Wow!! Fantastic!!

I never realised mushrooms needed so much light

You mean foot-candles, I assume? Candlepower is something very different. Monster light output, I have less for my cactus collection ;)

Yes, I think it's foot candles. The mushroom sprung up when
the cuttings were in my original T12 strip lighting fixture
garden, that I am now replacing with another overdriven T8
bank. The illumination in the T12 garden is about 1000 foot candles, running at 50W per square foot, the same as the overdriven T8 garden. These shoplights that I'm using now have a nice curved reflector, the T8 lamps are skinny so they don't block the reflected light, and the mylar
lining completes the job. Thanks for the comments.
Paul Mozarowski.

Paul,

Have you considered MH or HPS or power compacts?
(Nothing wrong with what you are doing. Great setup)

dcarch

Yes, I actually picked up 4 x 400W HPS ballasts in kit form from businesslights.com and 4 x 400W pulse start metal halide ballasts from the same place. You can really grow BIG plants with that kind of HPS and MH wattage, I use an adjustable metal heavy duty shelf bracket system I buy from the building centre, fastened to the framing timbers of the basement with a shelf made from a recycled door, and under the bed storage containers as the flower pots to hold the 2-3-4-5 gallon pots. Using the under the bed storage container lets you water the plants from the bottom up, just like the smaller standard trays let you.
My favorite light is the Gavita or reflectorized 400W HPS, supplemented with metal halide. The pulse start setup gives more lumens and more maintained lumens, and the lamps are quite cheap as well, no need for any other "horticultural" halide lamp in that kind of setup, just a 4000K Venture pulse start lamp. If you follow the link it will show a line spectrum which matches the photosynthetic action spectrum quite nicely, good blue and violet, lots of yellow and green for lumens, but kind of peters out in the red; the HPS rounds it out nicely, piling on the yellow and red. I still have to wire together the ballasts, mount them in their box, and I've got other projects on the go, and also I don't have quite the energy lately, due to what all I've had to endure these past 2 years with LEO. 1200 Watts powers very nicely a 3 x 6 or 3 x 7 foot garden, with mylar on 3 of the walls. Gavita spectrum and footprint is available on google search of "Gavita spectrum" which finds:
http://www.rambridge.com/info/spectrum/gavita2.html
I have grown exclusively with HPS in the past, but added in the Halide to boost the lumens even more, for the curiosity, the "hobby value", and to see if I could boost the plant production even more. Thanks, Paul Mozarowski.

Here is a link that might be useful: Venture metal halide 400W, 40,000 initial lumens

I will be building from scratch a couple of MH/HPS fixtures.
I am not sure if I will post the pictures here until I read carefully who will be the owner of the pictures once you post them here.

I will definitely posting the construction pictures in another forum.

dcarch

Hi, I'd love to see how you do it. I post my garden pics
on flickr, I'm pretty sure I actually still own them, because I've seen someone else offer to buy photos there, and they turned it down, so I'm pretty sure they're not just public property. Thanks, please let me know where you'll be posting them. I did put a thread on rollitup.org about "how do you wire a ballast at home?", and someone did reply to me with some instructions. I use object16 on that site as well.
I purchased some cases from hydrodionne.com, as well as lamp cord and octagon boxes from the same place, I have left-over grounded line-cord from the fluorescent shoplight fixtures that I used for my T8 garden, and I believe it's otherwise fairly straightforward. Thanks for your comment.
Paul Mozarowski.

Here is a link that might be useful: My rollitup thread

this is some of what I have read here,
"By submitting content, which shall include your member name, to any "public area" of the GardenWeb Network, including, but not limited to, the forums and your personal website, exchange page and journal, you grant iVillage a royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive right (including any moral rights) and license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, sublicense, assign, derive revenue or other remuneration from, communicate to the public, perform and display the content (in whole or in part) worldwide and/or to incorporate it in other works in any form, media, or technology now known or later developed, for the full term of any Rights that may exist in such content. If you are not the creator of such content, you also warrant that the holder of any Rights, including moral rights in such content, has completely and effectively waived all such rights and validly and irrevocably granted to you the right to grant the license stated above. You also permit any visitor or member to access, display, view, store and reproduce such content solely for personal, noncommercial use. "

I wish that I can share that here, because I think the design and construction of MH/HPS fixture is easy.

I cannot post the name of the other forum here because of the software here can automatically detect that and ban me here. The other site has something to do with tomatoes.

dcarch

"Posted by object16 4b (My Page) on Tue, Dec 11, 07 at 4:26
I put a strip of highly adherent double sided carpet tape right down the middle (lengthwise). I have precut a piece of 2mil mylar. With a helper, the mylar is held with a bit of tension, just above the carpet tape, and starting from one end
it's stuck down in a smooth even motion, to avoid crinkles. Now just put a few more 2" pieces of tape to hold the edges of the mylar down and to ensure the mylar conforms to the curve of the reflector, and voila!, away she goes. pm. "

Two ways for me:
1. I use Velcro for my mirror Mylar sheets so that I can remove them and store away when i don't need them.

2. I use kitchen aluminum foil and spray adhesive to glue the foils on large cardboards to surround the growing area, all round as well as top and bottom. Also, evreything can be stored away when I don't need them anymore.

dcarch

I've read that aluminum foil doesn't reflect very well, that
actually flat white is better. I used to use the aluminum foils as well, but it is easier and better to paint the cardboard with flat white paint. Make sure the white is not tinted, some shades put in yellow and some shades put in blue.
Any added pigment, besides titanium white will increase the light absorption. Google search on paint reflectivity etc. is how I found out about it. Velcro with mylar is good though.
Paul Mozarowski.

