T8 Fluorescent Fixture/Bulbs

Today I went to Lowes and bought a T8 4' Fixture and 2 38w 5000k sunshine bulbs. My concern is that I may have bought my bulbs too early, not knowing which ones I should be using. Will these bulbs work efficiently? Should I go back and get a different color, wattage, or the daylight kind instead of sunshine? Completely confused 1st timer for indoors growing. Any and all help is apprecaited, thanks.

P.S.: If you have any suggestions for a particular bulb(s) please provide the bulb and its specifications, the place to purchase, and any other need-to-know information I might need. Thanks all!

The bulbs you have are good for veg. They are good for seedlings and clones. I use a t12 shoplight i bought at lowes for $10 and 2 40 watt daylight bulbs that you have. I use it for seedlings and clones and they do a good job.

The light is not intense enough for a full grow. You will need at least t5's or lots of cfl bulbs to have a decent grow with fluorescent lights.

So i shouldve bought the T5 fixture? Looks like Ill be making another trip tonight, thanks a lot! Also, i have the sunshine bulbs not the daylight, make a difference?

you need to absolutely bathe your plant in light with flouros for flowering i'd get at least 4 2 bulb 4 foot t5 fixtures. or you could save money and do alot better with an hps. Not knocking you or anything by that of course. a 400w hps w/bulb and reflector can be had for $120 and are alot more intense and cover alot more area and will yeild a lot more.

Thanks for the advice! Do you know any place I can purchase the HPS that cheap on hand, like a well-known and trusted online store? I've looked at the 400w ones before but im worried about the heat, although fans are expensive either.

yup, i do actually. also, try to email them and ask for a discount on your order, they will return your email and give you their phone number and say to call them and that they can work with you on it. i always get stuff from them at about 75%-80% of the listed price. if heat is a possible problem you probally want to get an air cooled hood with it, i also advise you pay the extra $4 to get the added blue spectrum high output growbright bulb. i got the air cooled euro hood option myself.
http://www.htgsupply.com/viewproduct.asp?productID=47929
also check their ebay store, sometimes they will seemingly randomly put items up for really cheap.

Is there any way to avoid the heat with fans blowing on or towards the normal hood for it? Id rather not spend an extra $70 on an aircooled hood if i can use some fans to cool it, on a budget. Just curious if fans can effectively cool the light, I haven't ever worked with HPS' before but I dont want to buy it and the bulb explode or something weird like that.

it wont do that, but your temps being to hot can hurt the plants. It depends on the area your using and how well your ventilated but i think you should be ok, the best part of that light is that you can keep the ballast somewhere other than in the grow area, which really really helps with the heat. your going to want/need to buy a good exhaust fan, you can get one for $50 from them on ebay pretty easy. http://cgi.ebay.com/New-4-Inch-CFM-Inline-Exhaust-Duct-Fan-Vent-Blower-/120622440662?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1c15a860d6

Fans will pretty much just blow the heat around. Not very efficient especially if it gets hot where you live. You're really going to need something that can actually remove the hot air from your grow space as has been suggested.
If you're just going to be growing inside of a closet or similar small space you might be able to get away with using an inline duct fan. Those cost around $20 but they don't move significant amounts of air. It could work if you have a readily available source of cool air, such as from an air conditioned room or if it is cold outside where you live.

This is the exact advice I was hoping to receive, thank you all! I will post again if I'm having any troubles finding the fans/HPS lights or even just for a good price. I can't wait to finish my hydro setup and get this thing rollin'! If any of you have pics that you would like to post that may help on how I should set them up and stuff, or just to show me good fans and lights/hoods, please do, those are always great help too.

Make yourself a list of all the things you need/should have and rate each item according to necessity, along with your options for each one and how much it will probably cost. You can add the expenses up and make better determinations according to your budget.

For example: you're really going to need a complete lighting system, which will include the ballast, reflector, socket/cord set, and a bulb. I've found that some of the complete lighting packages available online actually end up costing a bit more than if you had selected each component individually, and the complete/'build-your-own' packages also limit you in terms of what reflectors you're allowed to pick.

I got a 400 watt Lumatek digital ballast and everything else from cheaphydroponics.com. Instead of selecting the complete lighting package, which would have cost me $270 with the cheapest air cooled reflector I'd have been allowed to pick, I got the 400w Lumatek, cord set, Plantmax bulb and a Sunleaves Aurora 6. I saved $15 by going with the Aurora 6 and an additional $15 for selecting each item individually; $239 for everything before shipping.

This might not be the case with every merchant, like that system darkdestruction420 linked to which is probably about as cheap as it gets for that kind of light but it doesn't hurt to break everything down and see if you can save. Shipping charges are also often ridiculous, so either get whatever you can from one place or maybe there is a grow store in your area. I got my light online because it was considerably less expensive than if I had bought it from the grow store that I typically get all my other stuff from, but I was unaware that an HTG Supply store was actually in my area until recently.

also look into the shipping costs of items when factoring it all in, you might find 10 stores with the item you want at a very similar price,(i use google shopping) but alot of times you can find cheaper shipping or free shipping from one that in the end even though they charge a bit more for the item you actually come out alot better off getting it from them due to free or lower priced shipping costs. ive saved alot of money that way myself.

You tube has vids on most of the subjects you mention. There is a thread here somewhere called 'best deals'. I was successful in utilizing it's links in my quest to find the perfect hot house tomato light and fan.
Man, I got some great tomatoes outside this year. 3 types of basil, onions...tomato salad, my fav.

and there is no great hot house tomato. so it's a toss up between tanning salon or dewbage.

I got a 400 watt HPS setup, ballast, hood and new bulb, for $100 shipped. I got it through the ebay store of insidesun.com. The ballast is used, but supposedly tested 100% and guaranteed for three years. This is not their normal price. I think it is closer to $125 with shipping. I found one they were selling on Ebay and I put in the lowest bid price they had listed. The HTG one is better, but you need to add about $40 shipping charge to the $120 someone else quoted. You can sometimes find the HTG on Ebay for $150 which includes shipping.

As long as you have the proper grow space that won't turn into an oven, a good HPS will pay for itself. From my experience you get twice as much per plant as you do with CFL, T5 or LED combos. I've seen the difference first hand, with the exact same seed and strains.

mike 777 wrote "As long as you have the proper grow space that won't turn into an oven, a good HPS will pay for itself. From my experience you get twice as much per plant..."

When I switched from MH veg cycle and put in the HPS, my babies started reaching out to it, and at one point, they were laying down. It was sucking out water and really hotter than I thought under the HPS, I thought the MH was hot, but this is hotter. So I raised it, shifted some plants, put a couple on paint cans, staked a few, and am checking it twice a day or more. Just pouring on the water (rain water). Only been 6 days or so, I'm seeing some transformation, gotta pull males. Lotta health in that closet. I was an outside guy for years, am pleasantly surprised this is looking like it has the power.