i am a newbbie like you are DUBSAC7 .....i am in week 3 now using the 400 HPS...you must have the HPS lamp at a distance of around 40 cm from the top of your plants.....put your hand in between and feel the heat....when it is ok to your hand, this is the ideal distance...be carefull not to burn the tips (top) of your plants......as for germination i did the following.....i have put the seeds into the buckets with the soil and i put some water in them...afterwards i covered them with fine thin trasparent plastic wraping stuff.....the one used to wrap sandwiches in order to create an effect of serra...i read that it helps the seed to sprout faster...of course you need to put the lamp right above it....anyways, isn't a 400 watt HPS bulb too much for a closet?a 150 watt or a 250 one won't do the job? good luck in your growing.....what strain do you have?