worth upgrading now? +rep

I currently have a 400w magnetic ballast with a plain $10 no name 400W HPS light and it has been doing the trick but I have read about the dual arc bulbs. On paper they sound great and I'm wanting to upgrade to a 600W setup anyway with a digital ballast (I know they have faults but I want to cut down on noise). the hortilux dual spectrum only comes in 1000W currently but read they are coming out with a 600w soon.

Currently there is some cheap 600w dual spectrum bulb you can buy on ebay for $30.. Would it be worth getting that or should I just stick to a 600w HPS since HPS has served me well thus far.. I am not worried too much about the bigger fatter buds, sure they are nice but I dont look for weight, i want quality as long as the weight is atleast compareable.

Im guessing you'll say screw the 600w cheapo dual arc for now and when i upgrade in a few days just get a 600w HPS.. but what about when the eye super blue comes out in 600w, do you think I should still just keep the HPS or are these dual arc bulbs really better? I do a SCROG so im not too worried about the penetration of a 600 HPS over the dual arc since i dont need much penetration at all.. plus I have a super sun 2 so im able to get my light fairly close(it's only a 3x2 area).

are people using those eye super blue dual arc 1000's getting atleast close to the same weight of a 1000w hps? and is there a noticeable difference in plant health/quality that makes up for the potential lost weight?


I'm definitely upgrading to 600w since they are just so much more efficient over the 400w ones. I don't need much penetration I know i may just be wasting $ I dont need to. I want to upgrade ballasts anyway though to help with the sound so may as well go 600.. basically costs the same to run.

is dual arc worth it?? or is this cheap bulb prolly garbage??

http://cgi.ebay.com/600W-HPS-MH-DUAL-ARC-HYDROPONICS-GROW-LIGHTS-BULB_W0QQitemZ280343142151QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_2?hash=item4145c0df07&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14


like I said, I'm sure you'll recommend when I get my lumatek 600w ballast to just use an HPS over that ebay bulb but what about when hortilux or somebody else who will actually put time into development comes out with one? Really the only way I can decide is by finding somebody who has used both 1000W hps and have also used the hortilux 1000W dual arc (super blue) but that information just seems so hard to find... If weight is within 10-15% with a dual arc but the plants seem to be healthier I'm all for it but all I read are these claims from companies and extremely scarce info from people who use them.

sorry for the novel but I have been researching for weeks and I can not find the info I'm looking for and I'm usually really good at researching (ie. google). +rep for all with any info that can help me decide if I should get a cheap 600W hps to hold me over til the hortilux 600W dual arc or should I just invest in a good 600W HPS now since even when that bulb is released it will still be inferior?

-Tiz

i've always just switched out bulbs and had a dual ballast to be able to take MH and HPS bulbs. i feel that the dual arc would result in a few less lumens(~20,000) that could be going to your plant. the reason a lot of information is scarce on this item is because not many people use it. if i were to switch bulbs it would be LED when they have the technology better and cheaper but for now i love my HPS bulbs. good luck

yah I just read ppl agree mixing cfl's etc with HPS is best but im not willing to have that many cords... I'm a neat freak I guess. I mean I KNOW HPS works great... I currently use literally a $10 400W bulb and it does wonders.... like it makes me wonder how much better these $100 bulbs can be, and I don't think they can be much better which is why i haven't upgraded.. I'm an HPS believer and what I have isn't broke... If I wasn't upgrading to limit the noise I wouldn't upgrade at all but "since" im upgrading i wanna make sure I do it right.

I only grow for medicinal purposes and not looking to supply anybody but myself and the 400w i have now supplies plenty so it isn't a quantity thing im worried about as long as it is close to HPS, just quality. I was kinda thinking maybe I should put the full 600W to HPS since HPS has done me good so far but I wanna make sure these new hortilux super blues aren't something special... but yah maybe people don't use them since the quality gains just aren't worth the loss in lumens with those.. I really wish I knew but I guess if they really were "all that" then we'd know

i agree with a lot of what you said. Hortilux makes the best bulbs out there. expensive but their output is amazing being able to deep canopy penetration. i think an upgrade for your HPS bulb (hortilux) would show a very significant quality/yield output. it would run a little bit hotter but if your old bulb is aging, time to replace it. make sure your ballast is compatiable with whatever bulb you decide to use. some bulbs require dual MH/HPS settings, older models do one or the other