hey everyone ive been readin a lot and am thinking about useing par lights but im a little confused on wich ones to use for flower and veg
if im thinking rite
veg
2x fiji purple
2x blue
flower
2x fiji purole
2x red sun
now that would just be for the 4 bulb t5 a 4 footer i was also thinking of just getting the fiji purple bulbs and useing the grow and bloom t5 lights for the diff times but if anyone can help me fin the rite lights that would be great as i have had trouble finding just the ho bulbs and i dont want to use the vho bulbs they are s waste
you cant do aquarium specific bulbs only, If you have a 4 bulb fixture you have to have 2 full spectrum bulbs in each, either 6500 or 3000k or another bulb that has 3 spectrum spikes providing necessary spectrum. Veg is heavy blue, but not all blue. Flower is Heavy red, but you cant have all red... Granted almost every Fluorescent will have plenty of blue, it will not be utilized as efficiently if there is no green or lacking red. You need all light during all stages, just more pronounced depending on stage. For veg use one purple and one blue along with 2 other bulbs that provide a more wide spectrum, I would stay stick with two cheap 6500k's (or upgrade to a florasun or aquaflora) with two blue bulbs, then for flower swap out the 6500k's for some 3000 or 2700k's then 1 red sun and 1 fiji purple. The bloom bulbs still have green and blue, only heavier oranges than the 6500k.
They will look really cool under actinic/aquarium bulbs only, but they'll suffer lack of proper spectrum. look at the SPD charts (google image search your bulb +spectrum/SPD) and figure a combo that will cover all wavelengths, just heavier blue for veg/red for flower but still widely spread with a tiny bit of green.
If you have no red in Veg, or no blue in Flower, or zero green at all, your plants will either stretch to find it or be stunted (or will generally not be the best they can be even if they dont look visibly stressed)
If you only have a single 4 bulb, and $ is an issue, wavepoint bulbs are about $10ea, top fixture has a reefwave and blue wave covering the blues + two 6500k's giving some red and a bit of green (Ive since upgraded to an 8 bulb for veg so I have more opportunity to vary the spectrum, but I had been considering swapping in the bloom bulbs for veg just to counter the extra boost of blue compared to an all 6500k fixture. I figure they're getting an extra dose of blue so I might need to up the red abit also *yes I know the blooms are mostly orange/yellow rather than useful red but whatev.)
. bottom fixture has a coralwave and redwave w 2 cheap bloom bulbs. All 4 of these bulbs have plenty of blue, but the wavepoints also have specific red spikes and the blooms give some orange and a bit o green. I cannot testify to the flowering setup cuz I use it as sidelighting w HPS above, but I like the spectrum combo and I thnk it works good to supplement (would never try to flower with only 4bulbs, tho... maybe an 8 bulb. But when I went from all 6500k to adding the two blue I definately noticed improved response and VERY tight nodes. I got good veg results from the top fixture... total cost abt 125$ for each fixture with bulbs.
