Flouro Tubes Vs. CFL's

Im currently running a cfl setup as this was the cheap way for me to go. Now that i have some general knowledge of growing, I wanted to improve on my setup. I've heard many mixed reviews on tubes and cfls both positives and negative. Basic flouro tubes (2 ft) dont seem to produce anywhere near as many lumens as cfl's of the same wattage. Yes i read in the faq section that seedlings and clones seem to do better on lower levels of light, but how low is low? Which would be better 9 cfl's @ 27w (daylight 1800 lumens pr bulb) vs. two 2ft tube setups(housing 2 lights per fixture, compatible bulbs ranging from 800 to 1500 lumens pr bulb? Also whats the deal with all the diff "T" bulbs, Im aware that T5 seems to be the way to go, but ive also seen t12 t8 ect. Are those fine to use also? I say 2ft fixtures due to my 2 1/2 ft wide closet. And how many seedlings would be a safe number if i chose to go with tubes. Im looking to do a Sea Of Green garden( many plants in a confined area forced to flower asap to keep them short due to limited space) also to limit total growth time.. for those that reply, thnx alot for the help

Difference between the T5, T8 or T12 is the "lumen maintenance curves" or the hours of use... You loose less lumens over time with a T5 vs the T8 or the T12 (so advantage would be you wouldnt have to replace bulbs as often due to low intensity). Price wise thou, I believe T5 tubes cost between $10-$20 depending on location or kind where as a T12 tube is like $3-$5.

Advantage between tubes and cfls... tubes operate at a cooler tempature which lets you place them closer to the plants.

Anyone else ?

thnx, thats helpfull now about the lumes loss compared to cfl's. Ive seen 2ft T5 cfl bulbs that put out 5,000 so that would be 20,000 total for both fixtures but there $25-30 pr bulb so for the cost of the fixtures and bulbs, thats more total cost than a 400w MH lamp with less than half the power. If i were to go with say 4 T8 bulbs, would that be suitable for vegging 10 plants in a 1 1/2 X 1 1/2 room? And about total lumens, i found some T8 bulbs 6500K spectrem @ 1200 pr bulb so thats a 4,800 lumes total. Would that be a upgrade or downgrade from my current setup of 7 26w cfl's (warm) 1850 lumens pr for appox 13,000 lumens total. I may be reading way too much into this lumen factor but when i see 400w MH lamps @ 55,000 lumens, just makes me re-think what lights are best for me. I am deff getting a HPS for flowering. Next question should i go with a 250w or 400, i know a 250w is good for a 3X3 garden 400 for 5X5. mine again is 2 1/2 x 2 1/2 so im thinking a 250 (28,000 lumens ) BUT....with the sea of green garden there will be many smaller plants flowering at once (appox 6-10 @ 2ft max height)as opposed to a typical 3 or 4 plant garden @ 3ft+) so with the denseness and crowding due to 6-10 plants, the "deep penatration" a 400w(55,000 lumens) provides may seem like a better option, sry for all the questions and such a long post but these questions i just cant seem to find answers to

i had to buy 2 4 ft 54 watt t5's after my ballast broke adn had to send it from cali to penn. ups ground. so anyway the thing i was going to say was that not only do my plants love the 80 watt cfl and the 2 54 watt and are staying lush and green, theyre growing still even without the 400 watt mh. which they had been used to how ever ive guessed they could be just stretching, but no one at roll it up.org has responded to my thread about that.

after more review im really considering just getting a 250w switchable system for now. That will hold me over for the 1st major crop. Then over that 3-4 month period i can work on getting a small vegging box build based around flours. Just seems like having a good flouro T5 setup can cost just as much, no actually can be more costly then a 400w MH. But again back to the light intesity, any experienced grower should be able to answer this for me.. IS IT TRUE that seedlings and clones do better on lower levels of light? Are flouros better for vegging then MH lamps or is that just a option due to the low heat and universal useage? Ive compared pics of plants vegging with both.The flouro plants seem to grow faster for the 1st few weeks but when you compare flour grow to MH grows at the same age, the MH grow plants seem to always look bigger and sooooooo much more bushy. Ive thrown so much cash down the drain on so many diff lights totally unaware of what i actually need. I want to be cheap about it if i can but at the same time i dont want to sacrifice efficiency.