Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Howdy gang,

I've noticed many indoor systems using fluorescent tubing as grow lights.

Can someone shed some light on this for me?


What power/type of tubing is suitable for what veggies?

Thanks for any feedback.

Brian

hahaha... Sorry, no answer to your question, only just noticed your signature, classic....


Now I have that song stuck in my head....

Holy cr#p !

I didn't know they did a song.

I just looked it up on youtube - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDgS6qLsVM4 - thanks for pointing that out.


And .... damn you ....... I now have the song in my head too.

One of the greatest films of all time though!

Very catchy.... But so sick......

Probably should put a warning here that the link above may not be to every ones liking... Definitely a cool movie..

Hi all,

LED's are all the rage now. They are a lot cheaper to run, but generally more expensive to buy initially. There has been a lot of research on them, including NASA to use them in Space. They have come a long way, but they are still being developed. Plenty of info if you do a search and heaps for sale on the net. The other factor with the conventional grow lights is that they need to be replaced for more often- some every 3 months.

Cheers.

i was going to dive into this but i found this way more helpful than what i could say. https://www.greenpassion.org/index.php? ... _p__161899

Florescent lighting is best suited to a bed full of plants that all grow at about the same rate to about the same size since you want the tubes very close to the plants to get the best growth. Works great if you are just growing lettuce or water cress or something like that.

You can get different color temperature tubes for florescent fixtures and I would suggest looking to hydroponics forums for the most in depth comments about lighting and plants. Only a small portion of aquaponics is really done indoors so you will only find a few experts on the subject here.

I've used some T5 light fixtures for indoor stuff but it seems harder to get the lamps for them. T8 would be the next best choice, still small tubes and almost as good efficiency. Avoid the T12 shop lights if you can.

Biggest drawback with florescent is you really do need the lights very close to the plants to get good growth. If you want to grow a combo of big and small plants you may be better off with Metal halide or High Pressure Sodium, will probably come out nearly the same in power to get the same growth in the end as the florescent and you can have them further away and light up a larger space with a single fixture but you might not want to do it in a room you use for anything else. I was able to grow lettuce under a florescent fixture in my living room simply by putting an emergency blanket curtain up to reflect light back at the plants and make the rest of the room more comfortable to live in (probably wouldn't work so well with a MH light.)

LED lighting is gaining but still pretty costly and I believe lots of them are needed and they also need to be close to the plants to really get good growth much the way you need to with florescent lights. But if you are an electronics tinkerer they might be worth looking into if you want to save money by wiring them up yourself.

The night is very cold, I'm feeling kindof weak, I think I'll make a cap out of your right buttocks cheek!!


I will be shedding some experience on this very soon, as my whole operation will be indoors. I am starting with 16-4' T-8 bulbs for two 2.5x6.5 beds. I'll let you know how it goes.

My future system
viewtopic.php?f=18&t=9047

I lied, its 8-T8 bulbs. I can't count. I'll just go ahead and put some more lotion on my skin and shut up!

Thanks for those comments one and all.

By following peoples threads and signatures I found other valuable members set ups and tons of good ideas.

Well done to all.

Fluorescent Lights are the best in place of the sunlight and gives even the better results than the sunlight too. The elements in the sunlight which are required by the plants are there in the fluorescent Lights too.

I believe that you're referring to the spectrum of light. T5 bulbs can be "warm or cold" meaning they can produce a blue, "cold" light (daylight balanced) or a yellow/red "warm" bulb. For most of the green vegies in aquaponics you'd want the daylight, 6500k bulbs.

T5's are really the only way to go in fluorescent lights. They need to be really close to the plants, like 4" or less. Which means you need a light fixture(s) to cover every square inch of growing space. With a Metal halide light you want the bulb much farther away (they get hot). I would think you might get a little better coverage if you needed it.

my indoor system is powered with 48" 32watt t8's.. i have 3 pairs on 2 growbeds, and 4 pairs on another, i'll probably go to 4 on each gb, but have to replace my growbed stands this weekend