LED Without LEDs -My First T5 Grow

AltarNation

Well-Known Member
ROFL...

Yeah, they've been having back order issues... I think it's because we swamped them honestly. ;)

Took some time to get all my red lifes (prev. called red suns) and when they did come, the order had been rushed through production and the bulbs were failing! (NOT AS's fault, but UVL's manufacturer) I already lost one and I'm looking at another that looks like it's going to go. Luckily they already replaced the first... hoping they'll replace the second too...
 

Redoctober

Well-Known Member
Looks great Red... go for the ones with the internal reflectors whenever possible to maximize output!
Yeah it was a little unclear on a few of the websites whether the UVL bulbs had the internal reflectors. Some didn't specify. On the Aquarium Specialty site for instance, they advertise different versions. An example would be the Super Actinic.

One choice is "UV Lighting Super Actinic T5 VHO with Internal Reflector"

and the other choice is "UV Lighting Super Actinic T5 Lamp with Reflector"

It's not really clear what the second choice is? If it's not an internal reflector, what is it?

Aq specialty is backordered on UVL Actanic+ & 454's with Internal reflectors. I've been waiting for over a month!
A MONTH!!!! DAMN! That blows!

Yeah, they've been having back order issues... I think it's because we swamped them honestly.
Haha! I think you're probably right!

Hey Pr0fesseur, if you're out there, I think Aquarium Specialty should give you some sort of discount or deal for bringing them so much business :) Of course you couldn't explain why so many people are so interested in their T5's all of a sudden, so just say you started a coral club!
 

Redoctober

Well-Known Member
I'm not sure why you would use an Ice box & water chiller to cool vented air from the hood?
If you are thinking about something in the context of my post, I meant that I was going to get a chiller for my rez which is not related to the icebox system. That'll be a later investment.

If you are referring to the icebox chilling system, you should check it out on youtube because the guy does a far better job demonstrating it than I could trying to explain it. Basically it uses a water chiller and cold water to cool the air both coming out of the hoods/reflectors/cooltubes and also the ambient air in the room, just like an air conditioner, except much, much more efficiently and at a fraction of the power consumption of an air conditioner or other similar cooling devices. It's really a very cool device lol! It is expensive though unfortunately :( I bet it would work wonderfully in conjunction with the Solar Wind T5 hood though!
 

UnderCurrentDWC

Active Member
^^^^^^

A strong inline fan pushing/pulling air from outside the room through venting past the bulb through more venting than being exhausted outside the room in my opinion is much more efficient than using an Ice box setup inside a sealed room.

 

Redoctober

Well-Known Member
A strong inline fan pushing/pulling air from outside the room through venting past the bulb through more venting than being exhausted outside the room in my opinion is much more efficient than using an Ice box setup inside a sealed room.
Yes that's true in many cases especially if the air outside is cool air, but if you live in a hot climate or if you have several lights in series, the air becomes less efficient at cooling. Remember we are talking about HID's not T5's, so several 600W or 1000W HID lamps daisy chained together all sharing the same outside duct line will get cooled for sure, but sequentially less and less as the air gets warmed by each subsequent lamp. The goal is to cool the lamps as much as possible because the cooler you can make them, the closer you can get them to the plants. This is where the IceBox comes into play. If you live in an area where the outside air is 80-100 degrees, particularly in the summer, one might opt for a extra cooling boost. In a normal situation, the air exiting the cooling fixture, or hood will be substantially warmer than the air that went in because it has absorbed the heat from the lamp. So if lamp #1 in the series gets 70 degree air passed over it and emerges 10 or 15 degrees warmer, it may not cool lamp #2 particularly well. In the test the guy does in the video, with the IceBox hooked up, the air emerges from a blazing hot lamp at 56 degrees or something, and is ready to cool the next lamp or be released into the room as cool ambient air and then be recycled.

I assure you that I agree with you, bringing in air from the outside in an isolated circuit from the room is definitely the cheapest and in many cases easiest way to cool lights. I'm just saying that the IceBox does have merit in certain situations. Additionally, it'd allow you to not have to bring in outside air at all if you so desired because the ambient air in the room would be cool enough to run through the lamps as though it were outside air. This is particularly nice if you have a CO2 setup where your room is sealed. Then you don't even have to bother setting up a duct to bring in outside air. For many, setting up this kind of duct usually involves some sort of home modification, and I hate the idea of cutting holes into the side of my house. That is the primary reason I was considering the IceBox system, but like you said, it's now almost winter, and it's just cheaper to run an inline fan using cold air from outside. I am in the very annoying process of trying to build a sealed duct unit to be installed into a window. It really sucks and I am not good at carpentry. I'm still even considering the IceBox so I don't have to go through all that. I'm not sure what the chiller would cost to run, but it'd almost be worth it haha!
 

cifer

Member
@ altar: i really like the music u posted thx alot :)

i do have another question: Is there by chance a colored compact fluo. (Osram Delux l, Phillips PL/L).....or one like the fiji purp spectrum and all the others? I really like to do a grow with cfl but i only found the standard spectrums...can u help me?
 

AssDan

Member
@ altar: i really like the music u posted thx alot :)

i do have another question: Is there by chance a colored compact fluo. (Osram Delux l, Phillips PL/L).....or one like the fiji purp spectrum and all the others? I really like to do a grow with cfl but i only found the standard spectrums...can u help me?
While I was out looking in stores, I saw this kind of stuff. I'm not sure how many of these are out there or what brands, but there are some.

http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=11740166&lmdn=Fish+Lighting

I've been having trouble with the toolbar on the forum for my last few posts. Sorry.

Edit: The link works anyway. Go me.
 

cifer

Member
No sorry i mean the 55w Cfl called Delux L by Osram and Pl/l by Phillips....one can say its a ordinary t5 tube but its twisted so its only half the length :)....these bulbs are pretty awesome for small grow cabinets combining with mini sog or better, scrog. Therefore i search for some bulbs with good spectrum and not the shit 3000k a.s.o.....maybe someone seen such bulbs for aquaristic???? Or more red than 2700k?
 

AssDan

Member
No sorry i mean the 55w Cfl called Delux L by Osram and Pl/l by Phillips....one can say its a ordinary t5 tube but its twisted so its only half the length :)....these bulbs are pretty awesome for small grow cabinets combining with mini sog or better, scrog. Therefore i search for some bulbs with good spectrum and not the shit 3000k a.s.o.....maybe someone seen such bulbs for aquaristic???? Or more red than 2700k?
My ignorance of CFLs has been exposed. I looked briefly, but I have thanksgiving to attend to. Seems like all the pl/l aquarium bulbs I found were sterilizer bulbs. Sorry.
 

pr0fesseur

Well-Known Member
Here's a question that crossed my mind. I got photographed for running a red light. They can zoom in on your license plate. So I'm thinking what (if any) spectrum would obscure their lens from seeing the plate. Perjhpas an simple LED would do the trick. Anybody?

RedO: I was referring to production. Never said anything about heat. Go back, maybe a week ago, I posted info on cheap banquet tents with steel frames ranging from 6 X 6 (< $120) on up. 2 @ 8 gives you a lot more flexibility to boot.
High intensity infrared would mess up the CMOS BUT you would have to aim it @ the camera for it to work....
get out your tinfoil hats ladies and gents...
http://hacknmod.com/hack/blind-cameras-with-an-infrared-led-hat/
http://boingboing.net/2008/02/20/infrared-leds-make-y.html
 
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