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Post by kdawg on Aug 3, 2016 21:21:02 GMT -5
Hey Willy, I would love to try out a LED system in the Seed Asylum this year. I 'm presently using T5 Sunblasters. They work great but being located in my house, I am all for the safety aspects of LED's (as long as they perform). This year a reflector melted on a bulb in my grow area and it freaked me out. What would be required to cover the lighting requirements for a 2ft X 4ft shelf consisting of three flats with domes? Price? If feasible, I would be game to purchase and experiment with your LED's on multi CP species under exact conditions (aside from light of course) to see how they perform compared to T5's.
Thanks for the interest! It would be great if you can run the comparison experiment. One big advantage of using LEDs is that instead of burning down or even exploding like florescents, LEDs will disconnect should it overlord/overheat because it is part of line of the circuit. For a 2*4 ft2 area, using the given 15000lux suggestion, it is equals to 1393.55*8=11148.4lm, if you're using the 50w units I'm building, it will take 3 units, $300 in total. Best regards, Willy Thank Willy, Your set up sounds great but for me $300 for self funded research is a bit unfeasible for one 2 X 4 shelf, but in the name of Canadian CP research I'd like to set something up on a slightly smaller scale to play with. Lets PM on this to keep this thread clean. Cheers!
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Post by flamingcarnivores on Aug 8, 2016 9:30:49 GMT -5
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Post by WillyCKH on Aug 8, 2016 10:44:37 GMT -5
Purple LEDs are quite effective, in most cases you can save a good amount of energy comparing to white LEDs or other light sources. Personally I'm not a big fan of purple lights because I have my plants in my own room... Not sure if it's really 24w, so it's hard to say if it's enough for your terrarium. Let us know if you decided to buy it Willy
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Post by flamingcarnivores on Aug 8, 2016 10:52:22 GMT -5
Thanks Willy. I am not a big fan of the purple light either; my plants are in my living room. I am wondering if by supplementing with normal white lighting if the purple could be toned down a bit. I am definitely considering giving them a try for the price. I'll keep you posted
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Post by lloyd on Aug 8, 2016 11:25:04 GMT -5
I had the purple LED lights too for a while. They weren't the newest so hard to compare. However the colour was ghastly and the T5HO's seem much better. Even Ariocarpus (cactus) flower under them).
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Post by Apoplast on Aug 8, 2016 14:46:13 GMT -5
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Post by WillyCKH on Aug 8, 2016 14:51:54 GMT -5
That's a nice 55w LED, thanks for sharing
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Post by meateater on Aug 8, 2016 19:37:29 GMT -5
Just wondering if anyone uses SunBlaster products? Are they good? All my plants are in the living room and I have no place to hang shop lights so I'm considering something like this: www.amazon.ca/Fluorescent-Ballasts-adjustable-SunBlaster-Lights/dp/B00B8ZHFOAIs this worth the $$ (well, whatever Toronto is selling them for... stand and lights are separate so they add up, wouldn't want to invest in something ineffective..., also, this is pretty for winter only....)
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Post by lloyd on Aug 8, 2016 20:43:46 GMT -5
I just bought Sunblaster T5HO's. They give off the same PAR as the cheap generics that are about 1/4 the price. Whether they last longer, I have to wait to find out. I wouldn't buy a fancy Sunblaster Ballast and fixture. I'm sure any electronic ballast set-up would be just as good.
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Post by flamingcarnivores on Aug 9, 2016 7:25:06 GMT -5
I use 4 x 4' SunBlaster T5 HOs with a mixture of 6400 K and 2700 K and my plants do very well under them. Heat is an issue but I find a fan for air circulation helps. I haven't used the stand, but I know Sun Blaster sells cheap clips that can link, I believe 7, of the lights and you can use a daisy chain to hang them above the plants.
Apoplast, do you have any pictures of you plants under the LED light?
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Post by Apoplast on Aug 9, 2016 20:50:19 GMT -5
Hi flamingcarnivores - I do, but not don't have time to load them to Photobucket right now. Might be a while before I do. I'll try to remember this thread and show them off as soon as I can. But for now, there are some shots of the lights in this post.
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Post by WillyCKH on Aug 10, 2016 18:34:59 GMT -5
Hi flamingcarnivores - I do, but not don't have time to load them to Photobucket right now. Might be a while before I do. I'll try to remember this thread and show them off as soon as I can. But for now, there are some shots of the lights in this post. Looks like 2 55w tubes of LEDs per 8 ft2? That sounds great, the plants must be happy under your setup!
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Post by briar on Aug 10, 2016 19:15:19 GMT -5
For years I have used Giesemann Aquaflora 54w T5 here is a photospectrograph I took of my setup, the bulbs were about five years old when this was captured. I have also used Chroma50 T8's for my secondary racks (my N. macrophylla is under chroma50 T8) Heliamphora are not real big fans of their spectral performance though. The colors are ummm drab for lack of a better term, My bright pink ceph is under a Philips green power LED that has white plus Near Red and Far Red emitters After 6 years the ballast has died on my T5, so I thought I would give led's another try on the rack sized scale. So far I have mixed feelings.... plants reacting well, but not a big fan of the aesthetics and if I don't wear eye protection it gives me bad headache is a matter of just a min or two, even indirectly. platinumgrowlights.com/products/p300When I get around to it I will take a spectrograph of it, but fwiw its 12 band. All things being equal, I still prefer the Giesemann T5.... hoping the LED wins me over.
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Post by WillyCKH on Aug 10, 2016 20:16:18 GMT -5
For years I have used Giesemann Aquaflora 54w T5 here is a photospectrograph I took of my setup, the bulbs were about five years old when this was captured. I have also used Chroma50 T8's for my secondary racks (my N. macrophylla is under chroma50 T8) Heliamphora are not real big fans of their spectral performance though. The colors are ummm drab for lack of a better term, My bright pink ceph is under a Philips green power LED that has white plus Near Red and Far Red emitters After 6 years the ballast has died on my T5, so I thought I would give led's another try on the rack sized scale. So far I have mixed feelings.... plants reacting well, but not a big fan of the aesthetics and if I don't wear eye protection it gives me bad headache is a matter of just a min or two, even indirectly. platinumgrowlights.com/products/p300When I get around to it I will take a spectrograph of it, but fwiw its 12 band. All things being equal, I still prefer the Giesemann T5.... hoping the LED wins me over. Wow, nice pink Ceph, never seen one before!
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Post by Apoplast on Aug 11, 2016 14:28:18 GMT -5
Looks like 2 55w tubes of LEDs per 8 ft2? That sounds great, the plants must be happy under your setup! Hi Willy - I'll defer to your expertise on the electronics. I'd have to cut them open to know what was inside, and I'm not eager to do it. I've got one fixture per shelf right now, but when i cluster my Helies, I'll probably drop two on that shelf.
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