I am seriously considering buying a high output T-5 fluorescent fixture but I thought I could get some real life experience opinions before I spend the money....anyone who uses these out there? I would greatly appreciate hearing your reviews of these lights. Thanks!
I was hoping there would not be much of a drop off from HPS because thats what I prefer to use but I cant manage my temps with that damn thing because my tent is too small...thanks for the reply bro.
If you've already got an HPS, I think money spent on a lamp would probably be better spent on a bigger fan.
t5 lights are for vegging. you can flower with them but its pointless, its not what they were made for. for the same price as a new t5 you can get a bigger fan or spend 100 bucks on an air coolable reflector and another 80 bucks on an inline fan to cool it.
I have a 4" intake fan and a 4" exhaust fan, a 6" air cooled 400 watt HPS. I also have openings in the top of my tent for ventilation and another fan circulating the air inside...still not enough. Ambient temps in the room I grow in are too high and out of my control....and air conditioning is out of the question....no matter what I have tried the temps are still too high....that is the only reason I am considering a different, cooler running fixture.
What do you mean not what they are made for? Can't you just switch to 3000k bulbs and it be the same just with lower lumens?
you can but they dont penetrate deep at all and are generally made for vegetables that you see in salads and cloning/mothers. Ive seen people flower with them with the right bulbs and they got shit for a yield. they also had a bunch of 2' tall plants cause they couldnt get taller without wasting the bottoms of the plants due to lumens not getting all the way down there. every other light out there compares themselves to HID lights but nothing compares to real HID lighting
T-5 are great i got 11 ounces off 4 lowryder 2's tight dense bud. If your buying new look at the t-5 vho there 96 watt bulbs and an eight bulb is kicking about 56,000. Lumens. Keep your lights about an inch above the canopy top and you'll be rewarded. I run 6 flowering bulbs and 2 veg bulbs when they start to flower. Got 3 whote widows going and 2 cinderells now 2 week in flower there about 37-38 inch tall.
so why can't you lolipop your plant, or put side mounted t5? 20k lumens for a $100 source doesn't sound that bad seeing how it has low heat and slim design.
Your in the same spot I was. For me it's the ambient temps that's the issue also. Summer time kills. T5's are fine though. There are many journals you can take for real advice instead of us yahoos just throwing out our two cents. Weight is lighter and less compact, but it's still respectable and way cheaper to run. I run only tga gear, jack the ripper is my bread and butter strain. I grow in smArtpots indoors. All soil using ffof. My grows are always fine when I switch it up to t5's.
if you look at my posts i have a t5 grow report , i have 8 bulbs and i flower in a 4 x 4 tent good dense buds , you need to supercrop and lst for best results and veg maybe 5 weeks , my first run was from seed and i only vegged for 30 days and i got 5 ounce3s out of 5 plants which was expected , my bubba kush plant gave me 40 grams by itself so i know with good veg time 2 ounces per plant is attainable if not even more . my next grow is from clone and im definitly going to try and get at least half a p out of 6 plants . im happy with them, if heat is a issue got with t5 hps is good but too dan hot for a closet grow unless you have a portable ac .
yeah i have a t5 2 tuber and i'm looking at a 250 or 400hps. my tent is 5x4x2. wondering with my tent size if hps is too much heat
For anybody who says you *can't* use T5's for flowering, or that it is pointless...... Quantum t5 badboy - 420 Magazine
It won't be to much heat if u can exhaust the heat, get an inline fan to pull air through your cooltube. The problem comes if you can't exhaust that heat to somewhere else your pulling the lights heat through the tube...your rooms ambient temperature will raise increasing overall temperature.
what if you just had a clip on fan on one side of the cool tube, ducting on the other going out of the tent? wonder if that would save money.....
I am doing my first grow with T5's, an 8 bulb H.O. unit. I think it coming along well. Check my signature to see my journal.
Well the room it's in temps will slowly raise over time unless vented out. Then all the air takes less time to warm up and then you run into heat problems. Best to vent that heat somewhere else