Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I'm concerned about some safety. Particularly about human exposure to the light, and next up, the possible "non-passive failure" causing the lamp to explode sending 1000+ deg. celsius shrapnels around my room. I saw an article stating that the outer glass shell is not even strong enough to contain the explosion inside if it explodes.

My small scale AP system is in my room. I really don't want to come home one day and all of a sudden my room is on fire, or during some days where I'd be home all day sitting infront of my computer, and then all of a sudden a piece of molten hot shrapnel makes its way into my brain.

If I can't use MH in my room, is HPS safer? But if I use HPS the plants or small trees will grow too lanky, correct? I could also buy a fixture to bank multiple T5's but I don't think its enough to grow my Moringa.

You might look into some Hydroponics sites for more info about grow lights since I believe only a few people here use them much.

You might place some shiny insulation panels around the lights so that...
1-the light splashing around the room will be directed back to the plant (and be less bright for you) and
2-any flying objects will be more likely to stay contained near the AP system.

By that, you ment the reflectors right?

Well I figured the lights would already have the normal reflectors but I thought if you were really worried, you might also place some reflective panels around the system. You can get cheap emergency blankets from the sporting goods department of most stores that are much cheaper than the mylar you can get at hydroponic stores and then simply stick it on some foam insulation panels around the system. That will reflect light back at the plants and save you from the glaring light since even florescent lights bright enough for growing plants are going to make the room really bright.

TC would you happen to know if I'm better off switching over to several T'5's ? I'm doubting it will be enough to grow a small sized moringa though... but if I use the MH I still have to hang it 2 feet above the tree and that means I'll only have a 2 feet tall tree... lol.

you could build a bullet proof glass enclosure or just wear a safety helmet when your in your room, maybe you could put the sistem in someone elses room.

Why do you want to grow a tree inside. I guess its cold outside. Maybe you could use both lights. Run on T5's and give it a couple of hrs a day on the MH.

I still recommend doing some reading on Hydroponics forums about lights since there is a lot of info to know about the different lights and the different color temps of bulbs you can get for those lights.

Now a key about hanging the lights, you need to make sure you hang them in a manner that allows you to adjust their light. With a florescent you need to have the tubes only a couple inches from the leaves which means you need to raise the light up as the plants grow. With the MH or HPS you can have the lights a little further away from the leaves and the light can penetrate through the leaves better but you have a much brighter point source of light in the room.

If you were to go with T5 tube fixtures, you would probably need quite a few and need to hang some over the plant as well as hanging some vertically around the sides of the plant.

lol, just having some fun.

I'm sticking with the MH.