H.I.D. bulb color/spectrum question

[smokybear]

i wondering if i wasted my money buying a Lucalox® Standard 400 hps bulb and if so whats the best 400 hps bulbs that money can buy

[bejay]

no you didnt waste your money buying a standard bulb but the best ones are specifically for horticulture use there is atleast a couple of different brands probably more and are considerably more expensive, like the hortilux eye just to name one.
its not always worth the expense to use one of the better bulbs if you are just growing for your own personal use, would suggest just using a standard bulb and have atleast a couple on hand and remember to change them as maintence every 8- 12 months as their lumen output does degrade with use regardless of which bulb you decide to use.

[invision]

the dual spectrum bulbs are great for all stages, but i just cannot beat paying 6 bucks a bulb for a basic HPS light so i stick with that.

[babystarbud]

i agre with the other guys, you didnt waste your money, however, considering you only need to change bulbs once a year, i think it worth buying good bulbs and you can keep some as back up in the event of brakeage or whatever.

im currently using these bulbs and they are very good.

400 Watt Gro Lux HPS Light Bulb
Sylvania GroLux
Watts 400
Bulb Size/Shape T17
Burning Position Universal
Initial Lumens 58,000


The Sylvania Grolux HPS bulb was designed specifically for greenhouse lighting. It has increased blue light and the highest PAR rating. This is the hottest bulb right now and is consistently out-performing the Hortilux. The Sylvania Grolux Features:
Extreme high light output
Improved quality of light : increased red and blue light output
10% higher photosynthesis flux when compared to standard HPS 'super' bulbs
High PAR radiation


heres a pic, the second one from the bottom is the grolux lamp, it has the big red spike typical of HPS, but also has a large blue spike making it perfect for plants, the two verticle bars show the desired spectrum for plants.

[smokybear]

[quote=babystarbud] interesting everyone;I like the graph babystardub but i was wondering if u can put the color temp number at the bottom of the graph because it doesn't show the k number for the vertical shade bar and is one better then the other.Im thinking the greenish like spectrum would be better since it has both color spectrum right?

[babystarbud]

no quite...
i dont know the figures for color temp, so can put them on the graph...
but plant use both red and blue light, they make more use of thebue during growth and more use of the red during flowering.

you can grow using all blue or all red but, its not ideal.
you can also have two bulbs, one red (HPS) and one blue (MH) and swap them over accordingly.

the new breed of HPS bulbs however are specificly designed to be stronger in both blue and red, elliminating the need for complex light set-ups, so you can just use the one bulb all the time.