Hi Scott,
Not at all. I have peppers,tomatoes,lettuce, and egg plant right now. I use a 4' vertizontal reflector by sun supply which I love. The more light sensitive plants like lettuce and starts, I put to the outside. This lamp has the energy output of a typical 600w hps bulb. Some say that's only accomplished using a electronic ballast, which are becoming available but are pretty expensive right now. This bulb is a very bright white light. I have done a lot of research about different HID bulbs and like this particular one for several reasons. I really just wanted a bulb that replicated the sun's spectrum as closely as possible, in a HID format. Regular HPS and MH bulbs, even the "enhanced" don't have the spectrum I wanted. Will a HPS or MH do well for indoor grow's, yes they will. To my knowledge,the CMH has a spectrum that is unmatched in a HID lamp. People will use a HPS for veg then switch to a MH for flowering, w/ the CMH that really is not necessary. Assuming the sun has a CRI of 100, doesn't it make sense to get as close to that as possible if growing indoors under lights, for best results? CMH bulbs are rated from 85 to 92 CRI depending on the site you look at. Some will say that CRI is not that important, I disagree. It has more red than a HPS and more blue than a MH. For me it's well suited for every stage of plant growth.

Lower lumen (weighted for green light) numbers are common for wide spectrum lamps. The wider spectrum inevitably includes far red and far blue light that simply doesn't count much towards lumens. It would be nice to see some PAR numbers, but I wouldn't worry too much about the lumen rating.

Hi jwmeyer, I read your post about HID lamps. Could you give me a website with the technical specifications of the Sun supply?
Thanks
Silvio

I'm not sure which post your referring to but here are some links about the ceramic metal halide bulb. I hope this helps.

http://www.nam.lighting.philips.com/us/ecatalog/hid/pdf/p-5497c.pdf

Here is a link that might be useful: hydro-tech

The Philips Mastercolor 4K ceramic is also available in horizontal burn; I have a 250W horizontal burn on order.

http://www.eyelighting.com/
has a similar lamp, possibly with better UV filtration, called the CeraArc.
Eye also has 4 versions of their ColorArc that look really interesting.

Venture (link below) has a NaturalWhite lamp (vertical burn only) at 5000K, 90CRI.

All of the above lamps have spectral output that is relatively smooth compared to the highly spikey nature of previous generations of MH lamps. The spectral outputs are all relatively flat and don't waste a lot of energy in the green-yellow-orange portion of the spectrum (500-600). The red output is really red, not the worthless orange 615 spike put out by the new generation of triphosphor fluorescent lamps.

The new Eye 6500K ColorArc may have better UV filtration (but I am not really sure) than the Eye Hortilux Blue lamps now offered at various hydroponic outlets; otherwise the spectra of these two look similar.

A good source for MH spectra (besides from the manufacturers themselves), with emphasis on aquarium bulbs, is:

http://www.reeflightinginfo.arvixe.com/

I wish there was a web site for fluorescent lamps similar to this aquarium MH site.

Here is a link that might be useful: Venture Natural White

jwmeyer, I have a 400hps light growing toms and pepepers. How long should light be on/off?

thank you, Steve

Hi Steve,
Well I'm certainly no expert on this topic and I'm learning as I go but, after reading alot here and other sites I started with a 18/6 schedule. At 18 hours a day, everything grew very quickly.
I've since cut back to 15/9. With the vegies I'm growing, bell & hot peppers, eggplant and tomatoes I don't think you can give them too much light. Some will disagree but I personally think it's important to have dark cycle or a rest period.

Good luck~

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:51469}}