Going cheap on an HPS setup?

[Walter Bellhaven]

I want to get a 100W HPS setup going, and it looks like I have two options. Here's a ballast for $18, and a bulb for $6:

100 Watt High Pressure Sodium (http://www.1000bulbs.com/100-Watt-High-Pressure-Sodium/)
100 watt HID High Pressure Sodium Bulbs: 1000Bulbs.com (http://www.1000bulbs.com/100-Watt-HPS/)

And here's a ballast for $50 and a bulb for $17:

100W HPS Ballast Kit S54 Quad Tap - ProLighting.com (http://www.prolighting.com/soush100q-k.html)
LU100/MED|C100S54/M|100W HPS Bulb Medium Base Clear - ProLighting.com (http://www.prolighting.com/lu100-med.html)

WTF?? Which one should I get? I mean, how big could the difference possibly be? And yeah, I definately want to go cheap!

[Walter Bellhaven]

ok screw it, i'm going to order the more expensive ones. that's probably the way it should be anyway. thanks a lot for the quick replies, lol.. go ahead and delete this thread since no one seems to care (yes, i'm probably over-reacting).

[theish420]

wholesale lighting Capacitors hid metal halide hps and supplies (http://www.hidquickfix.com/index.html)
High Pressure Sodium ballasts (http://www.atlaslightingsupply.com/HPSballast.html)

spend a little extra and get at least a 250w......only 52 bucks on the second link, they're reliable too, so is hidquickfix. You're money will be way better spent and your plants will thank you for more light

[SAP420]

Make sure the ballast you get matches the bulb you use. Such as S51 ballast must be used with S51 compatible bulb. You can get a really awesome deal on a 400w metal halide/hps combo set single socket from htgsupply.com for around $170.00 not to advertise but that's a good deal!

[Walter Bellhaven]

hi, well, I already bought the 100w HPS bulb/ballast the 2nd one I listed). they claimed that it would be prewired, but it wasn't, and I don't have the equipment to do it, so I was like screw it, I'll use it for a later grow, for now I'll just use cfl's.

[cactusman23]

You can achieve a better canopy and a more balanced spectrum with cfls, I dont think a 100w hps is an effiecient enough light bother with. Just an opinion.

[SAP420]

Yes... I would go with a 250 hps lamp at the least. That will work with a fairly small closet grow.

[mrhighbrow]

you'll need ATLEAST a 400w HPS for flowering if you dont want your vegging anfd cloning to be a waste of time. you can veg nice moms with 100w of CFL, though.