Adding supplemental UVB light

Dirtbag · Aug 19, 2019

I'm wondering if you can buy bulbs that will fit regular T5HO units? or do you need to buy ballast units specifically designed for UVB? I just noticed the 36" reptisun is only 25w iirc, and I think my 36" T5 shades are closer to 50w.

Any recommendations for a cost effective way to add some supplemental UVB to an 8x8 room with 2x 1k HiD in there?

EDIT* Lol I see there is already a lot of discussion about this subject here, I'll read through more later, I just read a lot of it and it seems it's not as easy as plugging in a reptile lamp. Either way I'd be interested in a discussion on practical ways to add UV that works. Or if mods feel this is too much UV talk already feel free to delete haha.

Jimster · Aug 19, 2019

What about a sun bed bulb? I think they are about 100 watts with a ton of UVB in them. I don't know if they take a special ballast or not, though. Old school arc tube sun lamps aren't recommended... I cooked a few plants in my time playing around with those... not to mention burned the shit out of my eyes as well.

cemchris · Aug 19, 2019

Anytime I did it it was with the 10k Sun Pulse lamps. Not sure if they are still around. They make wattage from 250 to 1000 if you have an extra ballast laying around.

Agromax makes UV T5's (or a least they did). Sorry been a while since I bothered. Usually I would just swap out for MH's last 2 weeks.

edit: looks like they still do https://www.htgsupply.com/products/agromax-pure-uv-t5-bulb-4-foot/

Dirtbag · Aug 19, 2019

Hmm, I already swap out for MH at the end for the last 10 days or so. Maybe it's not worth supplementing then..

Jmaes Mabley · Aug 19, 2019

Solacure Flower Power 32w

Arcadia 54w Desert Reptile is the most powerful Reptile bulb on the market.

Solacure 32w is 20+-10x more powerful vs the Reptile bulb with 22w less. It is also for plants, and not reptiles.

Use 2 of them in a 4 x 4 area, for each 1000w HID. 2ft above the canopy

Solacure UVA and UVB bulbs for cannabis, curing finishes ...
.solacure.com

MIMedGrower · Aug 20, 2019

Dont know about cost effective but hortilux makes a whole line of t-5 flourescent uv and uv included mixed spectrum bulbs.

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Jimster · Aug 20, 2019

I tried a 10K "finishing" bulb this last grow, an it DID put out a higher amount of UV, based on how quickly it bleached out the chlorophyll in the yellowed leaves at the end of flowering. The bulb was a 1000w MH used in a regular magnetic ballast. I like the way things worked out with it, so I think it will be added to future grows. Even after 30+ years, there is still a LOT of stuff to learn, and I haven't even started with LEDs yet.

az2000 · Aug 20, 2019

cemchris said:
Anytime I did it it was with the 10k Sun Pulse lamps. Not sure if they are still around.

Pulse is still around. A company called Summit Lighting sells them. (<<link). The bulbs are 150w CMH (3, 4, 6.4, 10k), and the company sells a fixture (<<link) for them. I was ready to buy one 1-2 months ago. I love CMH and was intrigued with the possibility of a smaller one for smaller spaces. I got distracted by something else. However, I spoke to the company with some questions. They didn't seem terribly upbeat about it. Spoke of it as a replacement for a T5 (not HO either, just T5), for veg only. That doesn't sound right to me. I still want to give one a try. (Summit said "greenltg.com" is where they refer people to buy. I looked. They seemed to have good prices.).

Attached are the PDFs for the bulbs.

FWIW: I've used Reptile CFLs in clamp-on reflectors. I never knew how long to use them. Nor how long they should last (lumen deprecation? does the UV wear out?). I had them on a separate timer to come on for 15-30 minutes at a time (total 4 hours per day? Something like that). Then I worked on the tent, and unplugged that timer. Plugged it back in without thinking that it was out of synch with the main light-timer. The reptile light was coming on during lights out. Took me two weeks to realize that. (Hermied.).

cemchris · Aug 20, 2019

Dirtbag said:
Hmm, I already swap out for MH at the end for the last 10 days or so. Maybe it's not worth supplementing then..

Kind of the road I went down. I messed with all of it and honestly for the hassle and the cost of the bulbs MH's did just fine for me. Plus I always have them laying around. T5's might be an option but I'm not sure how those would compare to swapping with a 1k MH. My guess is the MH will do more then they will for the size of plants you run. My experience with sun pulse was in the 600w lamps. I ran the MH and HPS and switched to 10k at the end. Quality was top notch. Bulbs are shit for yield tho.

One thing I will say about the agromax's is they are hit or miss. Had quite a few go out on me. You know the story if you run lots of T5's all the time with the cheaper bulbs.