Kitchen grade aluminium foil typically reflects about half of the light. Hold it up to a light bulb and you can see through it. Different brands vary. Aluminium itself is an excellent reflector but the foil is not thick enough to reflect all light and contains tiny holes.

Actually, Aluminum is one of the best reflecting material next to silver. except silver will tarnish.
That's why almost all reflectors are made with aluminum. chrome is more expensive to manufacture.
Most optical mirrors are made with deposting (sputtering)thin coats of aluminum.
As i remember, I disagree with Shrubs that kitchen aluminum is too thin that light can go thru.

My idiot test of which is better, white paint or aluminum, is very simple: I measure both inside and the outside of the growing chamber. So far aluminum (in my setup) is better.

dcarch

Someone did a study with a light meter, of stock white paint on shop light vs same reflector lined with foil, with no attempt to smooth out wrinkles. Looks like foil works well.
I was always suspicious about claims to the contrary. However I like my setup with mylar better, because with some practice, I can apply it PERFECTLY SMOOTH, and if it gets dusty, it is very easy to clean by wiping with a cloth.

Excerpt from internet, link below:

One of my comparisons was between the standard white reflector that
comes with the shop light and regular aluminum foil. For the aluminum foil
case, I just lined the inside of the reflector. I did not bother to
get all the wrinkles out.

****************

What I found is the the aluminum foil covered light fixture had a consistent
10% IMPROVEMENT in measured light levels compared to the off the KMART shelf
white reflector at all the various points measured!!!!

Here is a link that might be useful: Online observation with light meter, stock white vs foil

Actually, I don't compare the two, the same reason I don't compare which is more useful, a hammer or a screw driver.
I see flat paint and aluminum doing different things. depending on your light source and growing environment, some times one is better than the other.

Bottom line, if you completely suround your grow area with reflective surfaces, paint or aluminum, you are way ahead of the game.

dcarch

The following was posted on thekrib.com/lights/reflectors:

Victor wrote:
This exact same topic was discussed on one of my reef aquarium list a couple months back. One person, Dana Riddle (www.aquaticwildlife.com), has done many lighting studies on many types of light (MH, VHO and PC). He found that a white surface did indeed reflect as well as the metal reflectors. The only problem was that after sometime, 'painted' white reflectors turned yellowish and were less affective. Someone on that list is starting to use white rain gutters as a reflector and he will report to the list if the white 'powder' coated metal 'yellows' over time.

Being a grower of many different kinds of plants for most of my life, I have tried just about everything under lites at one time or another. I've probably read every publication on the subject, in English, on growing plants under lites.
One common item,in these writings, has always been a list on reflectivity values. And flat white paint has always been near the top of the list. It's cheap, it's easy and when the paint 'yellows' get out the paint brush! It ain't rocket science and your plants will bearly know the difference. Your wallet will!

Michael
- --
Michael Serpa * Bay Island Orchids
2311 Pacific Avenue * Alameda, CA 94501
Tel: (510) 521-8245 * Fax: (510) 865-1787
http://www.bayislandorchids.com

My own take on it is that my old garden was packed with T12's, and the LIGHT GOT TRAPPED BEHIND THE LAMPS, whereas my current setup is with nicely spaced T8's, 20 tubes over a
width of 70", so there is over 50" of space for the reflected light to get out from behind the lamp. That's also a reason that I like Gavita's for HPS, because I can mount a MH between them, and a little higher, and the Gavita lamp is so small that it hardly blocks any of the light, so I get a nice coverage with the Halide for the blue/violet
supplement that seems to be of benefit. Paul Mozarowski.

Here is a link that might be useful: Exhaustive discussion of paint vs mylar vs foil etc

You've got to get some stuff from this guy, 99.99% reflectivity!

Pure aluminium has a reflectivity of about 95% in the visual spectrum. However, aluminium is a highly reactive metal and will corrode quickly. Corrosion stops (almost, white aluminium chloride will still form over a period of many years and make the surface more hazy) when a thick enough film of aluminium oxide has formed. The exact reflectivity at this time depends on atmospheric impurities, especially salt, while the corrosion was happening, but is typically around 80%. Front-surface mirrors for scientific applications apply a transparent coating over the aluminium to prevent corrosion and maintain the 95% reflectivity. I'm not aware of anybody using such a coating on an aluminium light reflector, they are in any case quite fragile and front surface mirrors are recoated every few years.

Aluminium kitchen foil, as I mentioned, varies greatly. It is generally a 1050 alloy, meaning 99.5% pure aluminium, despite what some sellers of expensive insulation and reflector products will tell you. Thickness varies hugely. from about 20 to 100 microns. One indicator you can use is that aluminium foil thinner than 40 microns is usually only shiny on one side. It isn't possible to give a theoretical reflectivity for these thin foils. Obviously, the thicker the better. Measurements show reflectivities from about 50%-80%.

Flat white interior paint has a reflectivity which starts at about 85% and slowly decreases as it yellows. Repaint every couple of years, more often if you use a high UV light like metal halide, or as soon as you notice yellowing.

Gloss white paints can also achieve 85% reflectivity but yellow very quickly, not really suitable/

Exterior latex white paints can have reflectivity above 90%, they yellow more slowly than interior gloss paints but are quite a bit more expensive than standard flat white paint.

Great!!!! Only need to buy a minimum of 100KG of the stuff. That should be enough to paper the city. I wonder if it's money back if not 99.9% reflective? He must have discovered some secret formula. Personally I find mylar much easier to work with, you can lay it down easily, it doesn't get all wrinkled while you're measuring it, and it cuts easily and cleanly with an olfa knife. I can get a 50' roll of 2 mil mylar for 30$, which is way way cheaper than a comparable amount of aluminum foil, it goes on way smoother, and it's easy to wipe clean. Paul Mozarowski.