Swany
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Ed R. talks about UVB increasing thc production in his bible, which is where I first saw it. I'm sure there are posts here too but I have not searched for them much. I'm posting this in case it inspires anyone, or someone can help me improve it.
I have been very busy and don't have the time I would like to detail this (though that might make it an easier read ;-). If you see something of interest and have questions I get to answering you, or if you would have done something differently and care to share I'd appreciate it.
I first started looking for tanning bulbs, the kind in tanning beds. They are an odd length, arn't easily found in T5, and require special ballasts. I then learned of Lizard Lights. These are UVB lights you hang over pet lizards to supply them with UVB to keep them health. They come in different %'s, i got the 10% UVB T5HO's from Zoo Med, through Pet Mountain.com.
To mount them in my room I rigged a fixture out of PVC and a dual bulb T5HO fixture. In stead of doing a play by play I'll briefly explain. 1/2" PVC to make a frame work to support the lights on either side of my hood. Cut the sides of the metal fixture to drop the pvc into. The wires in the light are not long enough, so I used push in connectors and 18ga wire to extend the wires. Tombstones are the plastic pieces that the pins on the end of the bulb slip into. I pulled the tombstones out of the metal fixture and used screws through a small loop of plastic on the base of the tombstone to hold it in the new reflector. This new reflector is a strip cut from a 5" piece of conduit with mylar surfacing the concave side of the strip. This whole gizmo then sits on top of my light bars with a cord running up and over to a timer. Based on a thread I read on another site ( I'll reference later) I'm running just a couple to few minutes per hour to start. I will build this up over a week.
As you can see in the last shot they take a bit to warm up. The timer is a Titan 9, and I could not get it to work the first night I tried to set it up. I had to hit the reset button tonight, which caused one of the un-explained indicators on the front to wink out. Reprogrammed and it's working now. I am half way through week 6 of bloom, so I am late in getting this implemented. I though I would have half the plants lit such, but I have not completed a second fixture, so I only have 1/4 of the plants lit with UVB. Either way will share any difference I find in the same strain with and with out UVB.
I have been very busy and don't have the time I would like to detail this (though that might make it an easier read ;-). If you see something of interest and have questions I get to answering you, or if you would have done something differently and care to share I'd appreciate it.
I first started looking for tanning bulbs, the kind in tanning beds. They are an odd length, arn't easily found in T5, and require special ballasts. I then learned of Lizard Lights. These are UVB lights you hang over pet lizards to supply them with UVB to keep them health. They come in different %'s, i got the 10% UVB T5HO's from Zoo Med, through Pet Mountain.com.
To mount them in my room I rigged a fixture out of PVC and a dual bulb T5HO fixture. In stead of doing a play by play I'll briefly explain. 1/2" PVC to make a frame work to support the lights on either side of my hood. Cut the sides of the metal fixture to drop the pvc into. The wires in the light are not long enough, so I used push in connectors and 18ga wire to extend the wires. Tombstones are the plastic pieces that the pins on the end of the bulb slip into. I pulled the tombstones out of the metal fixture and used screws through a small loop of plastic on the base of the tombstone to hold it in the new reflector. This new reflector is a strip cut from a 5" piece of conduit with mylar surfacing the concave side of the strip. This whole gizmo then sits on top of my light bars with a cord running up and over to a timer. Based on a thread I read on another site ( I'll reference later) I'm running just a couple to few minutes per hour to start. I will build this up over a week.
As you can see in the last shot they take a bit to warm up. The timer is a Titan 9, and I could not get it to work the first night I tried to set it up. I had to hit the reset button tonight, which caused one of the un-explained indicators on the front to wink out. Reprogrammed and it's working now. I am half way through week 6 of bloom, so I am late in getting this implemented. I though I would have half the plants lit such, but I have not completed a second fixture, so I only have 1/4 of the plants lit with UVB. Either way will share any difference I find in the same strain with and with out UVB.