Got My High Output Fluorescent Fixture, and.....

17 years ago

I am so happy!! The amount of light that this fixture puts off is amazing compared to the regular 2 tube fixture that I had. But, with this new fixture I had a couple new questions.

First, I was wondering how long I should leave this light on. It is a 4 tube fixture, each bulb gives provides 4200 lumens with a kelvin color temperature of 5000K. I was keeping my old regular fixture on for about 12-14 hours a day, but was thinking that since this is so much more powerful, I might need to lessen that length.

Also, I was curious how far above the plants this kind of light should be. Right now it is anywhere from one to two feet above my plants. I had my other light at about six inches away.

Thank you so very much in advance as usual

Ross Wexler

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Comments (3)

bob123how
17 years ago
Keep the photoperiod the same, maybe even a little longer. My photoperiod is roughly 16 on 8 off. Because no matter how much brighter this light is than the others, and I'm sure it is bright, it comes nowhere near the intensity of the sun, thus the need for extending the photoperiod. I would drop the lights down to no further than 8 inches from the tops of the plant, unless that is too hot. A 4200 lumen tube is roughly 3 times more powerful than the tubes I used to use, and they were 20 watts apiece, thus I am going to assume yours are 60 watts apiece. I currently have an 85 watt compact fluorescent light that is about 5 inches from the tops of my plants and that barely pushes my light meter above 1500 fc. Any further and I may as well grow the plants in a dark closet. Heat isn't a problem for me because I have an oscillating fan trained just above the plants on the bulbs to cool them running 24 hrs. Hope this helps
shrubs_n_bulbs
17 years ago
Are these the Vitalume T5s? I know they quote 4,200 lumens for them but every other high output 54W T5 in the world produces 5,000 lumens. Very odd. Or are they something weirder like a high output T12?

If you're growing full sun succulents or cacti, keep the tubes pretty close. You can lower them towards the plants over a few weeks and check for signs of stress from the increased light. As Bob says, nowhere near as bright as direct sunlight.

How big an area are you covering with the lights? At the end of the day, if the plants take up a larger area than the 4-6 square feet of the lamp then you will have to position it a little further away to make sure all the plants are getting lit. If the plants all fit directly under the lights then you can bring them down to just a few inches.
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The following was posted on thekrib.com/lights/reflectors: Victor wrote: This exact same topic was discussed on one of my reef aquarium list a couple months back. One person, Dana Riddle (www.aquaticwildlife.com), has done many lighting studies on many types of light (MH, VHO and PC). He found that a white surface did indeed reflect as well as the metal reflectors. The only problem was that after sometime, 'painted' white reflectors turned yellowish and were less affective. Someone on that list is starting to use white rain gutters as a reflector and he will report to the list if the white 'powder' coated metal 'yellows' over time. Being a grower of many different kinds of plants for most of my life, I have tried just about everything under lites at one time or another. I've probably read every publication on the subject, in English, on growing plants under lites. One common item,in these writings, has always been a list on reflectivity values. And flat white paint has always been near the top of the list. It's cheap, it's easy and when the paint 'yellows' get out the paint brush! It ain't rocket science and your plants will bearly know the difference. Your wallet will! Michael - -- Michael Serpa * Bay Island Orchids 2311 Pacific Avenue * Alameda, CA 94501 Tel: (510) 521-8245 * Fax: (510) 865-1787 http://www.bayislandorchids.com My own take on it is that my old garden was packed with T12's, and the LIGHT GOT TRAPPED BEHIND THE LAMPS, whereas my current setup is with nicely spaced T8's, 20 tubes over a width of 70", so there is over 50" of space for the reflected light to get out from behind the lamp. That's also a reason that I like Gavita's for HPS, because I can mount a MH between them, and a little higher, and the Gavita lamp is so small that it hardly blocks any of the light, so I get a nice coverage with the Halide for the blue/violet supplement that seems to be of benefit. Paul Mozarowski. Here is a link that might be useful: Exhaustive discussion of paint vs mylar vs foil etc
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succulentlover
Original Author
17 years ago
Hi Shrubs and Bob, you two are the best!!
They are indeed the Sunleave Vitalume bulbs. They list them as being T5's as well as the fixture.
The top picture in this post "http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/cacti/msg042031164202.html";
is where the new light is, so as you can see its in a 4 foot alacove and the light is right above and covering all the plants.
I have a fan as well that pulls the air away from the plants and when the temperature is warm enough i open the window to pull fresh air in.
I will slowly lower the light over the next week or two and watch carefully. Now I know that the chances of burning the plants with this light are low ^^ Also, Im glad I asked about the photoperiod, I wasn't giving enough as it was, so will change that right away.
Thanks a bunch!!

Ross

Got My High Output Fluorescent Fixture, and.....

Comments (3)

bob123how

shrubs_n_bulbs

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Got My High Output Fluorescent Fixture, and.....

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bob123how

shrubs_n_bulbs

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