New Grow

Killerweed,

Great job on recovering the them Big Buds,

Looks like your sold on florecents, for a closet grow that is probably the way to go.

If you have or can get good ventelation in there, HID lighting is the way to go, Like ESP13 said you would have increased your yeild significantly.

You can get a 600w digital ballast that will take both MH and HPS bulbs, both bulbs included ,with retractable hangers, and reflector for $316.00 shipping included. At htgsupply.com

They might even have a better price on the light system you are looking to buy.
Great prices and pretty much one stop shopping for any and all your needs.

htg is where I found the t5 setup.I'm just trying to be cheap by keeping the electricity costs down.I only pay about $50 a month ever since I bought my place years ago.Also the t5 bulbs are supposed to last a long time and the intensity doesn't fade as the get old like hps's do. I'm still thunking it over.I have a guy who would trade me 2 400w hps for one 600w hps.2 400w would fit very nice in this room.

I understand where you are comming from on costs.

After reading alot I determind that it was worth going with HID lighting. pros: Very large increase in lummins = bigger harvest
cons: Heat, increase cost in electricity

But if you do the math the average cost of a killowatt hour is $0.08 lets say you run 2- 400w HPS lamps that is 800watts that = .8 killowatt hours per hour. that = $0.07 per hour the light is on so a 4 week veg at 18/6 will cost $37.80 the cost of the 8 week flower cycle at 12/12 will be $50.40 for a total of $88.20 for the entire grow cycle.
Now consider your increase in yeild. That will cover that cost without any problems.

Next if you are worried about big brother focusing in on you due to your increase of elec. This is less than if you plugged in a space heater, a space heater draws around 1500w. It is when someone decides to put in a greenhouse with say 6- 1000w lights is when big brother starts to wonder what is going on.

hope this is helpfull with your decision or any one else for that matter.

Yeah I'm still debating going with the 2 400w hps's. I still might try the 2 t5's just to see how they put out. I plan on staying with the smaller plants. Maybe keep them about 3 or 4 feet tall.I've got room to go higher but these breed really grows outwards a lot.A friend has a 5 foot of this that is 5 feet in diameter.