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Post by garrison on Jan 30, 2010 16:47:21 GMT -5
I'm going to be getting some lights for my plants now, so can anyone tell me what the best type is?
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Post by madman on Jan 30, 2010 17:02:24 GMT -5
garrison I personally use 150W (really 43W) CFL bulbs. I use one per 2 foot shelf. You can also use fluorescent lights. On my next shelf I am going to be using a dual 20W fluorescent light. Of course you will want to use a timer for the lights. Just make sure that the CFL bulbs are the Daylight ones, the soft white ones are not as bright and not as good for the growth of the plant. The soft white bulbs are goods for the flowering stage. Hopefully that helps you out a bit.
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Post by hal on Jan 30, 2010 19:26:52 GMT -5
You can get a 4' 2-bulb T-8 fluorescent fixture for about $20 at the Big Box stores, then add $10 for the bulbs. I use 2 fixtures per 4' shelf.
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Post by garrison on Jan 30, 2010 23:53:46 GMT -5
Do you know anywhere that has them in Toronto?
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Post by madman on Jan 30, 2010 23:58:04 GMT -5
For either the CFL or the T8 lights you can go to either Home Depot, Rona, Lowes and maybe even Canadian Tire (might be slightly more at Canadian Tire)
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Post by prmills on Jan 31, 2010 6:50:26 GMT -5
If you've got the money and a way to deal with the heat, go with T5HO fixtures. If not, like me, go for T8's. Like Hal said, the 4' T8 'shop' fixtures come pre-wired and with chains to hang them, all you need is bulbs, total price around $25-$30 per fixture. And definately go with 6500K colour temps.
Edit - When it's warm enough put your plants outside, the sun is by far the best and cheapest light source. Last year I had VFT's, dews, pings and sarr's outside in full sun and they loved it!
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Post by garrison on Apr 30, 2010 12:23:52 GMT -5
are ALL lightbulbs phtosynthetically active? and T8's are good enough for helis who need quite intense light, right?
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Post by prmills on Apr 30, 2010 12:42:56 GMT -5
All lights will work to a certain extent. You don't want to use the incandesent bulbs as there is more heat than anything else coming off them.
For my heli's, they are a few inches under one 24" T8 6500k bulb. It should be more but once you get into short sizes it costs a lot. Cheapest 24" 6500k T8 bulbs I found were $15 each out of the USA and I had to build my on fixtures (not ideal either) for what I wanted.
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Post by dvg on Apr 30, 2010 13:17:48 GMT -5
In addition to what Prmills said, if you can get yourself a T5 fixture (you might already have one), they throw out pretty decent light...especially if you have a multibulb 4' type fixture. But if you are using T8s, the four footers are the cheapest to buy by far, and give off the most light.
Also, I'm finding that fluorescent lighting in the 4100k, 5000k and 6500k ranges supplies enough blue light to allow adequate growth for plants.
dvg
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Post by internetguy on Mar 26, 2011 15:06:22 GMT -5
um....do you guys know where to get anything that is under 4' T8 in length?
4' is way to long for me, i see the hardware stores has the 18' T8 2 strip or the 24' (not sure the length, and i want like those shorter ones) but they are not wired @.@....and i don't know how to wire those, i need something like they already have plug so i can just plug and play...
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Post by lloyd on Mar 26, 2011 18:00:38 GMT -5
If you're going fluorescent, go with the T5HO. There are 2' fixtures-some are 4 bulbs. If you search this forum, you will find some suppliers. Or go to the new forum and ask the same question. They come prewired although you may have to attach a plug.
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Post by internetguy on Mar 26, 2011 19:52:52 GMT -5
thanks i find a store in markham, i will go call them and check them out if they have plugs for their 4 strips light @.@....
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