not sure what your room dimensions are but you do not necessarly need 50 watts per sq ft for veging a mother or clones, but your flowering area should be at atleast 50 watts per sq ft for good results.
the 50 watt mh does not produce that many lumens so you probably could use several cfls instead and still have good results and maybe less heat issues.
bejay Reviewed by bejay on . Tiny 50w mother/clone box questions I want to build a 50w Metal halide grow box to keep one small mother that will yeild clones every 8 weeks or so. I want to start a 150w HPS DWC mini grow for some personal smoke an I would like to use a Veg room with these specs to supply clones as well as veg them for a week and a half so they can go into my 150w hps chamber ready to flower. Is this possible. I know about the 50w or so per square foot but these are the specs I have to work with and I would just like to grow some of my own Rating: 5