T5 lighting

t5 lighting, good or bad?
i havent seen much in the forums about it but i see all the t5 lighting systems on the hydro sites, they just seem like fluorescent bulbs to me though.

any help is appreciated!

T5s are damn good. Iv'e done the entire grow from clone to bud.No heat, i love them!

are they decent in terms of yield?
compared to a 400w hps?
or cfls?

t5's r the shit! gr8 results low heat

they say the yeild is definately less... i'm growing for the 1st time and am using the fluro tubes... just started wk 6 flowering, buds seem to be going ok.

my other plant i am experimenting with.... its a smaller plant which i have basically strunge to the fluro tube.... the main stem is going directly up the light... the buds are less than 1cm from the tube and arnt burning. it'll be interesting to see if the plant likes it or not. been almost a week now since i tied it up and its still looking healthy. this plant is also just going into 6 weeks flowering

The T5 is just a number for the size of the bulbs and the ballest they go in. I'm using a T12, just a little fatter bulb. You can't beat the cost. $8 for the ballest and $2.50 for each bulb. Those litlte CFL swirly lights cost a good chunk, $6 to $10 at the depot for a pack of 4. Packaging on them states anywhere from 9w to 23w. They are supposed to be equal to other wattage standard bulbs, IE one CFL 14w might be equal to a standard 60w household blub. But still I dont see the justifcation in cost if your plants are in the veg state.

BTW thats the other thing I like about the fluors, they are not hot at all. I can leave my plants touching those bulbs all day and nothing will happen. The bulbs are always cool to the touch no matter how long they have been on.

t5's from what i hear are real good for the entire grow. the guys at the local hydro store use them and they have the 4 ft. 8 bulb systems and they say there great. thats about all i know?

im just really curious why they arent used more if theyre just as good as anyything else..
anyone got some pics of yields with fluoro?

chocolate said:

t5 lighting, good or bad?
i havent seen much in the forums about it but i see all the t5 lighting systems on the hydro sites, they just seem like fluorescent bulbs to me though.

any help is appreciated!

Click to expand...

I didn't origionally use t5 lighting, I just had shitty as t12's. But when I upgraded my plants got much healthier. 5,000 lumens per bulb isn't so bad. Especially when you have 2 for a small grow space ^_^

I just got through doing a side by side grow with T5 and HPS. The T5 works great but the HPS is for sure better. The buds that grew under the T5 were not as dense as what grew under the HPS. If you can control the temp in your grow area without too much problem a HPS is the way to go, but if temp is an issue, go with the T5.
Also, the cost of a T5 compared to a HPS can be a factor. I have an 8 bulb 4 foot T5 and when all was said and done the cost was over $450. But the cost of my 400 watt HPS was about $170, so would have made sense for me from the beginning to just get the HPS and spend the rest that I would have spent on venting my room....live and learn.
But if you want a T5 I have one I'll sell ya.....

chocolate said:

t5 lighting, good or bad?
i havent seen much in the forums about it but i see all the t5 lighting systems on the hydro sites, they just seem like fluorescent bulbs to me though.

any help is appreciated!

Click to expand...

t-5 is awesome..veg w/ the t-5 and then flower w/ an hps light. you can't go wrong

You'll sell it eh? How much? I might be interested.

I've had my eye on this little bad boy. This would be perfect for me and my little array of plants.

Hank.

personally i pick t5's over metalhalides for veggin. This is becasue you dont have to deal with all the fan/ moveing air bullshit which is in its self lot easier. Also H.I.D. lighting puts out tons of more lumens then t5 lighting, however (only baseing this off of personal experence) ,unless you have an air cooled hood for your H.I.D., then you can get an equal, if not better, amount of foot candles to your plants. Which is really what you look, not lumens. I do not have a light meter so i could not tell you this for a fact. But besides that i like t5's for vegging because if you have like a big four 4'' bulb fixture you have a bigger area of light so mothers and clones and any old plant arnt competeing for the more intense areas of light. Another bonus for vegging is you dont need to have a small set of floros for seedlings to get them ready for vegging under a mh. What i do know that is fact, is that Farmer Joe hit the nail on the head saying veg under t5's then flower under hps. Good growin

gotdamunchies said:

I just got through doing a side by side grow with T5 and HPS. The T5 works great but the HPS is for sure better. The buds that grew under the T5 were not as dense as what grew under the HPS. If you can control the temp in your grow area without too much problem a HPS is the way to go, but if temp is an issue, go with the T5.
Also, the cost of a T5 compared to a HPS can be a factor. I have an 8 bulb 4 foot T5 and when all was said and done the cost was over $450. But the cost of my 400 watt HPS was about $170, so would have made sense for me from the beginning to just get the HPS and spend the rest that I would have spent on venting my room....live and learn.
But if you want a T5 I have one I'll sell ya.....

Click to expand...

why would you have to spend $450.00 on a t-5 8 bulb light. What did you have to add? Did you use both red and blue spectrum bulbs, and how much would you have spent to air cool the light. I have both in use right now and I am getting the opposite result. I am comparing the harvest I get from the t-5 to a 600watt hid light so I am really curious why this difference. VV

For those of you that think you are getting the same results with t-12's and t-8's that you will get with the t-5's are using incorrect information. The problem with using them isn't slow growth, it is that you are training your plants too grow slow. They will carry that into flowering. You can always do like I did and purposely grow them slow before moving to more or better lights, you will harvest a little less that way. VV

VictorVIcious said:

why would you have to spend $450.00 on a t-5 8 bulb light. What did you have to add? Did you use both red and blue spectrum bulbs, and how much would you have spent to air cool the light. I have both in use right now and I am getting the opposite result. I am comparing the harvest I get from the t-5 to a 600watt hid light so I am really curious why this difference. VV

Click to expand...

The cost of a new T5 New Wave
Thats my local shop, I paid $350.00, add $16.00 x 4 for the red spectrum bulbs (it came with 8 blue) + 7.5% sales tax and you have roughly 450.00.....now, $175.00 for a 400 w HPS leaves about $275 for inline fans and what not for ventilation that wasnt needed for the T5...and yes my T5 during flowering was 50/50 red/blue.

This being only my second grow, and using bagseed, all I know is the plants that were growing under the T5 were not as good as far as weight or potency complared to what was under the HPS...all plants were clones from the same mother grown in the same type of environment, medium, watering schedule, nutes what have you... except for the difference with the lights...

^^^ that sucks. ive been having to use damn t8s until I get the hps. Which I get tommorow. The plants are almost 2 months old now

I am using a sunleaves pioneer VI 6x54w system. t5s, it has been working pretty damn good with me. Thankfully, heat isnt an issue or I would have melted my plants a long long time ago

just curious would it be legit to use the same system when I switch over to flower? im sort of new