will help getting your nods closer during veg vs your mh.

im using a 430 sonagro from phillips, it was like 90 bucks and works killer for veg, 59k lumens you cant go wrong

ya i am now in the market for a new bulb soon and was wondering if people had luck with the cheep homedepot bulbs. i really cant see how there would be a differance. anyone use them?

i have a cheap one now as well ....
im looking for the people who had a cheap one and upgraded to something "better"
want too see if you can tell a difference ?

I am using the Hortilux Eye 400w. It is the first bulb I have bought so I cant compare it to a different brand. I use it for flowering only in a perpetual setup. I currently have 8 plants in different stages of bloom under it and it is doing a great job. I am considering getting a 4 foot t5 to supplement it.

All i know is this, if you look at the thread that says 400 watt club all the pictures look to have the same growth and I'm sure everyone is using different bulbs. That should sum it up.

I use these http://www.farmtek.com/farm/supplies/ProductDisplay?catalogId=11551&storeId=10001&mfPartNumber=CLLK4214&isClearanceItem=true&langId=-1&division=FarmTek .
About the size of a football but when I'm paying $3 for a bulb, ehhhhhhhhhh.......no biggy. If I want some added blue I just throw a 55W 6500K CFL into the mix. Works like a charm.

la9 said:

All i know is this, if you look at the thread that says 400 watt club all the pictures look to have the same growth and I'm sure everyone is using different bulbs. That should sum it up.

Click to expand...

it sums it up in "general" but doesnt help for maximizing the the efficiency of your own 400w system (if you even care)

I use these

http://www.hydroponics.net/i/131469 $77.95 400 watt mh conversion

and

http://www.hydroponics.net/i/131446 $71.95 430 watt hps

420weedman said:

it sums it up in "general" but doesnt help for maximizing the the efficiency of your own 400w system (if you even care)

Click to expand...

Trust me I care, I always try to improve on everything, although at this stage I'd say there isn't much more I can do since all the compliments I receive, so whether it's good genetics, luck, the way I can grow, who knows, I just read and followed the basic advice on this site and it all came together for me. All I need is more lights at this point.

Anyway until someone can show me a big difference in the better bulbs I'll just add a blue bulb as mentioned above.

Seems like you have some people that use cheap and some use the expensive and no one that has every switched so we may never know the answer.

Ghost420 said:

ya i am now in the market for a new bulb soon and was wondering if people had luck with the cheep homedepot bulbs. i really cant see how there would be a differance. anyone use them?

Click to expand...

$17 400w hps from hd...3 wks from seed to 12/12 on 3/2/09 ...no nutes yet ff soil..

they are so for sure diff from each other, butt like the spectrum ,lumens, kevlin and your growing a weed so it so hard to have a bad result .

VDUBB said:

they are so for sure diff from each other, butt like the spectrum ,lumens, kevlin and your growing a weed so it so hard to have a bad result .

Click to expand...

Have you tried both types of bulbs or just speaking generally ?

That's the debate, the grow bulbs have the right spectrum and do grow better but lose lumens in the process, while the cheap bulbs do not have the right spectrum but put out more lumens so it all comes out even in the end.