UV Suppliment Lighting

[Airwalker16]

https://www.solacure.com/superb.html
^^^^
T8 bulbs,

https://www.solacure.com/plants1.html
^^^^
T5 talk is on paragraph 3.

 

[ChiefRunningPhist]

You could grind the reflector surface with sandpaper or sandblasting them to get a more diffuse distribution or you just by one of the cheap stocco reflectors for 400-600w bulbs. Its a hammered alu sheet and you could cut off wide enough pieces to create your own reflectors. That's what I've done with my current light but I've sold it already.
View attachment 4327413

It's one of the pictures of the added holders of the superspreaders I've made to reduce the hotspot below the Agromax bulbs so there is no shape to see but you see the surface. Its just the cheapest reflector I've found in my basement. Only make sure its not glas coated like with adjust-a-wing reflectors. Glas doesn't reflect UVB!

The spearders have btw not helped a lot; these bulbs are simply too strong to use them 12-14" above the tops.

Really sad that Solacure only sells in the U.S. I will wait until they have the T5 bulbs available. Maybe I'll find an EU distributor and if not I'll find another way.
If they have already a new site online it can not take long.
Do you have the link, buddy?

Maybe someone can buy 1 and ship it to you personally.

 

[Randomblame]

https://www.solacure.com/superb.html
^^^^
T8 bulbs,

https://www.solacure.com/plants1.html
^^^^
T5 talk is on paragraph 3.
View attachment 4327445

Lol, the T5 will just be like a 5% reptile bulb, lol! 5% UVB, 30% UVA and 65% visible light.
I remember they said somewhere in the flowerpower describtion, reptile bulbs are shit and only their flowerpower bulb has enough juice to increase thc significantly.
I like the small F20 bulbs because they are just as powerful like the 4ft bulbs and you can drive them at 10-12w. Perfect for a shorter distance 12-18" and 4x 15 minutes. So if I order solacure anytime I'll either use the 2ft F20 or the 2ft B-type T8. They still have half as much UVB in the 285nm range but with half as much intensity. They should work in the same way but easier to use cuz the risk to damage the plants is much(50%) lower.
Pretty sure I'll change my mind a few times until then, lol! Both have their pros and cons!
- F20 lasts two times longer cuz they need only to run half the time to create the same UV dose but they have the potential to cause damage.
- T8's are safer to use but need to run two times longer so they last only half as long but with a 50% lower risk to damage the plants.

Maybe someone can buy 1 and ship it to you personally.

Yeah, this way I got my 6 Agromax 2footers, bro. I've found an Solacure EU distributor in the UK but only for 1000mm and 4ft bulbs. I need again 2footers if any.
But reptile bulbs work too and it seems they accept it now cuz they have relativized a few things.
For instance they say, their measurings are not comparable to other brands bulbs. That's BS! A UV meter is a UV meter and measures UV! Spectrums are not comparable, raw output is.
They also work on a T5 bulb now with an UVB to A to visible light ratio like a 5.0 reptile bulb usually used for jungle reptiles. I thought they would not work, Solacure? And now they do?
For now I've still enough brand new 12% Arcadia's laying around and the Agromax bulbs left(still 4) will be sold over e3ay.

@Or_Gro has send me a link of an announcement of an LED based UV fixture for cannabis and other plant species using only 285 and 365nm but it's not available currently. Seems its soon not needed to further use T12/8/5 bulbs.
Hopefully they are not too expensive.
But as soon as we know which diodes they are using its easy to create something similar to integrate it in our lights directly.

https://www.agricultra.com/secondarymetabolite


BTW, have you seen the new Sonoff basic r3's? They have a DIY mode and don't need a router anymore to switch them on/off manually or change timer settings. They create an own wifi hotspot the phone can be connected to.

 

[ChiefRunningPhist]

Lol, the T5 will just be like a 5% reptile bulb, lol! 5% UVB, 30% UVA and 65% visible light.
I remember they said somewhere in the flowerpower describtion, reptile bulbs are shit and only their flowerpower bulb has enough juice to increase thc significantly.
I like the small F20 bulbs because they are just as powerful like the 4ft bulbs and you can drive them at 10-12w. Perfect for a shorter distance 12-18" and 4x 15 minutes. So if I order solacure anytime I'll either use the 2ft F20 or the 2ft B-type T8. They still have half as much UVB in the 285nm range but with half as much intensity. They should work in the same way but easier to use cuz the risk to damage the plants is much(50%) lower.
Pretty sure I'll change my mind a few times until then, lol! Both have their pros and cons!
- F20 lasts two times longer cuz they need only to run half the time to create the same UV dose but they have the potential to cause damage.
- T8's are safer to use but need to run two times longer so they last only half as long but with a 50% lower risk to damage the plants.



