Hey there,

Well you seem clued up so not sure how much help I could be,

Firstly, have you considered aquaculture? As that combines the fun of hydroponics with the fun of fish keeping. I guess your more a coral guy...

Secondly, I have to ask, why miracle grow? Thats peat based im sure, so I would ditch that and go with a true soilless medium. If your sharing a tank with lettuce,for example, in a pvc pipe , running nft style and the buckets with plants and Miracle grow in them, top fed drip style , then you could be in for a constant pH battle. Thats assuming your recirculating and not run to waste.

On your lights, well you would be best to look up what your led spectrum is.
If you look online, the price for the LED lights for corals are alot cheaper than the LED lights you can buy for growing plants. i think it is because of the mixed spectrum, or more PAR specific spectrum.
Personally I would use the 150watt MH for vegitative growth, as thats what metal halides are good at, and then look out for a conversion bulb, which means you can get a HPS spectrum,(in the orange/red end of the spectrum, cant mind the kelvin rating,) which gives more flower/fruiting power.

I dont know if you could use the 400w hqi pendant as its a coral/fish thing, but does the ballast run other lights? Or is it attached to the light fixture.?,

The MH will do for one or two smallish tomato/pepper plants for vegative growth.. And you could get a conversion bulb to fruit them. And if your growing a side of lettuce etc,you may need side lighting, better in the Blue end of the spectrum. You would maybe have an issue growing lettuce when the tomatoes are fruiting too.

Sorry for the long winded answers...

Best of luck to you.

This post was edited by bunnyface on Mon, Feb 2, 15 at 14:16

Thank you for the response! The miracle grow fertilizer I have is a water soluble. Not the planter soil version. I have been contemplating dosing a straight forward nitrate, used in fresh water planted aquariums. The 400 watt halide pendent has a changeable bulb. Right now it has a 14k and a 10k. Which I believe would be o.k. for vegatative? The 150 watt halide I have is a 14k. The quality bulb makes me think it produces closer to a 10k though. I ended up ordering the rock wool plugs and some clay pellets for substrate. I already have a R.O. filter for the aquarium water so I can mix the ferts in and have a decent Ph. Aquanics does sound fun! The balance of monitoring nitrates is always fun. Keeping them below 30ppm. To keep the fish happy. Then if you keep some under water pieces to monitor. Spots are a good indicator of needed potassium. I don't know if I would want enough fish to actually be able to not dose as many ferts. Or if my wife would let me! Lol. I have ordered some heirloom tomatoes, peppers, basil, parsley and cucumbers. To try different plants. Last winter, I did have success with the LED and some leaf lettuce. My LED is definitely in the blue range. Basically a royal blue and white mixture. The whites are basically a RGB mixed spectrum. The heat from a halide would probably be nice if I try the peppers. Thank you for the input! I have definitely been reading up as much as I can and all input helps. My first go will be the 150 halide, suplimental 32 watt 65k CFLs, a reservoir pumping up drip lines to buckets with the clay. Then drain back to the reservoir. Then some basil and seed starters with a steady water level, with air stones. The LED did o.k. for a slow grow leaf lettuce, but was just teasing the tomatoe sprouts. Hopefully wrapping a space blanket on the walls will help to squeeze more in. Lol

Haha, sorry about the confusion, yeah that would make alot more sense using MG fertiliser and not the substrate.
I think its the blue crystal one you have? If it is I grew great plants, tomatoes and a pepper plant with it, it was great. I did end up adding more N in vegetative growth,and foliar fed throughout veg with seaweed and such but as a base it works great.
Just in your water front, as a heads up, using R.O. water is a good way to go,based off your water supply(i assume)but keep an eye out for Mg and Ca deficiencies when you start to get going. And if you do see either You know the score though so shouldnt be an issue.

Shall we talk about lights ay, well on your LED lights, ideally you will want anything in the 400-700nm range for each diode. I have freinds who use LEDs and they even use infra red leds in the mix to get a full spectrum,
I may one day try to grow with them, but for now they just dont have the penetration, or lumen/watt to justify the expense.
But if its blue and white it will be great for lettuce as that dosnt need much more light to do great in hydro.I use a big 125w cfl (4200k) for lettuce. And depending on what other lights im running i may add another 125w cfl at 6600k,
Now, your Metal Halide runs in at 1000k, or is it 10,000k,, as its for coral and such, cause there is a huge difference, but i will assume you mean 1000k and 1400k bulbs. For comparison I use a 400watt HPS with a bulb in 2700k, And thats the power house of my indoor garden. Its for fruiting and flowering So maybe use your higher rated bulb,
Im going to look into your 'aquatic' lights, as im sure if you bought one and put a different bulb in you could get more inital lumens/watt from you bulb. Thats For a different time..
Yeah , so ideally you want as many lumens as possible to grow great plants under lights. Using your MH and supplementing should help to get a more full spectrum.

