T5 lighting

[DubPhiend]

glad to see i havent been forgotten...im gettin the "net" itch again... i enjoyed my break away from everything but... i feela void in the fluoro world once again so i thought id come visit and see what i cn do to contribute... personally i never got into T5's caus their too expensive to buy in8itially and to expensive to maintain... ($10 tubes lol...i get 15 tube case for like $20 lol... ) T8's are just cheaper...equally efficient.....some say T5's penetrate better...and i guess i could buy that but... i dont have penetration probs cause my SOG plants are only 15" tall ya know... you just got to adapt to the light...become a fluoro grower rather then an HID grower trying to use fluoros...

i put a few of my old pics in my gallery just remind everyone of the setup... maybe in the months to comes ill write up another how to thread...

Dub

 

[cabanetforester]

Wow T8's cool.

Wow T8's cool.

I never would a thunk it. I'm selling my T5's and buying T8's instead. LOL.

 

[Maj.PotHead]

hey DUB glad ya made it over

 

[maverick]

majpothead I did a complete run using the 54 watt T5....for a fluro run they did a fair job....I had 4 trees that I grew and only one finished out the way it was supposed to...the fluro was just taking way to long to finish for my tastes....3 of the plants had been growing for 6 months and still were not finished....I finally decided to just go ahead and cut my loses and harvest them....they did get you very high but not as high as the one plant that did finish.....as far as buying fluro and doing it again with fluro I think I would do it with the T8 as the costs on the T5 are still prohibative.....but then IMHO i will use HID lighting

 

[Maj.PotHead]

right on mav looks nice

 

[bobbyp]

I have 3 - 8 tube 4 footers. I use them for seedlings and vegging. There is no stretch in the seedling and I have vegged to 2.5 foot. ( see my first IC grow). I use all cool 54 watt in two and a mixture of full spectrum and cool in another. They run a little cooler than HID and use 4 amps.. I also have 8 warm tubes , but have not tried to bloom with them yet. For bloom they can't beat HID but are close

 

[BACKCOUNTRY]

How funny, I popped out of the outdoor forums to go look for info on T5s, and this is the first thread I see!

I purchased a very nice T-5 fixture to replace a duel 150w HPS set up for the summer in my buddies closet grow, we are concerned with heat problems in this south facing room.

The fixture uses 8-54watt 4' bulbs, and is 18" wide, 72 watts per square foot, not HPS watts but still not bad. I'll be using this light mostly for blooming, so I will be using all 3000K. I figure we will do extreme canopy manipulation, and maximize the usage of the light.

 

[muddy waters]

backcountry that sounds like a macka rig but having done something pretty similar with T8s lemme just warn you that the heat they put out is not negligible.

i have reasons why an HPS doesn't really work for my situation and i too liked what i saw in dubphiend's old pics so i built 'the coffin' (which ended up being an appropriate fuckin name unfortunately)-a 4.5'x2.5'x2.5' particleboard box painted falt white and rigged up 8 T8s, 4 on each wall, spanning approx 1.25' down from the top of the wall. no doors, just a lid. plants woulda really dug it except i couldn't ventilate the thing to save my life, due to an awkward shape and layout. without the lid, the plants grew very well but i gave up on flowering because i need stealth and was also losing probably 30% of the light out the top of the box because i had to leave the lid off. but i have no doubt that i could've produced about 16 fat 1/8 buds in a SOG using that box, had stealth not been an issue.

 

[muddy waters]

...so because i saw, firsthand, about the heat and design issues with 4' bulbs, i decided to go with CFLs which are no less effective, and slightly easier to work with.

i am thinking of taking the 4 double ballasts i have and building a 4 lamp overdriven hood for an aquarium, and i think they are gonna kick ass for that.

 

[BACKCOUNTRY]

Yeah, having used many CFLs and T-12s through the years, I am aware of the heat they produce, especially the CFLs in tight areas.

The bank of T-5s should do a bit more even job of getting more even light coverage in the expanded cab I will be building in a week or so, and despite the fact that fluoros do produce heat, I am sure it will be noticably less than the 300w HPS fixture I am running now.

My ventilation system usually keeps the cab temp withen reason as it stands, so I should not be hurting on temps with the fluoros.

