So how much UV do you want? I think I have it covered!

[Batcave]

I have had these sitting in a closet at the club for 4 years and forgot all about them. These are 400w High Pressure Mercury UV bulbs made originally for longthrow UV Canons, same exact bulbs they use in the paintball and laser tag arenas, looks like a MH bulb. It is not just a "purple painted bulb" like the screw in ones. My 2 canons died several years ago and was replaced with UV LED panels so these just got stored. One bulb will easily saturate a 40ft x 40ft dance floor and if you are wearing white it is powerful enough to make yourself squint from your own clothes.

I snagged the extra ones in 2007 when I heard they will going to stop making the HPM bulbs, but they can still be had on eBay as NOS for around $50. Don't know if they actually stopped making them or not, but read on numerous sites they had.

I will not be using it but did find them interesting, and would be even more interesting to see a larger grow add one as a test.

I put it in a cool tube for a test, didn't know what it would do when hooked to my 400w digital ballast

400 hps on the left and 600 hps on the right

 

[TorturedSoul]

Are those UV bulbs or blacklights? If UV, UV-A, UV-B, UV-C, or some combination thereof?

You might shoot a PM to Munki, I think he experimented with adding a small-wattage reptile UV bulb for a small part of his light cycle during flower a while back (I might be mistaken). If those are truly UV bulbs and are 400-watt ones, I'm thinking they're going to be quite a bit too strong for full-time use (depending on the specific UV content). I'm also wondering how we can see light coming from them - UV radiation can't be seen, can it?

EDIT: It's no surprise they fire off of your ballast. Seems like some mercury vapor bulbs would work with some metal halide ballasts (or maybe it was the other way around, lol - been a LONG time since I thought about MV lights). Glad it didn't cause a ballast failure.

 

[Trunk5]

the uv light you want you get from reptile lights, and most pros will tell you to burn them in the middle 4 hours of your 12 hour bloom. this gives you time to work on your plants when the light comes on or befor it goes out, because uv light will give you sun burn and mess with your eyes real bad.

 

[Kush Killer]

do we have a genreal idea of what size reptile bulb will provide what kind of coverage? and or spacing distances from plants?