Grow lights - Reptile CFL's.....UVB

Discussion in 'HortForum' started by caudiciformken, Dec 16, 2008.

  1. caudiciformken

    caudiciformken Active Member

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    Uhl, Ontario, Canada
    Hi there. Just experimenting with lighting possibilities with my tropical "rare" plants. These plants stay outdoors all summer, and are brought into my dark basement in the winter. Normally, I have just used "cool" fluorescent lighting. T12's.
    Recently went to T8's.
    I was just wondering.....if plants would grow using the compact flourescent lighting used for reptiles. They can be found at chain petstores, for about $10.
    They emit UVB rays, and light. No heat at all.

    Would they work???

    I was thinking about Zoomed Rept-Sun 10.0

    Thanks for any reply
     
  2. Eric La Fountaine

    Eric La Fountaine Contributor Forums Moderator 10 Years

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    sw USA
    I don't know what spectrum the reptile lights put out, but they do make compact fluorescent grow lights now. I don't know that it is a really big advantage over the tubes. If you were going to replace your lights anyway, the compact fluorescent are more efficient and may make more sense space wise. You still need to have the bulbs very close to the plants.

    I bought one like the one pictured here at a "hydroponics" store. They had the bulbs, but I could not find a fixture for it. I had to wire up my own. I use the small ones (regular socket size) as little helpers on a few house plants.
     
  3. jimmyq

    jimmyq Well-Known Member 10 Years

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    Metro Vancouver, BC, Canada.
    Eric, I used to sell a light similiar to the one you posted. At the time about 7 years ago we had 75W, 95W and 125W available in two spectrums, I think 6500K and 9600K.. one was a red spectrum one was a daylight spectrum. Thje smaller two bulbs used regular light bulb mounts but the larger one had a larger size for what they called a mogul socket, like the ones used for HID bulbs.

    Long term it didnt work out, the ballasts werent able to handle the heat when placed in the reflectors and would fry fairly regularly after a month or two.
    One grower I talked to was using them to supplement his HID system, hanging the CFL's vertically within the canopy of his plants.

    The biggest measuring stick most consumers had at the time was Lumen count, those bulbs were a tough sell. I used one for a while in a parabolic reflector to keep my houseplants alive while I lived in a basement suite that was very dark.
     
  4. Hybrid Theory

    Hybrid Theory Active Member

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    as someone who use to breed reptiles and buy these bulbs all the time they did a wonderful job on my plants. The only thing is they can get pricy and you should replace them every six months if you want the best results.
     

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