Sun Blaze or New Wave T5 Fixtures?

i have a quantum t5 badboy n in first use now . there are good badboy journals on 420 magazine .com also sunleaves 4 has a bulb that puts out 11,000 lumens per and come in grow and bloom.32$ a bulb... check out thier lamps they are good from what i hear. also solar flare are the new big t5 in town i hope that the sun leaves bulbs are interchangable with these lamps

 

Hi again closetgrower.

I gotta be honest with you here: I've never bought a t5ho system before... I'm looking into buying something soon myself though... CFL just ain't cutting it anymore. Anyway here's my feelings on the subject:

With a t5ho system, I'd imagine if I had to guess, the 3 most important things would be in the folloring order: bulbs, reflector design, and ballast.

For contrast purposes, I'd say (just my guess) that with a HID light, your priorities shift and would be 1) bulb 2) ballast and 3) reflector

From what I understand, here's why:

For either system, bulb selection should always be the first consideration. Of course right? We need to match the spectral output to the photosynthetic response curve the best we can no matter what we use...

HID (HPS, MH etc) lights suffer a lumen loss, just like CFL but a little different: HID bulbs will slowly draw somewhat more than their rated power over time, and at the same time lose quite a bit of their output. I think the number is somewhere between 25% and 30% and Maybe something like a 20% increase in power drawn (1200W from a 1000W bulb etc). I'm just pulling these figures outta my a$$ cuz I can't remember my source, but it's kinda like that... That's why HID growers rave so much about their fancy name brand digital ballasts: Those ballasts claim to extend bulb life somewhat and curb lumen loss a bit too. Don't ask me to get into that- I believe it has to do with reducing wear on the electrodes at startup but that's totally different... For this reason I'd say ballast would be number 2 and reflector would be #3

T5HO on the other hand, to my knowledge, do not suffer from the problems described above. If you look at the lumen-maintenance/time curve-graph that comes with a decent t5ho bulb, and compare it against the lamp-mortality-rate/time graph from the same literature; you'll see that the bulbs only lose about 10-15% of their output over their long life and typically fail for some other reason before they get that far. In other words: with a T5HO bulb, if it lights up, you can assume it's producing at least 85% of the advertised output... For that reason, there doesn't appear to be a huge market for the ballasts like with HID. For that reason, I'd say it's way more important to get a unit with the best reflector you can... the bulbs are the easy part- buy the ones you like best seperately because the ones you get with a unit for free probably suck, or aren't "premium" quality like you want but that's a guess too...

So what am I really saying? If bulbs matter the most in a t5ho system, and the ballast doesn't really matter as much as long as the thing lights, then can't you pretty much argue they're kinda all the same? You're free to have your own opinion, but I kinda feel that they are pretty much all the same. Different spins on the same thing. I bet they've pretty much all got the same de-badged ballasts inside. They've probably all got the same reflectors, either that or there's only a couple manufacturers with a couple of the same designs to go around. Also from what I saw on google products when I searched to take a look, it looks like the sun blaze and the new wave are both made by sunlight systems- another reason why I'd argue that any major differences between the two units are cosmetic and probably won't affect function that much. One is probably heavier slightly, probably has a tougher feeling shell, maybe a better switch, different color, maybe a better glass shield over the bulbs. I'm willing to wager they all have the same bulbs, same ballasts, and the same or really close to the same reflector units.

Unless one system deither 1) has features the other doesn't which present a growing advantage, or 2) has better physical dimmensions (IE- the other one won't fit) then I'd say buy the cheapest (UL rated of course) shit you can find...

Check these out: High Tech Garden Supply
I'm a big fan of HTG, but these are nice and CHEAP! The only serious difference I can tell? They say their reflector is German aluminum. HTG says "Top Quality Highly Reflective 95%+ polished Aluminum Reflector." They both say 95%, but only sunlight supplies site says the reflector is German. Does it it matter? Who knows

Like I said, I'd only get more expensive stuff if I was convinced it would grow better... Most of what you are interested in theoretically relies mostly on the bulbs you buy (from what I can tell wtih t5ho) so buy the cheapest fixture you can.

Like I said about the extra features- hidhut has t5ho fixtures with 4 or maybe 6 inch vent holes in them so you can run cooltubes through the lights. To my knowledge they are the only ppl to do that. I don't think it's necessary. I think they are way overpriced as a supplier and seem like a bunch of hype to me, but its up to you to decide where to spend your money since that's a matter of preference... I shop at HTG because they're cheap like me . However, they also sell some "in-house" brands you'll probably never see anywhere else. I don't have a problem with that, but some folks do. HTG just opened 2 new brick-and-mortar stores on the east coast so I doubt they make their money on "fast buck, cheap sh*t merchandise" type transactions.

