Dont Fear The Reefer
New Member
Kick Ass man!
First id like to say that i commend you for at least knowing what your trying to do. and seeking help instead of screwing it up first and asking questions later.I'm about to ask a lot of questions. Please bear with me.
I'll start with lights. Forgive me if the answers are already in this thread somewhere. I was out today, and I went to some stores to see what's available locally. I happened to come across some bulbs at a local aquarium store; coralife. The output spectrums were right on the boxes. They are also on this website.
http://coralifeproducts.com/product/lamps/
I thought that the super actinic was a no brainer as far as blue light is concerned, so I bought one.
Before:
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After:
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So I looked at a few places in person and online and have the following questions about specific bulbs;
Would the coralife colormax, linked to above, be a substitute for the Fiji purple? It has an unfortunate green spike, I know, but it seems evenly balanced.
How about the ATI Purple Plus in place of a Fiji purple? Looks like it has more blue than red to me though.
Do all the 50/50 red blue lights have a green spike somewhere? It's not bad to have a little green in your spectrum right?
It seems like the red bulbs are hard to find. Is there anything out there other than the red sun?
Also, you guys are mostly using 8 bulb fixtures. I am not starting with that much light in my room. What kind of watts/sq ft are you guys running? I know it's all about PAR, but I would like some kind of metric I can compare against. My thought is; if I have a good spectrum, like you guys, and I have a good quantity of PAR, my results will be the same. I wish there were a better way to quantify what we are doing. I currently am running 24w/sq ft. It would be ridiculously low according to conventional wisdom. Needless to say, I want to prove conventional wisdom wrong.
I appreciate anyone's input while I wait for my order to come.
Indeed i think we should still petition for our own category... were not CFL or HID so why confuse others when we shoud have a T5 category.. this thread proves that we as a community really do need one.New pics coming in a few minutes guys.
Pr0f, I think I speak for the whole "club" when I say, we owe ya! Thank you once again for introducing these concepts!!
I looked into that tech a while ago... thing is... those bulbs are hard to find, ballasts forget about it... $/$ t5 can outperform on scalability and remember "INVERSE SQUARE LAW" single point of light is not good for growing a large crop. You cant Fight the laws of particle physics..anyone growing with these? http://grow-light-source.com/All_Lighting_Products.htm#420 Watts
I've also got 4 2' HO T5s hanging over my plants in addition to the 2 bulb 4' fixture in the picture. I have 7 bulbs on order from aquarium specialty including red suns, fijis, 454, and 75.25. Mursh and the other regulars here thought I made myself a decent spectrum when I laid it out earlier in this thread. I'm trying, in the meantime, to upgrade my light spectrum before my order arrives and so I could have some emergency spares. I have 206 watts in a 9 sq ft space. Do you think that would be enough?First id like to say that i commend you for at least knowing what your trying to do. and seeking help instead of screwing it up first and asking questions later.
2nd you need more than 2 lamps for this to work i sugest getting another 2bulb fixture.
i dont reccomend any bulb other than the ones I am already using/recommended here.
red suns are the only pure red bulbs i know of...that are available anyways. I suggest using the coral wave if you can't get the fiji purps. you already have what looks like a standard cool white that will have enough green in it to suffice.
Sounds pretty good man... I'd say that it will work, but it also couldn't hurt to drop one more two-bulb fixture in for a little extra wattage. For reference, I basically have 430w in a 4x3.5'ish space.I've also got 4 2' HO T5s hanging over my plants in addition to the 2 bulb 4' fixture in the picture. I have 7 bulbs on order from aquarium specialty including red suns, fijis, 454, and 75.25. Mursh and the other regulars here thought I made myself a decent spectrum when I laid it out earlier in this thread. I'm trying, in the meantime, to upgrade my light spectrum before my order arrives and so I could have some emergency spares. I have 206 watts in a 9 sq ft space. Do you think that would be enough?
Thanks again for your help.
What bulbs are you using? Got any pics of the grow?T5's kick ass. They work great for me. Both veg and flower. I use two 220W 4 bulb duo-tube (biax/2G11) fixtures.
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http://www.elightbulbs.com/Eiko-49312-DT55-65-RS-Single-Tube-4-Pin-Base-Compact-Fluorescent-Light-BulbWhat bulbs are you using? Got any pics of the grow?
Haha, yes. I am a forum camper! And the answers come quick because, as you said, some of it has been addressed earlier in the thread. But no one is going to blame you for not going through 100+ pages before posting, lol. It's easier at this point to ask again than to find anything in this thread! haha.Wow this was a fast answer ...im really glad ....HE means high efficiency (longer bulbs lesser wattage...some are over 100 L/w i think)...cannot sleep
So you're using all 300k bulbs for flowering but whats the spectrum of those bulbs?http://www.elightbulbs.com/Eiko-49312-DT55-65-RS-Single-Tube-4-Pin-Base-Compact-Fluorescent-Light-Bulb
Those are the bulbs. My fixtures are similar to the "Tek-Four" that HTG sells. I use all 6500K in veg and switch out 6 of the 8 bulbs to 3000K for flower.
In addition to the benefits of solid state lighting (dramatically reduced energy use, exact spectral wavelengths matched to the absorption maxima of chlorophyll a and b, no UV, no IR, our lights are straight DC so there is no flicker that disturbs the chloroplast orientation, and no heat directed at the plants, so less water is lost through transpiration) you can control the wavelengths individually to promote foliar growth or to induce budding. We now have a large database of the optimal timing of light, spectral composition for each stage of growth, and it is all controlled via microprocessor in the power distribution box, and modifiable by a user interface that runs on your linux/wintel/mac/iPhone/Android. Call or email if you have questions or wish to be a beta tester. http//www.cyberbiota.comI just found this site advertising a new "State of the art" lighting system! Hah check it out im pretty impressed.. http://www.cyberbiota.com/index.html ps. This isn't me advertising the guy lol, just thought it was cool.
I'd kill to be a beta tester. This sounds AMAZING. I would love to do a test and write a complete journal here on RIU about it. Please let me know if you're interested.In addition to the benefits of solid state lighting (dramatically reduced energy use, exact spectral wavelengths matched to the absorption maxima of chlorophyll a and b, no UV, no IR, our lights are straight DC so there is no flicker that disturbs the chloroplast orientation, and no heat directed at the plants, so less water is lost through transpiration) you can control the wavelengths individually to promote foliar growth or to induce budding. We now have a large database of the optimal timing of light, spectral composition for each stage of growth, and it is all controlled via microprocessor in the power distribution box, and modifiable by a user interface that runs on your linux/wintel/mac/iPhone/Android. Call or email if you have questions or wish to be a beta tester. http//www.cyberbiota.com
Never buy photons you don't need, and your crops cant use!
Peter C, Charles, PhD
Director of Research and Technology
Advanced Photobiology Laboratory
CyberBiota, INC
http//www.cyberbiota.com