Cheap T5 HO grow light

[nightanole]

My original plan was to have a $50 arcadia lamp and a $5 grow lamp in my 46" dual tube setup. However a trip to lowes/home depot reviewed that lowes doesnt sell any ho bulbs, and home depot just has 1 soft white for $10. Im not sure if i can grow plants with the home depot one. Zoo med has fresh water grow lights flora sun(5K) and ultra sun (6.5K) for $15 that i might be able to get locally. Does anyone else have a cheapo place that i might be able to get HO bulbs from? I might be able to hit up sears/truevalue/ace , but i dont want to drive all over hells half acre to and find out its all soft white for 10 bucks.

 

[pigglett79]

Are you looking for HO uv bulbs or grow lights? Home Depot does sell grow lights I got the 18" and the housing. I just put aluminum foil in the hood to reflect the light down.

 

[nightanole]

46" grow lights for plants, i already have the uv bulb.

 

[Shampoo]

There's nothing special about marketed grow bulbs. Any T5HO will work for you, as long as you get the right color temperature. You want a 6000k-6500k (Daytime) color-temp bulb for plant growth or 3000k-4000k (Warm White) to help blossom plants that fruit and flower.

 

[Venutus1]

There's nothing special about marketed grow bulbs. Any T5HO will work for you, as long as you get the right color temperature. You want a 6000k-6500k (Daytime) color-temp bulb for plant growth or 3000k-4000k (Warm White) to help blossom plants that fruit and flower.

hmmmm...
Hi Shampoo.
Yes, that is true in part.

The only thing I feel I must ad is that all 6K or 6.5k lamps are not created equal.

The more expensive TRUE Full Spectrum lamps are made using additional rare earth phosphors that help balance the spectrum of like out of them for a much higher CRI.

Please... LET me share this with you ....

the CRI means "Color Rendering Index".
That is how well the light from the lamp reproduces the visual spectrum of Natural Sun-light.
How CLOSE the lamp comes to rendering colors as they would be under REAL SUN.

A CRI of 100 = perfect (human) visual color rendition = natural sunlight.

Most of the best made / best phosphor package full spectrum Flo. lights are around 93 CRI - 96 CRI.

The cheapie 6.5k bulbs only use a 3 phosphor blend in them ....while the REAL GOOD German bulbs use 6 or more phosphors.
That is why a Zoo Med Ultra Sun HO t5 or a Geissman IS SO DAMN GOOD.

Now, if one has hundreds of dollars worth... or even thousands of dollars worth of beautiful animals -
sure as heck would want them displayed in nothing less than the best full spectrum light so they look the absolute best.

Can you get good deals on Full Spectrum 6.5k ho t5 tubes?
you bet you can!

But just remeber the "K" rating is not all that matters.

And there a cheapie poor spectrum 6.5k bulbs out there.

Plus.. the cheapie ones made in Asia tend to "fib" about how good their light color and color rendering properties are.

So if it matters that you are showing your animals under the best light ....and so that they are displayed just as if they were sitting on a branch out-side...
then always pay attention to the CRI number as well as the kelvin rating ("K" number) number.

And if you have a choice- USE GERMAN or European made bulbs because they also hold their spectrum's WAAAY better than the cheapie ones.
In other words, they don't yellow out as quickly as the phosphors degrade as fast as cheepie ones.
This is especially true in the case of t5 ho bulbs that have a much higher operating temperature.

I just wanted to share that so folks can pick the best ones and understand what they are getting.

Thanks!



Sincerely,

Todd C. Goode