Yeah, this way I got my 6 Agromax 2footers, bro. I've found an Solacure EU distributor in the UK but only for 1000mm and 4ft bulbs. I need again 2footers if any.
But reptile bulbs work too and it seems they accept it now cuz they have relativized a few things.
For instance they say, their measurings are not comparable to other brands bulbs. That's BS! A UV meter is a UV meter and measures UV! Spectrums are not comparable, raw output is.
They also work on a T5 bulb now with an UVB to A to visible light ratio like a 5.0 reptile bulb usually used for jungle reptiles. I thought they would not work, Solacure? And now they do?
For now I've still enough brand new 12% Arcadia's laying around and the Agromax bulbs left(still 4) will be sold over e3ay.

@Or_Gro has send me a link of an announcement of an LED based UV fixture for cannabis and other plant species using only 285 and 365nm but it's not available currently. Seems its soon not needed to further use T12/8/5 bulbs.
Hopefully they are not too expensive.
But as soon as we know which diodes they are using its easy to create something similar to integrate it in our lights directly.

https://www.agricultra.com/secondarymetabolite


BTW, have you seen the new Sonoff basic r3's? They have a DIY mode and don't need a router anymore to switch them on/off manually or change timer settings. They create an own wifi hotspot the phone can be connected to.

Ill have to check out the r3's, I have a bunch of ... idk lol, .. but I haven't played with them much. Actually was looking into Tasmota recently though. The r3 sounds like similar functionality to what I'm including. Very cool.

I think I'm set on 310nm peak with a bit of a tail extending into 295-ish.

The 280nm peak chips just seem a little scary.

$60/(20) "310nm chips" with a L70 of 6400hrs. Ill let you do the math on life expectancy as people have different tastes (but probably 1.5yrs - 2yrs for my useage?). I'm calculating anywhere from 54mW/m2 (peak 305nm) total emmision, to 135mW/m2 (peak 315nm) total emmision with (20) "310nm chips". Not PPFD, just radiant emmission, only 2.8w max from driver used per 2' × 2'. Maybe I'll include (4) 280nm UVC chips, only if they are small enough power,... after checking, I found 2mW output per chip, that makes 8mW total. 8mW could be 40% of the total UVB+ output, or only 16% of the total UVB+ output.. 8mW or 21.5mW/m2 seems a bit high but maybe I'm being naive. I'm going mainly off of this...

Says a UV index of 10.6 is at least ~74mW/m2 of 305nm. Only ~0.6mW/m2 of 295nm. 325nm would be pretty lacking with the chips I'm looking at for UVB+, but maybe plants want 325nm? If that's the case I'll need to add 325nm. Anyways... While UV index is for humans, it still is a measure of UVB intensity that both humans and plants recieve. I don't think the plants will want the 295-310nm part of a 10.6 UV index all day long, but with the dimmer I hope to be able to dial it in.

All those theoretical calcs are not even PPFD, and I haven't figured how the reflector is working out yet either. Lots of assumptions, and everyone know why you never assume! lol

 

[Randomblame]

Ill have to check out the r3's, I have a bunch of ... idk lol, .. but I haven't played with them much. Actually was looking into Tasmota recently though. The r3 sounds like similar functionality to what I'm including. Very cool.

I think I'm set on 310nm peak with a bit of a tail extending into 295-ish.
View attachment 4327717
The 280nm peak chips just seem a little scary.
View attachment 4327716
$60/(20) "310nm chips" with a L70 of 6400hrs. Ill let you do the math on life expectancy as people have different tastes (but probably 1.5yrs - 2yrs for my useage?). I'm calculating anywhere from 54mW/m2 (peak 305nm) total emmision, to 135mW/m2 (peak 315nm) total emmision with (20) "310nm chips". Not PPFD, just radiant emmission, only 2.8w max from driver used per 2' × 2'. Maybe I'll include (4) 280nm UVC chips, only if they are small enough power,... after checking, I found 2mW output per chip, that makes 8mW total. 8mW could be 40% of the total UVB+ output, or only 16% of the total UVB+ output.. 8mW or 21.5mW/m2 seems a bit high but maybe I'm being naive. I'm going mainly off of this...
View attachment 4327719
Says a UV index of 10.6 is at least ~74mW/m2 of 305nm. Only ~0.6mW/m2 of 295nm. 325nm would be pretty lacking with the chips I'm looking at for UVB+, but maybe plants want 325nm? If that's the case I'll need to add 325nm. Anyways... While UV index is for humans, it still is a measure of UVB intensity that both humans and plants recieve. I don't think the plants will want the 295-310nm part of a 10.6 UV index all day long, but with the dimmer I hope to be able to dial it in.