other advice would be to pH the rockwool way before use and make sure your clay pebbles are clean, as they will, repeat will, clogg your drip lines if they are not.
Canna make the best drip clear stuff,, it basically stops mineral deposits in small feed tubes and drip lines.
And as a warning, when you get it tuned in, you may end up running the pump all day and a few times at night when in clay pebbles as they can really grow..
Take it easy.. Keep us posted.

P.s. Save the foil and space blankets for other uses,like stopping aliens reading your mind and cooking, white paint is abit more relfective and dose not produce hot spots and uneven light reflection.. Matt white, not the shiny stuff. Or go whole hog with some mylar.

This post was edited by bunnyface on Mon, Feb 2, 15 at 19:41

The halide bulbs I have are in 10,000 Kelvin and 14,000 kelvin. Definitely not the best planted rated spectrums. Aquarium bulbs are a bit different for halides and corals. In a reef aquarium the higher 10,000 and 14-20,000 kelvin ratings are designed for a bit different, but similar purpose. A blue spectrum will penetrate water better than a reddish, while hindering nuisance algea. More specific to the photosynthesis process, involving reef bacteria to create the calcium coral deposits. For plants, I will definitely switch to a planted spectrum combination. The calcium and magnesium in a reef. I usually look for a high magnesium salt. To hold calcium better. Which in turn will keep a stable ph, but calcium will raise the ph. I basically plan to use the R.O. water mainly yo drop the pH low enough for a buffer. Also gets the chlorine/ chloramines out. I could probably use a dechlor instead and keep the phosphates and stuff. Unfortunately my ballasts are halide only, but the bulbs of the actual fixtures, pendents (enclosed reflectors) are changable. Probably after seeing success of the 150 then slow down. I'll upgrade to the 400 watt in a good spectrum. I have some T5s I can toss in to supplement too. Lol Only reason I even used the space blanket was, I read it was a good cheap alternative. Just happened to have one in my hunting bag. If it turns out to hinder growth, I'll paint the area or toss up some mylar. If it gets to a point of a light not being strong enough and I'm squeezing that much room. Only so much I can do in the small space I'm using. Just basically 1 tomatoe plant, 1 pepper plant and some lettuce, basil, parsley. Then seedlings for the outside garden. If I upgrade, then I'll run 6" pvc along the wall, back to the reservoir, to save space and lower light stuff. From what I've read it seems the 400 watt and the spectrums you mentioned. Would be the balance to get stuff to grow quick. Then more peppers and tomatoes! Lol Thank's again!

Once again,I dont know how much help I can be as you know your stuff.

I mentioned the space blanket as yeah, your right, it will reflect light. Just dont rely on them. I know a guy who used 4 space blankets and some 15mm copper pipe and rigged up a little tent like frame. He was getting growth in the space, but i suggested white visqueen plastic. A week after he got the stuff he had to extend the top of the tent as his plants grew so well.
The space blanket will help insulate the area though. Giving better control of the enviroment.

Yeah, your right about 10,000k not being ideal. But they should certainly grow, and those t5 light will be great for starting them off and then supplementing.
But wattage wise the 150w will be great for a small space, with two large plants and some smaller ones up on boxes around the edges.

You probably wont find any of this info new or useful but it has some good tips for starting out in hydro.
http://www.growell.co.uk/blog
And if your tempted to buy from them, please don't. As you can get the same stuff cheaper from other places. Just their learn bit is quite useful.
Some other info on the web includes,
maxiumyeild - http://www.maximumyield.com. (This is full of adverts but some of the info is good.)
Canna- http://www.canna-uk.com/grow_info. (Their info papers are just product ads, but theyhave some good stuff on tomatoes.)

And you, once again, know this but the de-chlorinators may not be the best, as they kill off all bacteria, good and bad ones.
If you could, ascorbic acid will work the same and not kill off the benifical ones.
Intresting reading about if it affects plant growth ....http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=442340
Personally I just bubble the water Im going to use to get rid of the chlorine, and the chloride i just ignore. Infact a bit of chlorine is needed by plants.

Anyway, starting to get confused and talking in circles,

Good luck.