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I bought some new bulbs.

adnedarn

I'm growing CPs in the Desert of Tucson, Az
Admin
hello, i went out a bought a few new bulbs today. came home and checked out the specs. i wanted to try a warm white bulb. so i picked up a Sylvania Designer Warm White Plus. this thing is pretty bright. so i started searching for its specs and found this pretty neat page. link to fluorescent bulb info . turns out mine is the most energy effecient in warm bulbs according to this page. perhaps you would want to look up the bulbs you have and see how they rate? make sure to read the notes so you understand what your looking at in the graphs.
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Later,
 
Just curious as to why you wanted to try a warm white?
Tony
 
honestly, there was no reason at all.   the lights I use are a combination of cool white, warm white and chroma50 ( there are more blue glow lights than golden ones).  (4 40 watt bulbs over each row of plants) and they seem to be doing pretty good.  but over the tank, I had a chroma50 and some "plant bulb" that put out a purple light.  in this tank are my two D. ordensis 'mulligans lagoon' and the traps are not opening.I figure it's a light issue.  and I saw this light at the store and bought it.  is there some consensus that says warm whites are no good?
Thanks,
 
'warm white' has weighted more towards the red end of the spectrum. Most of the light useable to plants is in the blue spectrum. They do require some amounts of red light for proper growth and to promote flowering but excess would be little benefit. Hence the common use of 1 warm white with every few cool whites. If you use strictly a daylight type bulb like the chroma 50 you could use them alone without any problem. The big difficulty with artificial lighting is that it is difficult to measure the amount of light output useable to plants. Two bulbs with exactly the same lumen output could be significantly different on the spectral scale. Or even two bulbs with significantly different lumens could have the same PAR value (photosynthetic active radiation... ie light usable to the plant for photosynthesis) So no.. nothing inherently wrong with using a warm white as long as it is balanced.
Tony
 
cool, I'll have to try out one of those bulbs, adnedarn! I use plant grow lights, I'm sure they are of no good, i will try one of these, hopefuly it will work out okay.
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What makes you think the growlight bulbs are no good?
T
 
someone mentioned PAR. the lower the kelven rating, the higher the par. in reef aquariums people buy these special murcuryt vapor bulbs called iwasaki'sm they are yellow and are like 5500 kelvin ( i think) but they have an incredible PAR rating.


i dont know about plants, but in corals, the higher par rating make the coral grow VERY fastwhen dissolved organics are lwoa nd calcium/alkilinity is in balance and high. unfortunatly, with the low kelven rating that coems with the high par, the corals are boring and brown alot of times. but 20,000 Kelvin bulbs (like 20K radiums) allow corals to turn beautiful shades of blue, and purple, ect, ect. but the corals growth slows down to very slow, and might stop.



i dont know fi that meant anything to you guys. maybe you can get something from it :)

i used to grow corals :)
 
Spec, i am in no way saying that these should take over your lighting. i replaced one single bulb with this one. granted my D. ordensis that the traps never opend on are now opeining i cannot fully say that is because i removed the grow bulb and added this one. i use many different bulbs. over most my plants are 4 4 ft bulbs. and just about every one is different..... i am not too sure i have found the "perfect" bulbs yet.
later,
 
Thanks for that link to the comparison page.  I think it's rather alarming the way he spins his numbers, though.  He makes it seem like the F40T12 is superior to the F32T8s, when in reality the F32T8s are more efficient.  For example, the Philips alto warm white F32T8s produce 92 lumens per watt, but the "most efficient" F40T12s (the one you picked up) only produces 82.5.  "Only" of course in this case is still incredibly amazing and efficient, but i think that oversight was a bit odd.

My new shoplights for my grow shelving are T8s, and they are very bright, plus i have the satisfaction of knowing that they are very efficient and (because they're Philips Alto 'Green Caps' ) have a very low amount of mercury compared to normal fluoresecents.  (It's funny what excites some people, isn't it? )
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  • #11
Pretty impressive, eh?  Only problem is, you gotta replace it every year, and it's MUCH more expensive than an HPS or MH bulb...  If they'd not put the ballast in the bulb it would probably help defray costs, but maybe not.
 
  • #12
If you can use those bulbs for metal halide, I will DEFINATELY get it! The reason for that is because of the low heat. Typical metal halide bulbs produce tremendous amounts of heat (maybe I'm exadurating) and just sucks when you're trying to grow nepenthes in a controled indoor environment. Now I can get the same intense light, but without the heat
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! I think it would be worth it.
 
