I have the same ballast and bulb, used in a cooltube. So, let me make some recommendations:

1) Your grow area is too large for the light; it's too large for a 1000-watt light actually. So if you haven't already, be sure to put up some flat white painted cardboard or panels or something, to get your grow area down to 4'x2' or 3'x3'. In other words, 8 or 9 square feet, around there.

2) You won't need six females. Two or three is great for that size light (and fewer is better if it's illegal where you are, which it probably is, else why would you be growing inside anyway, heh). Unless you're doing a SOG grow, it's not so much the number of plants that matter to your yield, but your lighting, temps, ventilation, nutes, genetics, etc.

3) 2-gallon pots aren't bad at all. That's what I used my first grow, and despite everything I did wrong, I still got 5 ounces of buds and an ounce of leaf off two plants. However, when I used 4-gallon pots, the plants got much larger, and I was able to get around 12 ounces of bud plus 4 ounces of leaf, and that's about normal these days when I use the 4-gallon pots. (I'm probably going to grow two females this next time, and may try 5-gallon pots.)

4) I highly recommend a SCroG grow, as a 400-watt light doesn't really have much canopy penetration. You can build a decent-sized SCroG screen for $15 or $20 tops, and it's very worthwhile.

5) For cloning, I use cloning gel and an EZ-Cloner (30-site, the smallest one they sell). You can clone just fine without any kind of cloning machine, but the EZ-Cloner really does work quite well and pretty much takes any guesswork or unreliability out of the equation. The downside: they aren't particularly cheap, couple or three hundred bucks. The upsides: they work very well, and you only have to buy one.
jamstigator Reviewed by jamstigator on . How does this sound (for a lightweight noob like me)...? I'm in the process of my first real grow. So far I've been using 4ft Wally world specials but I realize I need more wattage/lumens. Only have 6 girls going, and they're a bit on the lame side due to my noobiness. Anyway, I've done some investing and here's how it's panning out: Grow area is roughly 5'x5', and coated in a mix of alum foil and (almost) mirror like insulation board. Got a 400W Lumatek digital ballast, Hortilux HPS bulb (Sunmaster MH isn't here yet, will use on the next Rating: 5