evenin all, hope everyone is having a nice weekend ??

just surfin about as you do trying to find a good bargain and i found these little beauties Herefor a grand total of £46 inc pp ?! it looks like it should do the job anyone ever dealt with silvalight before ?? it will cost me half the price of the unit i was gonna buy and twice as many lights in it ?! i shall keep you posted as to how i get on wiht em okey dokely.

tka e care
hemlok

Hiya Hemlock check this out. Might be a tad cheaper.
Pete

muchos grasiarse, mucker

always on the look for a good bargain.

keep safe
H

Hemlok You can get drop in 1200 x 600 4 tube carcasses for grid type false ceilings from any local electrical wholesaler. I thought mj had contacts for one up your way that was cheap. Main thing is to not use the slim energy saver tubes. The light out put from standard 40W tubes is much higher. I have used both types and the growth results with the 40W is really noticeable better. I just use colour 33 cool white tubes. I tried in the past mixing with warm white and the results were not so good.

High ot, hope all is well for you and yours ??

yeah i forgot about them near me, just checked and they dont do a 4 tube fitting thing, however the one over at tlc looks just the job and is £30+pp i am looking at getting some of these horticultural tubes there is a chap in preston who reckons they are under a tenner each ?! we shall see.

Thanks for the tip on the bulbs, appreciate it, is it right that if it doesnt say it is cool white ? only i saw some tubes in b&q and they kick out (i think it was either 2000 plus or 3000) and they definetly did not say warm white on em ?

ok gotta go and get debs

take care
hemlok

Hiya Hemlock. Fluro tubes are normally numbered. ie: 33 for Coolwhite, 35 for warm white and 55 for daylight. Thats from memory so don't quote me on it. Check this thread out it gives you the Kelvin light scale. Keep on the blue side for veg. As OT says 33 coolwhite is cool and has done me and my friend well. Those Phillips tubes seem to give out some lumens compared to a slimline 18w 2 foot tubes, 1200 lumens.
Hope that helps Hemlock
OT we tried the 11/2" tubes and found that the slimline ones had better light output. I was with you about the fatter tubes so I insisted that my friend change over to them when he bought those units (in GR pics) but the thinner ones seem to be alot better, the plants certainlly like it.
Pete

Szark interesting that. I use Phillips fluorescent tubes as well, I have tried both the T8 and T12 tubes several times, There is no doubt that if both are the same phosphor re: colour 33 which by the way is the spec for either cool white or daylight. I found two things with the T8 coolwhite tubes:-

1. was that they have noticeably less light output than the T12. Are you sure the T8 tubes you were comparing with and say were brighter were colour 33 and not another phosphor mix?

2. that the light drop off of the T8 tubes is much more rapid, I normally re lamp every 12 months but the T8 need re lamping every 7 or 8 months also there are more failers with the T8’s as well.

There is no doubt that cannabis will grow just fine under either T8 or T12 coolwhite tubes, but I have found the long term maintenance of lumen output and tube replacement better with T12 lamps.

As an added point the colour 35 white lamps that come as standard with layin units tend to make bonsai mothers grow too fast with more stretch between nodes but are fine for rooting cuttings. It depends on what you want to do.

I have not tried any of the newer triphosphor types like colour 84 so cant say about them, I would be interested to hear any comparisons if anyone has played with them.

hemlock the reflex 4000k look interesting at 3350Lm but I can get 4 x 40w coolwhite for under a tenner all be it at 2970Lm.

High everyone, hope we are well ??

i know what you mean about the strips ot, the chap has just phoned back and he can only get them in boxes of 25 ! and they still work out at about £7 each !! i dont know if anyone else would be interested in these but if we get enough intrest i could always order a box and split it however many ways ??

anyway i have been over to tlc and ordered the 4ft 4x36w fitting for my new veg room which is my old flower room but on it's back so the dimensions are 6ft long x 2ft high x 2ft wide, i have got meself a shiny new 'pro grow' prop (should have been £90 got it for £38) with adjustable heat which is going in the box to keep everyone warm. and i am off to b&q later to get some 4ft tubes, so lots to do

take care everyone
hemlok

bollocks, just had a call from tlc they dont use mail order for the light fittings anymore as they were always getting broken in the post ho hum right then off for another shufty round the net

keep safe everyone
h

me again !! just got back from wickes and picked up a 4 pack of 4ft single fittings for £30 inc wire and a chocolate box

i have checked the tubes they are all 3000lu each, these come with the kit !!