All those theoretical calcs are not even PPFD, and I haven't figured how the reflector is working out yet either. Lots of assumptions, and everyone know why you never assume! lol

Well, that's my problem and the reason I wait for the first commercial UVB/A LED lamps designed for C. growing.

It's pretty, no really hard to figure out how much is needed and which diodes would work without a siutable test equipment. You need at least a spectrometer able to go as deep as 250nm and then test different combinations. Only this way you can copy the global radiation and figure out how much μW/cm² you really get in a certain distance. Usually used are 12-24" so we need these numbers.
If this fixture mentioned above is finally available we will see the spectrum and can figure out which diodes they are using.
There is not much choice yet and it should be easy to figure out which brand and wavelength it is.

 

[Airwalker16]

Well, that's my problem and the reason I wait for the first commercial UVB/A LED lamps designed for C. growing.

Isn't that basically what the SolaCure bulbs are?
The more I read In to the many many pages of their website, the more I seem to believe these really are perfectly made to use for Canna.

 

[Randomblame]

Isn't that basically what the SolaCure bulbs are?
The more I read In to the many many pages of their website, the more I seem to believe these really are perfectly made to use for Canna.

Yeah, their spectrum really fits pretty good and mimics the UV radiation in higher areas. The spectrum goes down to 280nm and all their bulbs have some output in the 285nm range. The farer away you are from this wavelength the more time is needed to see an effect. With 290nm light you already need 5x the time to get the same effect. That's the reason reptile bulb need up to 6h per day. The Solacure bulbs can do the same in 1-2h.

The reason I wait for an LED fixture is its easier just to integrate a few diodes instead a whole T5 or T8 fixture. And with LED one need even less electricity.
But I agree, for now the Solacure bulbs are the best and if they would be available here I would for sure use them and run them at half their nominal wattage.(2ft. T8 bulbs at 10-18w or so)
They were unfortunately not avalable last year and the T12 bulbs need old magnetic ballasts so I decided to try the Agromax T5 bulbs. I did not know that they have a totally wrong spectrum.
Sh.t! Learned it the hard way and paid 180$ for that lesson, lol!

 

[sureshot138]

What do you guys think of the agromax t5 veg + uv bulbs? It looks like a new bulb. I think hortilux has a veg + uv bulb as well.

 

[Airwalker16]

What do you guys think of the agromax t5 veg + uv bulbs? It looks like a new bulb. I think hortilux has a veg + uv bulb as well.

I think AgroMax USED to have it motee available but don't now. I could be wrong though.

 

[Airwalker16]

Yeah, their spectrum really fits pretty good and mimics the UV radiation in higher areas. The spectrum goes down to 280nm and all their bulbs have some output in the 285nm range. The farer away you are from this wavelength the more time is needed to see an effect. With 290nm light you already need 5x the time to get the same effect. That's the reason reptile bulb need up to 6h per day. The Solacure bulbs can do the same in 1-2h.

The reason I wait for an LED fixture is its easier just to integrate a few diodes instead a whole T5 or T8 fixture. And with LED one need even less electricity.
But I agree, for now the Solacure bulbs are the best and if they would be available here I would for sure use them and run them at half their nominal wattage.(2ft. T8 bulbs at 10-18w or so)
They were unfortunately not avalable last year and the T12 bulbs need old magnetic ballasts so I decided to try the Agromax T5 bulbs. I did not know that they have a totally wrong spectrum.
Sh.t! Learned it the hard way and paid 180$ for that lesson, lol!

Well the 4' solacures are only $99 for 4

 

[Randomblame]

What do you guys think of the agromax t5 veg + uv bulbs? It looks like a new bulb. I think hortilux has a veg + uv bulb as well.

It's just a reptile bulb with a different name. The power veg+ spectrum looks the same like the Arcadia D3 desert with 12% UVB, 30% UVA and 58% visible light.
Do you have the link to this new Agromax veg +UV bulbs? Or do you mean the 10k finishers? I've not seen their spectrum yet. But it's probably also reptile bulb like cause to veg you need some visible light too.