 

[Maj.PotHead]

...so because i saw, firsthand, about the heat and design issues with 4' bulbs, i decided to go with CFLs which are no less effective, and slightly easier to work with.

i am thinking of taking the 4 double ballasts i have and building a 4 lamp overdriven hood for an aquarium, and i think they are gonna kick ass for that.

i decided to stick with cfl veggn here is 280w mixed spectrum 1 each 25w daylight and 1 each 45w warm in each fixture



here they are less then 1 month l8r the girls so far




now granted i will flower with 400w hps but this is what 280w cfls done for me so far the key is take advantage of what cfl's have to offer. i use small fan blows across the ballasts and plants tops gently, this dosent allow ambient heat to build up. i have 3-5x room air exchange every min ventilation is a key factor growing indoors you must exchange the erea air good passive not forced fresh air intake 1 side bottom and strong as you can go exhaust oposite side top. this way fresh air will be sucked into the grow and heat exhausted as it's produced you must vent this outta the grows fresh air erea. summer time produces heat problems during daytime for some. run the lights at night i do if im veggn when its 115 deg outside during day i run light 6pm - 12noon next day, it shuts off before the hottest parts of the day. for flower 6pm - 6am lights out stays house temp all day long

 

[Frog]

Well I took the plung today and ordered the New Wave T-5 4ft 4 bulb in the all grow spectrum . It will be used for veg only .
Been bouncing around about witch flouro to get, the T-5 or T-8. Came down to I wanted the little clones to have plenty of light and I have seen post's from Sleepy and his girls all look very happy. So the extra $'s in the long run are next to nothing if this gives as good of results as I have seen others do. It will be replacing a 400 w MH that I have used for a long time and thought it was time to upgrade.
Ohh ya Sleepy ya can't be all bad if your avatar has a little Traffic to it ( soomthing to make us all happeeee ).

Frog

 

[sektornba]

I am using 4 T5 lamps 20w 6400k.

 

[watermelon]

ive always been curious about blooming under floros. i have a place where height would really be saved by using a rack instead of HID, but people on forums have detered me.

id really like to do a grow like DubPhiend's, but im not sure that i could get that many clones off the bat though. id love the see that detailed guide, it would be most interesting as there arnt many floro tube grows around. please find time to give it a write up


im aware that tubes are obviously much low intensity than HID, but does this effect just the quanity of the bud produced, or does it effect the potancy and growth time at all as well?
i dont mind a lower yeild, but i want it to still be potent and grow fast.

 

[joseaf]

6 T5 blub fixture or one 400w HPS? Heat is an issue. Has anyone completed a grow cycle with T5 only? There is a video of a guy using T5s on youtube. What is the harvest like?

 

[Jdizzel]

6 T5 blub fixture or one 400w HPS? Heat is an issue. Has anyone completed a grow cycle with T5 only? There is a video of a guy using T5s on youtube. What is the harvest like?

if heat is an issue the T5's rock, but i grew a side by side with my 600wHPS and the I had only 2 plants under my 4 lamp T5 and the nugs did not ever compare, suck the heat off the lamp and TRY to run the HPS if possible, From the top down on my HPS i had great herb about 14" down, the T5 on went about 5" down worth good herb, the rest i turned into hash! its getting to be winter time so rock the HPS!! ( not saying that people havent pulled out some GREAT herb with it ) i am just telling you my experince, take a look at my profile and look at " my master closet " that is my last round with the T5, since then i have sold it and got another HPS ( went 1 K ) ....
and if u are gona bloom with it please let me know I know where to purchase 2700K ( red ) like HPS lamps for ur T5 fixture, they were a totall pain to find but i did rock the 2700k instead of the easy to find 3000K lamps, i think that really helped them as well

good luck!!

 

[pearlemae]

I grow with an 8 light 2 foot fixture, 24W bulbs. The proofs in the pics.

 

[Jdizzel]

600w hps ( first time growing.
touché
LOL

i just wasnt that impressed with mine.
plus to me it all depends on the room and situation that you have on your hands. ( i/e heat, room, avial, cash flow.....
to each his own. as long as were all smoke'n

 

[rubbanutz420]

Just bought a 4 foot 6 tube T5 setup from Hydrofarm...and I cant believe how much better they are for vegging, better than MH or any other Flouro I have used..... Almost to good, I barely have any stretch at all in 3 weeks of veg...I had to raise them up just to get a little stratch...but the plants love them...Ill never use anything else for veg, well worth the money.....Before the T5's, I was using T8's and MH.....T5's all the way, easy!

They have produced beautiful structured vegged plants....

I wont be flowering with these, because I love my bigger HPS, but for veg, the best Ive seen.