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Post by vraev on Apr 24, 2007 0:01:06 GMT -5
Hi guys, This was what i was busy with today. I went out for 3 hrs to home depot, rona lansing & canadian tire. This was advised to me based on my initial draft by using PVC tubing 1 - 1 1/2 " diameter ones by this guy in rona lansing. Here is a schematic I made for it. What do you guys think. I want to make this as a unified lighitng for my CP's as well as my soon to be made a landscape terrarium from the current one. The Cp's will be put in their own pots and made a terrarium using wooden planks and so on (next project). This basically allows me to easily have a single lighting rather than like 4 desk lamps. What do you guys think about the lights I am putting in?? SHould I rather put both as daylight T12's ?? My VFT's definately like 6400K light at daylight tubes. cheers, vraev
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Post by tom on Apr 24, 2007 7:41:37 GMT -5
Your light system seems fine: adjustable and homemade which allow you to modify it easily. I would go for 1 40W daylight and 1 40 coolwhite for the 'tube combo' since I never thought the 'plants tube' was worthing the expense. I have been growing my plants with this combo for years without problem. If fluorescent lights are your only light source, you might think of a way to place 4 fluorescents racks, since you are more likely to have higher demanding plants regarding light
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Post by martin on Apr 24, 2007 9:02:00 GMT -5
Go for the T8 fixtures instead of the T12. They are brighter and use less electricity. The daylight tube is the best one, IMO. Also, try to get the electronic balast (not the bulky magnetic), they dont produce audible humming.
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Post by vraev on Apr 24, 2007 11:13:29 GMT -5
thanks for the replies guys! hmm.......T8's eh?? There is this other nice silver coated fixture that takes only T8's. Hmm....right now I use 1 23W and 1 13W light bulb. Wouldn't a 32W + 32W daylight fixture be better than that alone??
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Post by tom on Apr 24, 2007 11:51:24 GMT -5
Hmm we're getting in light physics and plant physiology right now . If you 13W+23W are both fluorescent tubes, compared to 2 x 32W fluorescents, then yes, morelikely the second setup is better. But althought a lot of people evaluate 'how much light' they get from their setup with wattage, it is not that easily correlated. Spectrum is one thing to consider (and is one reason why haogen lamp or standard light bulb aren't great for plants), but also is the quantity of photons emitted by the light source, especially in the photosynthesis part of the light spectrum. This factor, more than wattage, is correlated to how much photosynthesis, and thus growth, a plant can achieve, potentially. and it's also the way you can compare different light system from each others, either CFL, standard fluo, etc on the 'same basis'. I'll to post more on this later
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Post by vraev on Apr 24, 2007 12:16:48 GMT -5
13W + 23W were both flouroscents.....CFL's ot be more precise They were 6400K sunlight desk lamps. So I am looking at the equivalent 6500K daylight brand philips tubes. being 32 W hypothetically they should be emitting atleast the same light over more area or more light. My plants as you cna see from my pics really like them. My vft;s are nice and coloured up and my sundews are red and their tentacles droop with dew.
SO is there a diff betwn CFL vs standard flourscents?? I am still probably more inclined towards the daylight. I rather avoid the cool white or warm white as their light is of lower temp and probably not enough light evenly across the specturm.
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Post by martin on Apr 24, 2007 12:31:04 GMT -5
Home Depot in my area sells 4 feet T8 fixtures (without the fancy chrome finish) with magnetic ballasts for 34$. I have yet to find a cheap T8 with electronic ballast. I switched from T12 to T8 on most of my installations and got more coloration on Drosera and Pings without changing the distance to the plants.
I dont know what plants you plan to grow in there, but if they receive too much light, you can always plays with the distance. Bear in mind that light rapidly diminishes with the distance (at exponential rate). Hope this helps.
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Post by vraev on Apr 24, 2007 13:26:41 GMT -5
hmm....I guess I will go for the T8's then...the chrome one was 34$ for a T8 lights. Are u sure that T8 is better than T12?? how come the diff in numbers says otherwise ... just curious
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Post by funkytechnician on Apr 24, 2007 14:51:37 GMT -5
hay looks good man, it's good to see you trying to construct your own system, the more you do it, the more you discover the lil secrets of growing with doo-dads ;D One piece of adviece, your setup could use maybe a little more build stability on the lighting support legs, that setup is going to be quite top heavy so you want a good base for each of the legs, I worry that the tubing man pull the screws out of the boarding your using and topple the structure, perhaps an angled crossmember conecting the floor board and the main upright like this VERY poor letter drawing l l\__ good luck
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Post by vraev on Apr 24, 2007 15:50:27 GMT -5
hmmm.....interesting. The dude at rona said that this is pretty strong enough and it can bear those 15 pounds of lighting setup without a hiccup. I guess I'll check it out once more when my friend comes over to help me with it. thanks funkydude.
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Post by martin on Apr 24, 2007 17:57:27 GMT -5
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Post by vraev on Apr 24, 2007 20:59:54 GMT -5
hmmm....interesting! Thanks for the info martin. I will be getting this thing day after tomorrow. I am planning on getting this other fixture that allows both T8 and T12 flouroscents in them. BTW...abotu the plant light...I noticed that nepenthes LOVE the plant light. The ventrata is really happy with one of those.
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Post by lloyd on Apr 24, 2007 21:30:29 GMT -5
A good engineer tries to build for unusual situations. For example if you tripped and hit the light stand it would be good to have some side support as mentioned above.
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