Lighting alternatives

Me and my buddy are building some new growboxes and we were thinking about adding two 18-24 inch florescent tubes in two of the corners to help spread around the light
but those size tubes only come in like 15-20 watts.
Will that even help, we are gonna have a few 40 watt cfls at the top, we just figured this might help spread the light around, help a little extra get to the bottom leaves.
Also lowes had these small work lights on sale
looked something like this:
http://www.lowes.com/pd_320777-337-PQS600RUT_0_?productId=3182627&Ntt=work%20light&Ntk=i_products&Ns=p_product_price|0&pl=1&currentURL=/pl__0__s?Ntk=i_products$rpp=15$No=15$Ntt=work%20light$Ns=p_product_price|0$identifier=
it was a little smaller and 250 watts, they were on sale at like $5
so we were thinking about it
do those halogen lights put out anything useable to weed?
thanks guys

oh man I didn't even think of using something like that. Getting a cheap little bugger like that for a cheaper store bought mh or hps could help supplement lower levels...
sorry I don't know for sure if halogens are actually useful or not

Do not use Halogens, the spectrum they emit is pretty much useless to weed. Also they emit more heat than they do light so you will never get your temps under control. Just buy a couple CFL's man 6500K for veg and 2700K for flower; K is the color of the light emitted (just look on the box). Good luck and happy growing.
Chillums

I'm using a halogen 330watt outdoor light.
It's doing fine for my 2 plants but it's only 2 weeks in, maybe it'll start to show later on.

yeah, Any idea on the tube CFLs?
I can get the in the right color spectrum, just the wattages are so low
but i figure every little bit helps
especially to get a little bit of light to those bottom leaves

BrotherBudro said:

yeah, Any idea on the tube CFLs?
I can get the in the right color spectrum, just the wattages are so low
but i figure every little bit helps
especially to get a little bit of light to those bottom leaves

Click to expand...

what spectrum of lights are you useing an what wattage bro

Hey guys are there any fixtures like the halogen one in his link that can be used as easily? *It would be really awesome to supplement the sides of the grow with a MH or HPS that dosen't require an expensive ballast and will run in one of those little portable work light jigs

anyone know of something like this?
the only other option I can think of is buying those single T5 bulbs that come in a little fixture to run them so you just plug them in and put them wherever you want. They're pretty cheap if I remember less than 30 bucks?

im using (2) 4 ft t12's and 4 cfls and my plant is loving it crystaly as a mutha fucka

are t12s better than t5s?

how many watts are those t12s putting out
and what do the ts mean

Merk, I am using an array of 2700k CFLs
and the florescent tubes are 2700k as well
this is for flowering, of course i'll switch

no t-5s are better just do to my budget im doin kind of a cheap grow but the buds are coming out bomby! i dont kno really whats the t stands for.
but i got (4) 2700, (1) 3200k? and one (1) 5400k i did mainly the lower kelvin cuz its flowering but ive seen good results wit adding a alil mix and im happy with how my girl is comin out

Nice, I think i'm gonna do this.
as long as i get the right spectrum it can't hurt right?

Are there any that are better than the t-5s?

not for floresecnts

Dont get too hung up on color temp. It is not nearly as important as adequate lumens per square foot. HPS lights emit an intensely red light and the will veg a plant just fine.

about 10,000 lumens per sq ft. im runnin right around 12,000-13,000 lumens for my single plant


forgot this wasent my thread

focus on lumens first, temps later imo. you can always dangle a new cfl or two to supplement spectrum (i think, color spectrums dont blend do they? i should look that one up) but as stated before T5 is better than T12. as far as i know its merely for the Watt to Lumen ratio. I am running a 6 tube, 4ft T5HO system that's still all blue bulbs (6500k) and might just rock them through flower to see how well they do. granted the whole setup puts out around 25,000 lumens and i only plan on doing one or two plants at a time to full maturity under them. as for just veg, it works fantastic, and you could easily fit a good 24 seedlings under this thing and take them to 2 or 3 weeks if not full veg before needing to remove any due to losing light penetration.

sounds about right for your wattage for those bulbs. my 4ft 6500k bulbs run @ 54 watts each. so all in all:

-4ft wide, about 1.5 feet deep, about 2 inches thick
-25,200 lumens
-324 Watts, 120V, 2.9 Amps
-very low heat output (only reason i got it instead of a HPS)
-cost = $200.

now the 200 to most might seem like, 'why not just do the hps instead for that price?'. and to most, that is correct, BUT, i have heat controlling issues. my house is poorly insulated, and its hard to keep a stable temp anywhere. That being said, this will work out fine, cuz after i move this summer to a new place (where hopefully temps aren't such a big issue) ill still get that 600W or 1KW HPS, and yet still have a nice, low temp T5HO setup for a separate vegging room.

do i have enough lumens?
I have two 42 watt CFLs
and two 27 watt CFLs
these tubes would be adding on to that
i'm thinking two of the tubes, in opposite corners
are t5s more expensive?