LED Without LEDs -My First T5 Grow

forb1d said:
Hey everyone, I just recently started my first little project, I decided to use fluorescent for certain advantages and lack of money for a nice LED system.
I just ordered an eight bulb t5 system.
My main question is what bulbs should i use within the Veg and Bloom cycle?
veg: uvl 660?
Bloom?coral wave,


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Coral waves are supposedly good to throw in there to get the Emerson effect since they have added IR. Anyone else care to elaborate on this? I'm not sure if you want the Emerson effect only in flower or both veg and flower. Seems like you would want 30% increased growth in both veg and flower, just an opinion though.
 
Fonzarelli said:
Coral waves are supposedly good to throw in there to get the Emerson effect since they have added IR. Anyone else care to elaborate on this? I'm not sure if you want the Emerson effect only in flower or both veg and flower. Seems like you would want 30% increased growth in both veg and flower, just an opinion though.
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coral waves only use in flower. a couple hundred pages back i said how the IR in the coral waves were causing my plants in veg to start flowering 15 hours after i added the coral waves. After finding a study on the effects of infrared lighting on plants at Texas A&M. That backed up my theory of IR only in flower. IR drives flowering and makes plants to start flowering much sooner.

it has a blue peak at 420 nm but reaches from 380nm to 460nm. so it has uv-a too and an IR peak at 760 nm that reaches from 740nm to 780nm

coral wave

coral wave.png
 
Thank you again Fonzarelli for helping me with the lights!
I have chosen to use these bulbs with an 8 light setup.
Whats everyone else think of this bulb combination?
Should I switch any with a coral wave?

Veg:2 Aquablues, 2 Actinic Plus, 4 UVL 660nm

BLOOM:
6 UVL 660nm, 1 Actinic Plus, 1 Aquablue special
 
perfect and simple, i would have went with Aquasun and florasuns(instead of Actinic and aqaua) but i all depends on what available and cheap for ya

ad some UVB and youll have the full spectrum for optimal plant growth:)
 
Which ones should be switched out over the other? Take a UVL out of each cycle and throw in a UVB?
Aquasun replaces Aquablues while the florasuns replace the actinic plus?
 
forb1d said:
Thank you again Fonzarelli for helping me with the lights!
I have chosen to use these bulbs with an 8 light setup.
Whats everyone else think of this bulb combination?
Should I switch any with a coral wave?

Veg:2 Aquablues, 2 Actinic Plus, 4 UVL 660nm

BLOOM:
6 UVL 660nm, 1 Actinic Plus, 1 Aquablue special
Click to expand...

Aquasun has 420nm in it. Actinic + has 420nm in it as well as 460nm. The aquasuns have other parts of the spectrum not used quite as much so using the actinic + gives you more usable energy. It's really something you need to mess around with until you get the color you and your plants like. I have a variety of lamps that I use. I like the aquablue specials because they have those "other parts" of the spectrum that is good for human viewing. Not so much for plant growth. They also have a huge 460nm and 480nm spike which the plants use. I don't use Super Actinics anymore because I've been under the impression that my plants like the 460nm over the 420nm. I've actually seen quite a bit of proof that 420nm is really unnecessary altogether. There should be enough 420nm in pretty much any T5 lamp. They all have a spike at 420nm. I have the 75/25 UVL in one of my fixtures which has a big 420nm in it just to see if it really makes a difference. A lot of LED grow lights are using the 460nm spectrum for the blue. I guess it is the best because all the different photosynthesis processes as well as the carotenoids can use that wavelength. You could even get by with 2 aquablue specials and 6 UVL 660nm for bloom. The 630nm and 660nm is what is so important for bloom.

The Florasuns have both 460 and the red spectrum in equal portions. A good mixture with those for bloom could be 4 Florasuns and 4 UVL 660nm. Overall you want to create a magenta hue for flower and a purple hue for veg. The plants are going to grow better with any of these lamps than with your standard 6500k and 3000k veg and bloom(white and yellow) types of lamps. Hope this helps.
 