more later, gonna bash up and have a 'condor moment' (anyone remember them??)

keep safe
h

Hiya
This is why I love this site. I learn something new every day. OT Good point on the life span of the T8. I should have remembered that myself. It is amazing how much I have forgotten since leaving the elec trade 10 years ago. Yes both T8 and T12 were 33 coolwhites. We were looking at the difference between lumen output and colour and assumed that the T8 would be better because of the high lumen output. Silly me.
So that's T12 because they last longer with less lumen loss and less duds. Colour 33 not 35's. Once again OT I thank you.
I have a theory that the white layin unit is acting as a light reflector which is more efficient than hanging standard single flours without any reflecting divise. I will pass this info along and he will probably change back over to T12.

Hemlock Those sods at Tlc sorry about that matey. How close together are you going to put them and how are you going the reflect the waste light down?

Cheers
Pete

high szark, to be honest mate until you said about relectors i had completely forgotten ?! the entire inside of the box is already matt white, so i will probably just cover the roof with mylar and mount the lights on top also double checked the tubes and they are 35's so i shall be shopping for 33's tomorrow

i am hoping to use the box for vegging my rooted cuttings and maybe a few bonsai mums, can anyone see any other probs ?? i think i have got what i need except the tubes, szark did you say you were a sparky by trade ?? if so mate, i was thinking of wiring the lights in parralel with a choc box and running the whole thing from 1 plug ?! is this safe ?? if not no probs i will try them in pairs and use 2 plugs

take care everyone

h

hemlok look colour 35 will work just fine, why not use them for 7 or 8 months, as I said they give a little more stretch on mums is all, really its just my pref for the colour 33 as to what I think is the best all round lamp for me. I'm sure your plants will be happy under either, you will just need to trim more often.

cheers ot, just want everything to be right

i am just getting a bit overexcited i think ?! i will go and have a lie down

take care my friend
h

Hiya Hemlock. I was in the wholesale side of the sparky trade. As for the wiring well as long as your strip connector can handle the load but I would put a plug on each and plug into a four way multi plug. Makes it easy when you need to work on one and still see what you are doing. My mates GR (Paraniod pals one) is so dark, he wired all his together but he finally split the wiring up so he could move one at a time while still being able to see. Which is a good thing.
Doing it your way is ok as long as it safe and the join is well protected. The amount of times I see pics of GR's and shudder with how things are wired and exposed to water or humidity. I have a big scar on my hand from a electric shock due to someone being silly. So take care people.

Are are you mounting the flouros, will they moved up or down individully or at the same time, or will you move the plants up and down.

OT do you raise and lower yours so they are a couple to four inch above the plants?

The only probs we have is light penetration on the taller plants. In my GR I plan to veg the plants in the bud room for one to two weeks to boost them. Which leaves the flouros for the shorter veg and cuttings but I am going to put my mums under my 250MH.

Ot I will definitely go for T12/33. You have been at for a while and that's good enough for me and you would never stear us wrong. Thanks.
Hemlock yeah use those colour 35 as OT says. Saves on buying more tubes and in 6 months time you can start looking around for replacements, after all you have paid for them why not use them. Happy growing.
Pete

hi alli started growing last year in greenhouse it was quite good the skunk no 1 but needed winter supply so i set about building a small growbox the lights i bought were a "nebula" 4 tube 55wx4=220 watts over 8sq feet and my seeds have all germinated successfully.the problem i have is keeping 3 plants in vegetation and flowering 11 tosex them ihave been keeping 3 females in conservatory during day and under 36watts at night will this prevent flowering until the days start stretching on or abuot 21 03 03.i also have a mature mazar in conservatory started flowering 3 2 03 is there time for this to flower before longer days step in any info appreciated twinkle :oldtoker

high twinkle, hope all is well ??

if you want to keep the mazar flowering can you find a way to cover her for 12 hrs ? or move her somewhere totally dark for 12hrs ??

you are probably doing the best thing already with your other plants, as long as they get between 18 and 24 hrs of light they should not flower !!

hope the grow stays green, and please keep us posted always like to hear of new grows

keep safe
hemlok

I use 4x4' fluorescent lamps for cuttings and mothers, and I've had great results.

The lamp is all home made. The original design, with the entire fluoresent fitting and lamp bolted to a piece of MDF worked okay, but generated quite a lot of heat (cheap, nasty ballasts) so I removed the ballasts from the fittings and mounted them in a separate box, outside the grow room. This improved things considerably: now the grow room temperatures stay well down with only a single 4" axial fan.