T5 or CFL?

gagekko

Well-Known Member
Which do u all feel is better? I just bought a 12 bulb T5 48" panel but I'm beginning to think CFL's might be where its at for fluorescent light penetration... I'm new to fluorescent, what do you all think?
 

Ecips

Active Member
I use HO t5s sunblaze 4 bulb 2 foot
MIT does good , it does better for clones !
Not much electr
I would get a 4 foot ! 8 bulb !
See if they can give you 2 red bulbs
 

gagekko

Well-Known Member
I use HO t5s sunblaze 4 bulb 2 foot
MIT does good , it does better for clones !
Not much electr
I would get a 4 foot ! 8 bulb !
See if they can give you 2 red bulbs
The cool thing about the panel I bought is that it lets me turn on 2 bulbs or 12 bulbs - increments of 2 bulbs at a time. So 2 red bulbs is good? I realize I'm trying to get a better spectrum so any bulb better than others? Thnx!
 

Ecips

Active Member
4 and 4 of each bulb should be good I would try to keep more blue spectrum in vegg !
 

benny bear

Active Member
t5 is nodout the better light with higher wattage and lumens, but with the cfls beining compact you can shove a fat cola inbetween two bulbs, where the t5 has 1 flat light level that your buds can't go past. unless u hang horizontaly, maybe acouple 2fts
 

Mattemil

Active Member
I use CFL but have such a mess of bulbs I am about to switch to T5 as well, a friend of mine uses em with great success..

By the way, nice nexopia pic!
 

drudinpc

Well-Known Member
I use CFLs and do pretty well, but I have about 165 watt per plant. If I was to do it over again, I'd have designed my grow box to fit t5s. As it is, it's a couple inches too small :-(.

I say this because t5s just seem easier. More options available as far as hoods and ballasts. With CFLs you have to either buy large wattage bulbs (don't recommend) or make your own fixture and hood like I did. Mine works great, but was a pain in the ass to make. As for results, lumens are lumens in this case. Both are fluoro bulbs. If I were you I'd have gone t5 as well, just for the ease.
 

gagekko

Well-Known Member
I use CFLs and do pretty well, but I have about 165 watt per plant. If I was to do it over again, I'd have designed my grow box to fit t5s. As it is, it's a couple inches too small :-(.

I say this because t5s just seem easier. More options available as far as hoods and ballasts. With CFLs you have to either buy large wattage bulbs (don't recommend) or make your own fixture and hood like I did. Mine works great, but was a pain in the ass to make. As for results, lumens are lumens in this case. Both are fluoro bulbs. If I were you I'd have gone t5 as well, just for the ease.
I have 2 24"x48" panels (t5 & t8), 3 600watt ballasts, 3 400watt ballest, a 1000watt ballast, 5 hoods and 2 cool tubes.... I honestly like fluoro the best but i do break out the hps in flower :)
 

chrishart420

New Member
Yeah smart thinking I love to veg with t5 ho lights and flower with a 400 watt hps. I used to do 600 but my electric bill went significantly higher. I'm growing auto flowers under my t5's seed to harvest for now on though. I grew 4 plants in my tent and got a little over 45 grams a plant dry off each plant using Fox farms soil and nutes mixing my t5 bulbs half normal half budding. I'm thinking about getting another tent and only using t5's for autoflowers and using my mh and hps bulbs only for photo period. Good luck to yah bro one love
 
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