Another thing to note is that there is little difference inbetween the manufacturers. For instance, the ATI blue plus is pretty much the same as the UVL 454 lamp which is pretty much the same as the Giesemann Actinic Plus. The Actinic plus has a little more 420nm in it however and appears slightly darker blue. The zoomed ocean sun and the ati aquablue special are pretty much the same as well. So if you want to save some mad cash you can go with zoomed. The Zoomed Florasuns, the Sylvania Gro-Lux, the Wavepoint Ultra Growth, and the UVL Procolor are all pretty much the same as well.

The only company making the 660nm specials are UVL. It's important, but not necessary to add the 660nm UVL's because they will really boost your bloom cycle. You can get by with the Florasuns for the 660nm, but you will have quite a bit of extra blue in there which will not accelerate growth as much.
 
If you got the uvl 660 bulbs. You must of seen the spd chart. It has a little blue in it but more green than the flora sun. The 660 does have a very wide red spike.

The gro lux far exceeds any of the bulbs. It has 100% 420 and 80% 660 peaks. Its the best t5 bulb for flower. Unfortunately the gro lux is only sold in the U.K. Flora suns have a higher 660 peak than the uvl 660. The uvl 660 has a much wider red from 600 to 700nm. Alot of which is useless. The aqua blue special and ocean suns are not alike. The ati has much higher peaks. No red, just blue, green, and orange. I have the aqua blue specials in my veg.




Remember with par its not how it appears to the human eye but what the plants need.

Have you even seen any of these spd's?
 
No they are HO. We dont use vho. They last half the time because they are driven so hard and are 96 watts. There is very few aquarium bulbs that are vho
 
i would get a merc vape bulb personally and not waste any of your tube space with UVB bulbs. a merc vape bulb air cooled with a duct fan could have great UVB output for a year or so.(considering it used under 10 hours a day.) the flourescent have to be replaced every six months or so since a chemical reaction(polorization) takes place in the glass after a time that significantly reduces the amount of UVB.
 
hyroot said:
If you got the uvl 660 bulbs. You must of seen the spd chart. It has a little blue in it but more.green than the florasun. The 660 does have a very wide red spike.

The gro lux far exceeds any of the bulbs. It has.100% 420 and 80% 660 peaks. Its the best t5 bulb for flower. Unfortunately the gro lux is only sold in the U.K. Florusuns have a higer 660 peak.than the uvl 660. The uvl 660 has a much wider red from 600 to 700nm. Alot of which is useless.the aqua blue special and ocean suns are not alike. The ati has much higher peaks. No red. Just blue green, orange. I have the aqua blue specials in my veg.




Remember with par its not how it appears to the human eye but what the plants need.

Have you even seen any of these spd's?
Click to expand...

So now that it is commonly-available knowledge and all. What is the 660's SPD? Could you post a pic of it?
 
any bulb can be run in the VHO situation, it was a failed marketing plot by lighting companies several years ago to try and improve the "t5" design, tons and tons of aquarium dudes are overdriving HO bulbs to VHO levels for cheaper than the VHO bulbs and they last just as long, i believe the difference between the 2 types are very minor,(amt of phosphor, ignite temps, electrode used ect)
 
polyarcturus said:
any bulb can be run in the VHO situation, it was a failed marketing plot by lighting companies several years ago to try and improve the "t5" design, tons and tons of aquarium dudes are overdriving HO bulbs to VHO levels for cheaper than the VHO bulbs and they last just as long, i believe the difference between the 2 types are very minor,(amt of phosphor, ignite temps, electrode used ect)
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Thank you for clearing that up. Saw different fixtures and what not so I just assumed they were not compatible.
Thank you as well PetFlora.
Much appreciation for all the help. Just got my fixture and bulbs in today :-P
Just need to figure out what I'm going to use to hang them.
 
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