indoor garden light

[Jared77]

Instead of looking in the plant catalogs I'd hit the pet stores that sell salt water aquarium supplies. You can get the end caps for T5 HO (HO = High Output) bulbs and wire up as many as you want. MUCH cheaper way to go. The end caps are what the bulbs go into and provide power. Its a common practice to do that since many of these fixtures are being wired into a canopy that fits over the top of the aquarium so it looks more like furniture. What the aquarium folks do is buy them and mount as many as they need to get the proper intensity for what they are growing be it freshwater plants or saltwater corals.

I've used T8s growing submerged aquatic plants for years without issue. The intensity of the light is decreased as its filtered through water before it gets to the plants leaves but with the success I've had I can't say anything bad about them. It wasn't a super high tech set up, but it did the job just fine and once hidden under the canopy you didn't see the light set up anyway.

A lot of the saltwater aquarium folks who are growing corals (which require intense spectrum specific lights) use T5s or metal halides to get the intensity they need to get enough and the correct spectrum of light to their corals to grow. The T5s are bright and would be easy to get any length bulb in the desired spectrum from a pet shop or online. It would definitely be worth looking into if your starting/growing a number of plants in one area.

I'm currently running a 2.5 gallon aquarium with a small LED light set up over it and I'm VERY pleased with it. Fixture is very cool to the touch, and while it doesn't appear to be super bright the plants are thriving under it. LEDs also also sip electricity, but I don't know the set up for how many and spacing on LEDs to get the right amount of light for starting seeds or doing cool season crops. I'm sure that info is available. The initial cost may be higher than CFLs but LEDs are super long life bulbs so your making up your savings over the long term.

As far as CFLs go I've seen people using CFLs on smaller aquariums to grow plants with success. I like DWJ set up and I'm sure if you went with a bathroom fixture you could find exactly what you needed and would be easy to mount on a shelf over your plants.

I think JackB uses metal halides but don't quote me on that. May not hurt to drop him a line regarding lighting as he's doing hydroponics as well.

 

[DigginWithJon]

Wow I never thought about going to a pet store for the end caps, or even making a setup with them! I know my plan for tomorrow now. As far as the ballast for the T5's do they sell them as well? I just got a light intensity meter this Christmas and am going to try numerous setups and see what exactly works the best, for the least amount of money! And I have a feeling the best setup is going to be a mixture of different lights spaced around the plants, and in between them. As far as LED goes, I hear a lot of complaints of them receiving defective panels and the panels lasting for about a year or two max. So LED plant technology needs to catch up a bit still. But the LED bulbs that are shaped like the standard incandescents is something I will be checking into.

 

[Jared77]

I know at the place by me (which is heavily into saltwater set ups) you can buy everything you need for T5s. They are the HO series, so they are CRAZY bright. Since aquariums come in a variety of depths and people need a variety of light intensities they sell everything you need to do a set up. Its a lot easier than trying to cram a specific fixture to get X amount of watts for their tanks. The biggest thing is finding a place that's really into salt water set ups. Petsmart or big chain stores are not going to have what you want. You need a little mom and pop pet store that's heavy into saltwater. Those folks will know lighting set ups as you need intense lighting for corals.

Take your light intensity meter with you and ask to see some of the lighting set ups over their reef tanks and measure it. Ask about set ups, and spectrum, and ask for the dimensions of each aquarium so you can get a handle on exactly what the set ups are and the area they are lighting with it. I think spectrum is going to play as much of a role as lumens or wattage. I know for freshwater plants most folks focus on spectrum around 6700K as a general guideline for freshwater plants. Some people do a mix of 10,000K bulbs and some attinic bulbs which are heavy blue and violet spectrum focused with good results too.

Most aquarium folks are more than happy to talk set ups with you, and will be happy to help you. I'm an aquarium geek myself and grow totally submerged plants in addition to terrestrial plants so that's how I know where to look. Don't hesitate to pick their brains though, lot of those folks are REALLY up on the latest lighting set ups and I'm sure would easily carry over to terrestrial plants.

Glad I could help, and let us know what you find out.