  • #13
I think for the price, you could purchase a quad tube compact flourescent setup where you can choose your kelvins, actinics, whatever...

power compact quad tube setup I think costs around 120 bucks, 80 less than that, the bulbs do decrease (like every other bulb/tube) their luminiosity over a years time, but unlike this one, there are more of the lights to replace, so you can do it slowly, one at a time, and not burn your plants with a sudden and intense surge of radiant energy...

my 2 cents.

Power Compacts are the best flourescents on the market right now. I am going to buy some for my reef system, and I may end up getting them earlier than the tank, and testing the setup on my plants... I'll let you know.
 
  • #14
Rapture, the bulbs are stand-alone. You just need a standard light socket and reflector. That's what i was referring to - the bulb has the ballast built in to the base of it, which makes it very expensive.

I think it's a bad way to go, MH and HPS are both cheaper and not that much more inefficient, and there's also lest waste going into the landfill. I'm a fan of fluorescents myself, although i think the $7 HD T8 shoplights with the $2.8 HD Philips ALTO T8 bulbs that put out ~3000 lumens at 32 watts power consumption are still a better option than CF unless there's a need for very intense lighting over a small area (like a reef aquarium). CPs can get by just fine with the lighting density available from linear (normal) fluorescents.

I have CFs over my aquarium, and if i was doing it again, i'd probably go with linear fluorescents.
 
  • #16
Maybe you guys can help me since I'm new to growing cp. I have several new vfts and I would like to use some grow lights when the weather is bad. What do you guys recommend for my application? What watt bulbs and type?
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  • #17
opps, muscipula, the HD T8 bulb is that any brand and do you recommend it also be 3000 lumens at 32 watts each? Also, what do you guys use as reflectors on the shop hood and how far from the young vfts should I keep it?
 
  • #18
The shoplight fixtures are the reflectors.  The in-store brand is called "Commercial Electric", believe, and they sell one locally that costs $7.99 (and holds two T8 or two T12 bulbs.  You can pay  more and get a much better one, but this one does have the all-important electronic ballast (which is much better than a magnetic or 'tar' ballast that T12 shoplights usually use.

All T8, 48" bulbs are 32W as far as i know.

The brand of the bulbs themselves isn't important, but my HD sells the Philips ALTO line, which have green endcaps.  I like these because they are very efficient and non-polluting, and if you get the one called the TL850 or TL750 or even TL741 it will be a nice color temperature and good spectrum.  Last time i went they were half the price (around $2) they were when i first got some six months ago, and they had two models instead of one, so i think they're getting more popular/common.

If you care to know, in the ALTO line, the L in the model number stands for "linear", the 7 (or 8, etc) stands for the CRI (7 represents ~75, 8 is ~85), and the last two digits for the color temperature (41 is 4100K).  Hence, what i have are linear bulbs with a CRI of 75 and a color temperature of 4100K.  I wouldn't recommend getting anything lower than the 41 if you can help it - that ends up being a bit "red".

Hope that was helpful.  If you search around, i believe i spouted all sorts of opinion mixed with fact on this subject in various threads.

I have my VFTs from 6" to about 4" below, but you could probably put them even closer.  Experiment, and let us know how it goes.  Just remember it takes some time for the plant to adjust, and even more time for it to respond favorably if it likes the new conditions.

Finally, if you have a sunny window, that's the best lighting of all for them. My VFT got along famously in my southern window in SLC (even with large eaves), where elevation makes the sunlight more intense. Even S. minor did well there. Here in Boston it doesn't do so well. Probably doesn't help that we haven't seen the sun for what seems like a month.
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  • #19
Thanks Muscipula you have been a big help. I'll go with your recommendations. 2-HD T8 white lights and 2-HD Philips Alto 8s the Tl850 or the T750 or the Tl 741. Anyone better than the other TL850,750,741? I need 4 all together correct? One shop light with 4-bulbs?
 
  • #20
HELP! HELP! HELP! OVER HERE PLEASE!  Sorry Muscipula, I'm what you consider a struggler.  I am all confused about bulbs.  All the numbers are confusing me.  I went to HP and found the hood.  $26.00 bucks    
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 and the only T8 I could find was a TL741.  I could not find one with 4100K in a T8 and the only cool white was T12.  I need one of each correct?  Do I need 2 hoods for four lights for the best results or would one hood be fine. Can I use one T8 and one T12 in the same hood?
 
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