150 w hps question....

hello all. Just purchased a 150 w hps all in one lamp. My grow area is about 2'X4'.. I know this light is not strong enough for the grow area, but I plan on adding some cfls to make a up the difference in lighting.. My thought is to obviously suspend the 150 down to about 20inches above plants, depending on the heat... and then I thought about adding a couple( 2 to 4) cfls, hanging down on each said to catch any area that the 150 is missing.

Yes I should have bought a bigger light, but could not turn down the price and not planning on spending anymore money.
any thoughts?
5 weeks into veg and ready to flower anyday.

thanks!!

You need to get light hanging clips.. the store you bought the light from from should have em.. they arent expensive or anything and it'll save you having to ghetto rig it into working.

That way you can have the light suspended and control the distance. You don't want to just put them "20 inches above the plants" You want them as close as possible without burning the ladies.. I keep my light about 7-8 inches away from my plants with a 150w HPS with no issues from heat =] just make sure you have some ventilation!

I'm new to growing but I am getting great results with just a 150.. in week 1 of flower and they are loving life

I'm in the same boat. Same size room too. I bought 2 of them so I have 2 150 HPS security lights (Small square with a glass cover, all in one)

This is the first time I've used HPS. Used t-12 & t-8 shop lights before.

So far everything is going fine. I really don't know if there's much of a difference yet between these buds & the ones I just grew under the t-12's. I keep meaning to post pics but I don't have my camera with me when I open the stealthy grow box I built.

I had the plants perhaps 10" away from the lights & I kinda cooked/krisped up one of them. Seems to be fine now that I've dropped them to about 18" away from them. I kept 2 t-8 full spectrum lights going on them as well. They are about 24" away from the tubes so I dont know if they are helping at all at that distance. Someone suggested putting them in the corners up & down so the lights are closer to the plants. Haven't done that yet but might this weekend.

Good luck on the grow! 150 watters unite!

If you need some cheap chains to hang your plants, look for dog chains. For one, they are strong. For two, they are a relatively cheap way to buy high quality chains. Ace has a nice ten foot chain with good clips on each end. I think it was $5.99. This is enough to hang an HPS. While you can find cheaper chains, what I like about the dog chains is the links are not going to accidentally come apart on you.

yeah, this is my first attempt with hps. Always done well with floro, so thought it was time to gradually step my game up.
20 inches was jsut a guess since not sure on how much heat it will put out.
thansk for the info!