question about switching to an hps in my tent

evening everybody, i was using a combination of a 400w led and 8 42w cfls for my 15 plant sog and was unhappy with my results at harvest so now im switching to a 400w hps. so my question is as follows: i have a 4'L x 2'W x 4'H tent, and was wondering if i center out where i hang my hps for my sog, what kind of footprint will it have if its going to be around 2.5-3.5 ft high in the tent ? and with there being extra space not used for plants in my tent is it wasting the lights output ? thanks in advance for any answers, sorry for the noob question but i truly am a noob to hps, and of course happy growing everyone!

You made the right decision.

Depends on reflector.

Walls will reflect light, how much depends on there reflectivity.

- Jiji

Its a 600d grow tent so the walls are reflective mylar , 90-97% reflective I believe... the reflector that comes with what I bought isnt that big... its a cooltube and the description says its : 23" x 6" duct size: 6"... so im guessing thats a small reflector

desolation88 said:

Its a 600d grow tent so the walls are reflective mylar , 90-97% reflective I believe... the reflector that comes with what I bought isnt that big... its a cooltube and the description says its : 23" x 6" duct size: 6"... so im guessing thats a small reflector

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to get the best out of the plant 400w in a 4x2 area is little off ..............i would go to a 600w for a core foot of 4x4 with u only being 4x2 u will get a great amount of light the whole way down

Well for now the best I can do is the 400w .... so should I center the light or put it to one side or the other of the tent ?

That or swap my mother tent for my flower tent... mother tent is 36" x 36" x 6' tall ... only down side is im about to add 2 sativa dominant mothers to the mother tent so the 4 ft tall tent is gonna be hard to use for a sativa mom...

center it.

You could always go crazy and go bare bulb vert v-scrog lol

- Jiji

Hahaha, na sounds like fun, and something I would do if I had an extra tent to play with... unfortunately I dont so ill just keep doin my sog normally with the hps above the plants... though off subject, ive got around 15 cfls and when I get my extra room finished being added to m house, im going to buy a small 3ft w x 3ft l x 3ft h cabinet and modify it with a ll the cfls at the top of the box with mounted cleats and do a sog for fun in it, that way I dont have to move the lights, but with the amount of light in there it should still make tight nodes, fat colas, and maybe get decent weight while experimenting for fun