To use my 400hps(or)T5

hey guys i have been contemplating this topic in my head for days, allthough its early I am on the fence with wether or not to use my 400 watt hps for flowering or sticking it out and using my T5 with the mixed bulbs and red/blue spectrums.

I have seen amazing results with T5's start to finish on here, yet the masses will tell you that T5's just don't create the density and potent buds that hps do in 12/12. as most of you know the 4' 8 bulb T5 has a 40k lumen output at 50watts per bulb. and currently i am veging pretty well under them and temps are perfect. with he hps even when i had them up and vented(them) meaning I had up my 250 and 400 hps together, I hooked them up to a 4''inline fan and exaust it out through the wall/attic space(using duct connecting both hoods and a carbon sok on one end). still temps where 81-84 with that, and i had a 440cfm bringing in fresh 70 degree AC.

SHOULD I USE THE 400watt hps or stick the grow out with the T5.

PLEASE any aid in making this decision would be greatly appreciated

HPS would be perfect. However temperature control may not be. Possibly have a trial with the HPS see if the you can control the temp? I bought a HPS and had to remove it simply because i couldnt control the temperature well enough and it burnt my plants. I regret it though because HPS gets such good results.

thanks for the reply, you have a good point it would be really easy for me to put in the exaust is already running and hooks in place. just the T5 i have running so well right now temps are right and everything lol. but what a waste to have a 400 hps and a 250 on the bedroom floor;-(

Yeah i know what you mean about the waste. My HPS is just sitting there at the moment, not even sure if i could sell it. I only used the thing for a week. Perhaps you could set up another small grow area so it doesnt go to waste?

OR

If you really want to try something cool you could set up another grow space away from your current one, so in the future, or now even when you get any males you could grow them in there. That way you could control pollination and produce your own seeds or your own strains. Then use the males for hash etc afterwards?

another awesome idea thanks man....that would be cool to create a strain I guess I should harvest a crop first LOL. I think I made my mind up already I am gonna give the 400 hps the flowering job but if I fail to keep ideal temp then Ill go back to the T5. meanwhile when i go to 12/12 under the hps i am gonna set up another veg spot to get some other seedlings going so i can pop them in to flower as a second crop

one other thing, maybe you know...How many plants can I get under the 400 watt hps? cause with the 4' 8 bulb t5 I like how it evnly disperses the light. I have a 4x4 space so hopefully the 400 will do it

Yeah HPS is the way to go good luck Im not actually sure how many plants is advisable under a 400 watt sorry mate Possibly work out how many lumens output the HPS has and how many your supposed to have per plant? Although i dont even know that sorry im not much help lol

if i had 8 plants female out of the 11 just hypotheticly speaking i would have 6250 roughly lumens per plant with the 400 hps @ 50,000lux with the 400 T5 I would have 5000 lumens...But keep in mind the T5 can be way closer and doesnt effect heat as bad as hps (might). SO i dont know

HPS doesnt need to be right by them for great effects.

Right i've just done some quick research and it seems that 3,000 lumens a plant at least. 10,000 is perfect. 10,000 lumens per square foot is the output that the sun has on a summers day. And you say 6250 per plant for the HPS? Sounds spot on mate. Obviously if you wanted you could add some form of side lighting but i doubt you'd need to. All depends on how much money you have. And of corse the heat issue.

This has just proven again that the HPS is more efficient as far as lumens is concerned so in a perfect environment thats the way to go. Its just down to heat management.

Good luck with it my friend!

You've already got the HPS system and the ventilation is all set up. See if you can dial in the temps where you need them.

Personally, I am about to set up a grow cabinet and intend to put in T5. I've seen the results in threads such as those by VictorVicious here on RIU. I am convinced that with the ability to place the lights closer to the plants, the usable light that actually reaches the plants is equal or better with the T5's.

You've got nothing to lose by giving the HPS a try, but if it doesn't work out for ya, you can rest assured that you can grow some decent buds with your T5. Would those buds be equal to or better than the same plants grown under HPS? Who knows? You could set up the experiment using clones placed under each of the different systems and find out!

If you do the experiment, post your results here and we can finally put this debate to rest.

Best of luck to you!

~Rock~

I'm seeing great results with my T5 setup.

Thanks for the response guys. And good point Rock, you know we all know you can get great results under both so it really is just a matter of preference and circumstance. I really would like to experiment 2 seperate grows with the exact conditions using both lights. I would be willing to bet though that although the T5 would make amazing buds, the density and resin wouldnt be as pernounced as that formed under HPS. I am pretty sure based on some research i have done over the past few days that I am gonna Veg with the T5 and flower using the Hps. If it doesnt workout then like you said i can fall back to the T. Thanks again for the responses