Jmaes Mabley · Aug 20, 2019

We run 1000w Gavitas, and 1000w Hortilux HPS, in both veg, and flower. 2 x 34w Solacure for every 4 x 4. 2 feet off the canopy, build up to 6-8 hours a day. We use It in both Veg, and Flowering. As soon as seed come up, they are exposed to it.
Solacure also has a built in Reflector. It takes very special/expensive glass to not mess with UVA/B.

The Gavitas have to be at least 36 inches from the canopy... 36-40 inches. We use 8 32w for each Gavita, as its good for 5 x 5- 6 x 5 vs 4 x 4 for the Hortilux. And 40 inches vs 24. We can also often times get them closer, and run less hours. But not on the Gavitas. Anything under 36 inches is pushing it with as much infrared the Gavitas have.

MIMedGrower · Aug 20, 2019

Jmaes Mabley said:
We run 1000w Gavitas, and 1000w Hortilux HPS, in both veg, and flower. 2 x 34w Solacure for every 4 x 4. 2 feet off the canopy, build up to 6-8 hours a day. We use It in both Veg, and Flowering. As soon as seed come up, they are exposed to it.
Solacure also has a built in Reflector. It takes very special/expensive glass to not mess with UVA/B.

The Gavitas have to be at least 36 inches from the canopy... 36-40 inches. We use 8 32w for each Gavita, as its good for 5 x 5- 6 x 5 vs 4 x 4 for the Hortilux. And 40 inches vs 24. We can also often times get them closer, and run less hours. But not on the Gavitas. Anything under 36 inches is pushing it with as much infrared the Gavitas have.

Its just low iron glass.

Jmaes Mabley · Aug 20, 2019

That's not he only difference.

Sol, makes the most transparent glass for UVA/B transmission from 280nm-300m

We licensed Sol Glass for this lamp, like our SG series lamps. It is more transparent to any other UV glass made, and allows transmission of UVB between 280nm and 300nm, something other lamps don't do well.

The best Reptile Bulb. 54w Arcadia Desert Reptile bulb, only goes to 290nm.

weedtech · Aug 30, 2020

I tested the Solacure T5 lamps this spring. Quite impressive - on first application they singed the flowers a bit and gave a few sun-leaves a bit of a tan. This was with 3 4-ft lamps in a 5x9 tent at 30 inches distance. Then things got frosty after limiting to an hour at midday. One thing I noticed was these lamps didn't show up on my light sensor. I could always see the Lizard 10x lamps light signal, but not with the Solacure lamps. Gonna need a new sensor.

TerpiestToker420 · Sep 1, 2020

Whats this about swapping out to mh the last weeks of flowering whats the benefits to that say if I was running quantum boards?
Is that just if your runnibg hps the whole grow or leds etc

Frankster · Sep 1, 2020

I would use "reptile lighting"

I have a few of these, but I'm not using them presently, because my LED lamps already have UVB "built" into them. But I have a few that don't, so I was going to possibly use these down the line. I think the reptile one's would be best, (price wise) IMO. The screw into a normal light socket, and cast a fairly wide area.

Should be useful for the last few weeks of flowering, if your wanting to stimulate better oil production. But I would stick with the UVA, UVB spectrums. You shouldn't need much power actually, a little should go a long way, I suspect, and take proper precautions. No "extended" exposure times, although it shouldn't be much more harmful than ordinary sunlight.

Frankster · Sep 1, 2020

weedtech said:
I tested the Solacure T5 lamps this spring. Quite impressive - on first application they singed the flowers a bit and gave a few sun-leaves a bit of a tan. This was with 3 4-ft lamps in a 5x9 tent at 30 inches distance. Then things got frosty after limiting to an hour at midday. One thing I noticed was these lamps didn't show up on my light sensor. I could always see the Lizard 10x lamps light signal, but not with the Solacure lamps. Gonna need a new sensor.

There not going to show up on a light sensor, because there outside the range, I suspect you might need a laboratory grade spectrograph to measure the output, but I'm not certain.

Adding supplemental UVB light

Adding supplemental UVB light

Dirtbag

Jimster

cemchris

Dirtbag

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MIMedGrower

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az2000

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cemchris

Jmaes Mabley

MIMedGrower

Jmaes Mabley

weedtech

TerpiestToker420

Frankster

Never trust a doctor who's plants have died.

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Frankster

Never trust a doctor who's plants have died.

Adding supplemental UVB light

Adding supplemental UVB light

Dirtbag

Jimster

cemchris

Dirtbag

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MIMedGrower

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Jimster

az2000

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cemchris

Jmaes Mabley

MIMedGrower

Jmaes Mabley

weedtech

TerpiestToker420

Frankster

Never trust a doctor who's plants have died.

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Frankster

Never trust a doctor who's plants have died.

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