Hydro closet lighting, HELP!

Hey everybody.
I’ve reached a bit of a fork in the road of my planning process for a small/personal hydro grow cabinet. The cab itself is about 3’x3’x6’ and has shelves if needed. For lighting I’m going with a 400w Sunleaves Pulsar Two-Way Mini that includes both a metal halide and high pressure sodium bulb all for $200.

With this in mind, however, I was attracted to the broader spectrum of the Son-Agro 430w HPS bulb, so the distributor said he’d be willing to either give me the setup with ONLY a 430w son-agro for the same price, or the son-agro and the standard metal halide for $20 more.

Here’s what I’m trying to decide whether or not to do:
I was thinking I could go with both bulbs included and use the halide for veg. and switch to the HPS for flower, or for another $20 do the same thing only with the better HPS bulb (the son-agro).

On the other hand, I would get just the son-agro for the same price and split my cabinet in half, upper half using the HID for flower and lower half doing a cfl setup for clones/ veg.

I don’t want huge-ass plants, just nice bushy ladies. Also, if I do the latter setup with the cfl’s, I could do a perpetual grow whereas the former setup would be a longer process.

I know that was just a lot of info, but all and any help would be MUCH appreciated. I will try to post pics as the build goes down.

Thanks a bunch

I have spoken to a bunch of people and they all had mixed signals on the "upgraded bulbs" Now i know that there are bulbs out there that emit blue and orange .. full spectrum...which is i think is what your talking about...i would imagine that would be best. I tried doing my own full spectrum with a 400 hps and added blue cfls to the bottom... i have a cabinet of 3x2x6 and it got way to hot.. couldn't bring it down from 85 90... when i removed the cfls and added extra fan exhaust i was able to get it at 75 all day... I would recommend worrying more about your heat issues that you'll have in that cabinet.. save your money on the upgraded lights and get more fans....

no matter how much light you have if its to hot.. well its tooo hot

check out my pics... my pc at home crapped out so i cant upload new pics of the cab and the ladies... will do that soon i hope.. good luck

That's what i was thinking too, so I plan to do a diy on the HID (especially because it's a ballast and light/reflector in one, it'll get super hot). I already have a 120v 4in inline vent duct fan that should pull a lot of air, so i'll use that and some 4" hoses to get the air out. I also have two 3.5" muffin/PC fans I was going to use as an air inlet on the bottom to help with the flow and keep her a bit cooler.
Your cab. sounds exactly like mine in terms of size.
I still can't decide though wither to grow veg. on the metal halide then switch it out for flower or divide the cabinet into upper and lower halves with bottom on ~6,400k cfl's for clones and veg and then have the upper half for flower with the 430w son-agro.

that cabinet sounds to small to be doing two grows in there.metal halide for growth and hps for bloom.I buy the better bulbs which are a $100 bucks a piece for my 600.I figure if your going to order it I might as well get the better 1. you can look at the 2 bulbs and tell a difference when there off. the expensive one seems to be made a lot better. its going to be hard keeping that plant in controll of your cabinet.please tell me your getting an air cooled light.theres know way you can keep it cool unless you have 5 fans.

It's not air-cooled but i'm gonna cut a 4" hole into it and throw in a flange, and then hook that via 4" duct hose to the 4" inline fan.
So the general consensus is to go with the std. halide and the 430w son-agro HPS and do veg on the halide and flower on the agro?

Damn, i wish i could do the cfl thing though so i could have a perpetual grow, if only there were more room

right.i like the solarmaxs.but you got it.

i dont think im gonna have a problem venting then...
with that said though, are we still saying there is no chance doing a dual grow?
I'm thinking propr placement of cfl's would keep the veg. nice and small, keeping room for flowering.
any additional input...?