LED Without LEDs -My First T5 Grow

AltarNation said:
Strongly considering modding my 8-bulb setup with a plexiglass cage of some sort. I'll see what they have at the local stores and see what I can come up with. I have the SunStar HTG clone of the bad boy... very similar except the lights do not have switches and the ballasts are between instead of above so there's a gap... none the less, it's working pretty well, save for the fact that I have to be kind of careful about how close I let them get, as I have had a few burns and some wilting on hotter days. (Still dialing in exhaust system, but have been keeping things open air to compensate.)

Question, have you built one of these? I'm thinking that you'd want to hold the plexi off the bulbs a little... I'd like to seal it in with some good air flow, but wondering how far off the bulbs need to stay from the plexi to avoid the plexi heating up... I guess, with a good enclosure and a strong exhaust fan, you could have it almost right on the bulbs and still stay cool... thinking just shy of an inch, and then you have a unit that lets your plants get right up to the 1" distance without any risk of burn. I have an exhaust blower that I am hooking up tomorrow, but now I am thinking I might as well pipe it directly from a hood through a passive intake.
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If you have a good fan....the bulbs can be an inch away from the Plexiglas. The melting point temp is much higher than the bulbs. I have used simple silicone for the creases and duct connectors from wood working equipment that's only 3". I can place my hand on the Plexiglas for a while and it feels cool to the touch
 
AltarNation said:
Strongly considering modding my 8-bulb setup with a plexiglass cage of some sort. I'll see what they have at the local stores and see what I can come up with. I have the SunStar HTG clone of the bad boy... very similar except the lights do not have switches and the ballasts are between instead of above so there's a gap... none the less, it's working pretty well, save for the fact that I have to be kind of careful about how close I let them get, as I have had a few burns and some wilting on hotter days. (Still dialing in exhaust system, but have been keeping things open air to compensate.)

Question, have you built one of these? I'm thinking that you'd want to hold the plexi off the bulbs a little... I'd like to seal it in with some good air flow, but wondering how far off the bulbs need to stay from the plexi to avoid the plexi heating up... I guess, with a good enclosure and a strong exhaust fan, you could have it almost right on the bulbs and still stay cool... thinking just shy of an inch, and then you have a unit that lets your plants get right up to the 1" distance without any risk of burn. I have an exhaust blower that I am hooking up tomorrow, but now I am thinking I might as well pipe it directly from a hood through a passive intake.
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I built one in the past to compensate for summer heat and a weak a/c. I was impressed by the results as it lowered my temps in a tent by 10 degrees and sometimes more.
 
Well, one of my new Red Suns just went to like half power, it is now a dull red instead of bright. So of the 2 new ones, one came DOA and was replaced, and now another one is "sick".

As I still have 2 working Red Suns (I already had another one in) I think I am going to replace the faulty Red Sun with a Coral Wave. This will give my 8 bulb setup the following:

Fiji (#1) / Coral Wave (#1) / 454 / Red Sun (#1) / Fiji (#2) / Coral Wave (#2) / Red Sun (#2) / Fiji (#3). Total 3 Fiji, 2 Red Sun, 2 Coral Wave and the 454. This is for Bloom. For my next Veg I will pull out 1 Coral Wave for a 420 Actinic and pull out a Red Sun for 75.25.

Any thoughts on swapping out the faulty #3 Red Sun for a 2nd Coral Wave, pr0fesseur?
 
sometimes bulbs will act "sick" when its a ballast prob, have you tried putting another bulb in that same spot to see if it functions fine or if its doing the same thing.
 
that sucks, sorry that happened to ya. The company should replace it though? I would think they would as it is so new.

my two sun reds are going great still. I've had em running for bout 3 days now
 
pr0fesseur said:
1.) If you read my thread i stated frequently my experiment was not about yield. and is impossible to quantify yield when measuring just the lights capability to grow.. too many variables to make an accurate statement. yield is different per strain and per grower.
2.) Heat was never an issue with my setup dramatically less than my 400HID threw off. 4-5-10 degrees less on average. depending on full light daytime nighttime and height of the lamp... the closer to the exaust the less heat reached my control unit... i used a control unit to adjust heat/cool/light/humidity. set it forget it.
3.) Why? your wasting money on led using this method these bulbs BLOW LED AWAY!
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First of all...I agree with what you have done using aquarium bulbs! I'm in no way trying to insult you, so calm down. And yes I agree there are different variables when talking about yield, just wanted a rough figure, thats all. I built a custom enclosure that is 6' wide 3' deep & 7' tall, then split it into 2 flowering chambers to get a perpetual grow. It has a jumbo 180 per side as well as 4' T5 side lighting all around. Not much on power savings but heat savings are unbelievable. I personally go for quality when growing and my led's work fantastic. I was just thinking on adding some of these lights instead of my blue & red T5's. Just jumped to aeroponics so I was going to set everything up from scratch.
 
Wssup pr0 im new to riu and i wil be starting my first grow soon. I have a 4' 4 54w tek light fixture that i had on one of my reef tanks. Right now in this fixture I have 3 blue plus (one is a spare), 1 aquablue special, and a 12000k actinic white (50/50). Can i use any of these bulbs to veg? Or should i get rid of them all and go with this set up (fiji, 454, UVL 75.25, Fiji) that u recommended to another person? And is my fixture good enough to veg and flower 2 plants?
 
Well my plants out grew the space I had for them to veg in so..... it's off to the UC system for 8 of um' to flower.
I still have 2 mothers under the t5's along with 2 extras, I think I'm going to veg these for another 2 months and see what kind of weight I can pull from these plant.

On a side note I received another 8 lamp bb, after putting it together one of the bays will not fire =( I'm going to check the connections before I call to return it.... but it seems like everyone is having some kind of issue with there BB T5 fixtures.

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PROF XAVIER said:
I have used simple silicone for the creases and duct connectors from wood working equipment that's only 3".
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Hey X, thanks for your response... can you link me to an example of what kind of duct connector you are using? That was the part that stopped my progress on this project, I could not find a duct other than a 10x3 to 6" round conversion... and that obviously would still require further connecting to hook up to a big flat T5 unit. Wood working, I did not think of that... some sort of vaccuum collection ducting from a saw or something?? Really interested in what you've got, you could save me the trouble of setting up elsewhere during the warmer months!
 
Myles117 said:
that sucks, sorry that happened to ya. The company should replace it though? I would think they would as it is so new.

my two sun reds are going great still. I've had em running for bout 3 days now
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One of my Red Suns/Red Lifes went belly up on the 3rd day. The other is fine. And here too, it is the bulb, not the ballast/socket.
 
and have you contacted the seller to see about having it replaced? the bulbs are too expensive to be havin that shit happen.
 
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