T5 Light Fixture

Just ordered a 4' long, 4 bulb, T5 fixture. It is supposed to put out 20,000 LUMS. Hopefully it will work for my phals species. Anyone know if its any chance of this being to much light?

Should be fine. If it is a lot higher light than they are getting now, you might need to adapt the plants to the higher light by putting the fixture farther away and then gradually moving it closer to the plants.

Susan

Thanks! I currently have two T8's and three CFL's that are rated at the equiv. of 150 watts each. Was time to just get it down to one slim unit.

Let us know how it works out, please. It would be fun to learn more about using light fixtures to grow indoors.

Cheers,
BD

That is a very bright light. I have a 4 foot 2 bulb T5 light unit over my aquarium. I do have Life glow tubes though which give out a full spectrum white light suitable for reptiles, fish and plants.

I use two 4 foot T5s about 6 inches above my phal seedlings. They did have to adjust to the higher light, but they quickly did and are growing like crazy. You should be fine.

It is difficult to burn plants with high fluorescent light, as long as the bulbs are not against the plants. The IR rays from sunshine heats the tissues which cause the burn damage. There spectrum of the T5 bulbs do not have IR wavelengths. I think T5 technology is the way to go. Although, the initial expense is more, the amount of light for the money to run them make up for it.

I figured the same thing Ron. Just have few phal. species and a some smaller medium-light guys under lights. Have blooming going on but thought that maybe with the T5's I'd have even better growth and blooming.

I'm looking into getting some lights too (particularly T5s) and was wondering about the different types of bulbs? What kind and what wattage do I need for plants to receive the proper spectrum? There are so many different kinds; blue, white, red, full....?

You can mixed - 2 Bloom (3000K) Bulbs And 2 Grow (6400K) bulbs