OMG, Today is start-up day!
I was in and out all night tossing over my equipment status. My DIY lighting project has turned into a nightmare, my husband is trying to bring home a 20lb CO2 bottle from work (have you seen the size of those things?
) so that means a trip to the welding supply to see if they have a smaller one. I'm on a hope and prayer 3 500w 4000K bulbs will keep my plants alive until next week when I can fix that project nightmare*.
And my plants are scheduled to be on my doorstep in a couple hours.
The DIY lighting nightmare: I knew two MH ends (screw bulb and double ended) existed. If it wasn't double ended, it was mogul. Didn't know exactly what mogul meant, but figured screw in... Fair enough. So I purchased three MH housing units from the local electric supply company, built a really snazy base that matched the stand. All the whole time assuming I'd just order the light bulbs with plant specs from an aquarium supplier.
Wrong.
Wrong.
Wrong.
A common variety metal halide fixture from your nearest electric supply warehouse will have a socket the size of a normal lightbulb. But on the bright side I know what Mogul means now. BIG. So I googled for medium to mogul socket adapters. I found one, but a little more investigation proved the ballasts were not interchangable... I think. And plus the mogul lights were an inch too long for the fixture with the adapter. We were entering into the rewiring an entire assembly territory. :headshake2:
The wattage is correct on my DIY project. 3wpg and I do have some plants that require bright light. I'm on a hope and prayer that they live a week while I can bite the bullet, forget the DIY projects and buy three Aqualight Advanced Series HQI fixtures. At least hubby said we needed additional outside lighting anyway. :wall:
I was in and out all night tossing over my equipment status. My DIY lighting project has turned into a nightmare, my husband is trying to bring home a 20lb CO2 bottle from work (have you seen the size of those things?
) so that means a trip to the welding supply to see if they have a smaller one. I'm on a hope and prayer 3 500w 4000K bulbs will keep my plants alive until next week when I can fix that project nightmare*. And my plants are scheduled to be on my doorstep in a couple hours.
The DIY lighting nightmare: I knew two MH ends (screw bulb and double ended) existed. If it wasn't double ended, it was mogul. Didn't know exactly what mogul meant, but figured screw in... Fair enough. So I purchased three MH housing units from the local electric supply company, built a really snazy base that matched the stand. All the whole time assuming I'd just order the light bulbs with plant specs from an aquarium supplier.
Wrong.
Wrong.
Wrong.
A common variety metal halide fixture from your nearest electric supply warehouse will have a socket the size of a normal lightbulb. But on the bright side I know what Mogul means now. BIG. So I googled for medium to mogul socket adapters. I found one, but a little more investigation proved the ballasts were not interchangable... I think. And plus the mogul lights were an inch too long for the fixture with the adapter. We were entering into the rewiring an entire assembly territory. :headshake2:
The wattage is correct on my DIY project. 3wpg and I do have some plants that require bright light. I'm on a hope and prayer that they live a week while I can bite the bullet, forget the DIY projects and buy three Aqualight Advanced Series HQI fixtures. At least hubby said we needed additional outside lighting anyway. :wall:
