430watt hps bulbs on a 400 watt ballast....

Your eyes perceived brightness of that 400 watt light does'nt matter..the majority of the light being produced is NOT in the PAR range..that plants actually use to power photosynthesis.

Buy a 400 watt Eye Hortilux Super HPS bulb and you will be just fine as it's got very signifigant output in the PAR range compared to many other lights, plus they are damn good bulbs and people I know swear by them for final yield. :thumbsup:

Better yet, get a 600 HPS next time...most efficient HID bulb there is lumen/par wise per watt burned and does'nt really use that much more juice.

Old thread, I know, but I am only posting this message so that others who come upon this old thread do not make the mistake of doing what was mentioned here by the original poster re: 430 watt bulb being used with a 400 watt ballast. To be more precise, I am responding to the original posters idea of buying an Eye Hortilux bulb to use with his 400 watt *DIGITAL* ballast. I have read numerous times that you can NOT use Eye Hortilux bulbs on*DIGITAL* ballasts. Apparently, that Eye Hortilux bulbs ONLY work on the older magnetic ballasts and are NOT recommended for use on a digital ballast as there is the potential for it to blow up the bulb.