 

[Airwalker16]

It's just a reptile bulb with a different name. The power veg+ spectrum looks the same like the Arcadia D3 desert with 12% UVB, 30% UVA and 58% visible light.
Do you have the link to this new Agromax veg +UV bulbs? Or do you mean the 10k finishers? I've not seen their spectrum yet. But it's probably also reptile bulb like cause to veg you need some visible light too.

He might not have the link, but I do.

https://www.htgsupply.com/products/agromax-pureveg-plus-uv-t5-bulbs-4-foot/

 

[Airwalker16]

These are half the price too. 4 for $48.
I wonder if it'd be smarter to just buy a couple T5 2lamp ballasts for $20-30 total and use these Pure Veg+UV instead.
Spectrum looks good. But do the solacure bulbs have a better range in the closer to UV-A 385mm wavelengths? Looks like it still Hits the 285 though right? @Randomblame

SolaCure T8 Super-B lamp.

 

[sureshot138]

He might not have the link, but I do.

https://www.htgsupply.com/products/agromax-pureveg-plus-uv-t5-bulbs-4-foot/

that's the one. thx.

 

[mr. childs]

You could grind the reflector surface with sandpaper or sandblasting them to get a more diffuse distribution or you just by one of the cheap stocco reflectors for 400-600w bulbs. Its a hammered alu sheet and you could cut off wide enough pieces to create your own reflectors. That's what I've done with my current light but I've sold it already.
View attachment 4327413

It's one of the pictures of the added holders of the superspreaders I've made to reduce the hotspot below the Agromax bulbs so there is no shape to see but you see the surface. Its just the cheapest reflector I've found in my basement. Only make sure its not glas coated like with adjust-a-wing reflectors. Glas doesn't reflect UVB!

The spearders have btw not helped a lot; these bulbs are simply too strong to use them 12-14" above the tops.

Really sad that Solacure only sells in the U.S. I will wait until they have the T5 bulbs available. Maybe I'll find an EU distributor and if not I'll find another way.
If they have already a new site online it can not take long.
Do you have the link, buddy?

guess i will have to pick up a t5 solarcure bulb to try out, but that agromax is my favorite & has been for years

 

[mr. childs]

Yeah, their spectrum really fits pretty good and mimics the UV radiation in higher areas. The spectrum goes down to 280nm and all their bulbs have some output in the 285nm range. The farer away you are from this wavelength the more time is needed to see an effect. With 290nm light you already need 5x the time to get the same effect. That's the reason reptile bulb need up to 6h per day. The Solacure bulbs can do the same in 1-2h.

The reason I wait for an LED fixture is its easier just to integrate a few diodes instead a whole T5 or T8 fixture. And with LED one need even less electricity.
But I agree, for now the Solacure bulbs are the best and if they would be available here I would for sure use them and run them at half their nominal wattage.(2ft. T8 bulbs at 10-18w or so)
They were unfortunately not avalable last year and the T12 bulbs need old magnetic ballasts so I decided to try the Agromax T5 bulbs. I did not know that they have a totally wrong spectrum.
Sh.t! Learned it the hard way and paid 180$ for that lesson, lol!

couldnt you just use the agromax further away for a shorter amount of time ?

 

[Randomblame]

Well the 4' solacures are only $99 for 4

Yeah, 2ft. T8 would work for me but shipping adds up. Would only need 2 bulbs and they last a few years when you use them 1' above the tops for 1-2h the day. That's only 70-140 hours per 10 week flowering cycle and they last 1500h so minimum 10 runs before you need new bulbs.

 

[mr. childs]

He might not have the link, but I do.

https://www.htgsupply.com/products/agromax-pureveg-plus-uv-t5-bulbs-4-foot/

i wish they made them in 2ft

 

[Airwalker16]

These are half the price too. 4 for $48.
I wonder if it'd be smarter to just buy a couple T5 2lamp ballasts for $20-30 total and use these Pure Veg+UV instead.
Spectrum looks good. But do the solacure bulbs have a better range in the closer to UV-A 385mm wavelengths? Looks like it still Hits the 285 though right? @Randomblame
View attachment 4328444
SolaCure T8 Super-B lamp.
View attachment 4328467

Are these spectrum graphs not like basically IDENTICAL??

 

[Chunky Stool]

Has anyone experimented with mixed spectrum HID?
Plants seem to like bare-bulb MH but can only take a limited amount.

Not sure if it's because of the UV...