I myself intend to buy HTG's bargain set of 2 foot t5ho lights: High Tech Garden Supply and build something to use them in for VEG. CHEERS!

 

well thats why i went with the badboy, bukbs ballast reflectors! for a 8 lamp 258$ rivals any product out of its class. and for the record i have used and like hid hut they are good to me n htg has its perks too. so as many places you can get keep em in a rolidex . thelashshop.com has many products also for good prices. some are the cheepest around . 50 % off tents.ect...

 

{change of plans- more to come later}

Anyway, I'm so glad I could help. I usually sound pretty preachy and rant-tastic on the GC, but truly I only wish to spread good information and save ppl money. I look at most of the growing hype I see advertised all over the place commercially and I feel like I'm watching an infomercial at 2am lol!

Anyway, I meant to apologise to you as a matter of good form- when we argued last year I -repped you and I can't undo it I used to be a member elsewhere where you could "take back" your neg-rep, but that's not the case here on GC... I tried to just give u another +rep, but it says I need to spread some around first. Since then I've been giving out +reps like candy to try to do right by you and eventually pass one your way... Sorry about that man- it was a total noob move on my part.... We both kinda had a bad day all over each-other's case that time

Anyway- I'm glad I can add you to the list of folks who won't be getting ripped off anywhere this year! Keep in touch

 

eco growlights has a 4ft 8lamp for 125$

 

Hey so i know it sounds like you might have found some other options but i thought you still might like an answer to the OP since it might apply to your shopping choices. A while back i looked into setting up a shelved Fluoro system for clones/mothers. I wanted to use HO fluoros to maximize space. I looked into sunsystems, new wave, sunleaves, some chinese knockoffs(lol), and also regular shop lights. Ultimately here is what i learned about all of them. Regular shop lights are just that regular lights. Low wattage/ average lumen. fine for clones but imo not for growing weed. Chinese knockoffs are usually about this quality(which is why many growers only see average results not the HO quality). The HO models though work kinda like digital ballasts in how there priced. Some brands are more simple while others have high tech features like thermostat fans or dimmers. In your case thats what your looking at. The new waves have a better reflector. Its suppose to resist tarnish and hold its polish better from handling. It also has quick starting lights. Where tubes kinda flicker for a while at startup(like all CFLs) they reach maximum brightness much quicker(not important imo when lights run for 12+ hours). also things like daisy chain, hanging, "noise proofing", etc. The last major thing is WARRANTY. All of these companies have replacement warranties on there products. Thats the real reason they cost more than the cheapos. When you buy one of these you get a working ballast for 3-5 years usually. If youre buying these ballasts and the retailers isnt offering it with a warranty attached... i wouldnt even consider buying it. I learned all this while shopping from my hydro store guy. He said they see more returns on the sun systems than anything. I like sunleaves the most out of them but there products are kinda hard to find on the net. usually gotta find them in a shop. hope this helps a little but kinda sounds like you already expected it was a lot of smoke.

 

straight JACKIN! 101 .gangstrs aint stupid. we lockin it down you know. do what dey say a n*gg@ do! n do like jiggaboo say do ! jiggaboojones.com

your a good man jiggaboo thanks again p.s. ive seen some of your videos online, must say that trick with the rental car is pretty niftyand the buck 50hahaha too funny

 

Thks again closetgrower- and here's what I've got to say about LED from what I've experienced so far...

I don't think the technology is quite there yet. It is pretty damn close though... I think the growth is faster than I saw with CFL, although when I did my CFL grows about a year ago I was probably not providing enough light for too many plants at once... Vegetative growth was AMAZING with led! Again- not ultra fast, but the best traits you could hope for- tightest internode spacing I've EVER pulled off... Plants healthy as hell right through. Also now that I'm in flower, I'm seeing buds about 30% tighter so far, but like 250% frostier! I've heard this said about LED alot of times but not sure why... Anyway I'll let you know how it comes out in the end... check out my light thread when you have time- I'm taking a break now but I'm getting ready and winding up toward giving each major light it's own place in the discussion... Transformer action and how a ballast works is a BITCH to put into words...

CHEERS!