New Grow Lights and New Unit

     It is black friday, and I got myself some presents.  A few of my seedlings look big enough to transplant, so I figured I could use some better grow lights.  Being on a budget, however, I can't afford to blow hundreds of dollars on HID (High intensity Discharge) bulbs, ballasts, fixtures, and fans.  I have decided to grow my plants using LED and CFL bulbs.  I am still waiting for a couple of LED panels to come in the mail, so I decided to get started on a couple of CFL fixtures.  I want to be able to supply at least 200 watts of light output to each of my (now) four units, so I went out and got my supplies.

     I went to Home Depot and bought the following:

-2 2-packs of 100 watt output daylight CFL bulbs
-2 lamp light socket fixtures
-2 2-bulb lamp socket adapters
-2 lamp power cords

     I also had about 5 feet of metal duct pipe sitting in the garage.

     First, I cut the metal duct pipe into 2- 16" lengths to make 2 light reflectors.  When the duct is unrolled, it can be easily formed into a half-circle, which makes a good parabolic(ish) reflector.  measured to the center and drilled a hole for the lamp fixture.  I connected the lamp power cord to the fixture and attached the fixture to the reflector.  I used the scrap duct material to make a half cover on one end of the reflector.  This keeps me from being blinded when I peek in at my plants.  I cut out the half circles with snips and attached them to the side of the reflectors with duct tape.  I then screwed the adapters into the fixtures and screwed in the bulbs.  I used cord and wire hooks to hang the fixtures above the hydro units.  They turned out pretty decent, and they cost me a lot less than a pre-built fixture would.

     I also washed my tanks and moved some of the larger seedlings out of the germination tray and into the hydro units.  It may be a bit premature, but a couple of them were touching the plastic covering the germination tray.

  Well, I'm still waiting on my LED's but in the meantime, I still have some good stuff happening here!