i have a light im using from a fishtank, it lets off some heat and its really bright, would it work to grow a plant
What type of light? More info would help. Usually, they're 20W 2 foot fluoro tubes - way too weak for growing, you'd need ten or more, really close to your plants, before you'd do much good, depending on how many plants you're growing. If it's a halogen lamp, it's in the wrong spectrum and way too hot. Have a bit of a read and search on the site. Look at CFLs at the least, if not MH or HPS. If you're not sure, post a pic of the light.
Copy it to your desktop, then edit your earlier post and try again. That'll work. ( Edit>) >Go Advanced >Manage Attachments >Browse (to pic on desktop) >Upload
Good one. I used to run a forum and found that the BB software doesn't handle url links well. Wouldn't hurt to delete post #5, since there's nothing in it. You know, after all this effort, it's really hard to see what type of light it is. Definitely NOT a 2 foot fluoro as I thought. Might be CFL, which is OK for MJ. Perhaps a pic of the bulb, while it's turned off?
it looks like LED, that probably wouldn't be enough lumens to grow a plant, and it also depends on the color temperature of the LED.
Right. Definitely looks bright, but it's only white LEDs. Not much chop, I'm afraid. LEDs can be fairly good for growing, but not white ones. A typical LED light for growing uses red, green and blue LEDs to create the right lighting spectrum for a plant. The RGB balance can be altered during a grow to favour either red or blue - bluish for veg and reddish for flower. To cut a long story short, I repeat what I said in post #2 - Look at CFLs at the least, if not MH or HPS. Do a search of the site on those terms, or have a bit of a look around this section of the site. CFLs are cheapest and work moderately well, otherwise the best is MH for veg and HPS for flowering. They have the highest intensity light. Proper LED growlights work fairly well, but are VERY expensive and don't work as well as MH and HPS. I should add here, despite the claims of many about the efficiency of LEDs, 200W of LEDs = 200W of HPS = 200W of MH etc. They all use the same power. Don't let anyone tell you that a 200W LED light uses less power than a 200W HPS. You'll hear that a lot here. Good luck, a little reading goes a long way..... Sorry new_grower123, I was typing as you were. (I do that a lot).
Doesn't matter what colour, 8, or is it 10, LEDs won't do shit. Check out CFLs please. Let's say they're nice, healthy 3W LEDs, that makes 24-30W. Almost dark to a plant.
Yep, that's what I've been referring to. Not the long 2 foot tubes, but modern Compact FLuorescent tubes. The little curly ones. Look for 23W, 6500K bulbs for veg, then 2700K for flowering. (A 23W bulb will claim about 100W equivalent wattage.) Ignore the 100W, it's a 23W bulb. What you want is 100W for the first plant and 50W for each plant thereafter. You know, I think we might be getting somewhere.