T5 or LED, which is best?

Discussion in 'Growing Marijuana Indoors' started by GoldGrower, Dec 8, 2014.

  1. #1 GoldGrower, Dec 8, 2014
    Last edited by a moderator: Dec 8, 2014
    I have two lights and only one place to use them at the moment. I'm not sure. what to use. 
     
    The T5 is 4ft long with 8x 54w tubes. I don't know the age of the tubes but they look ok. It's rated at 432 watts so at a guess I'd say it probably actually uses about 400. All the tubes are 6400k.
     
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    The LED is a 144x 3w reflector. It's rated at 432 (major coincidence haha) but I believe it uses about 270 watts.
     
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    I already have both so the value doesn't come in to it. The amount of electricity costs to run isn't an issue. The T5 will be used for an auto seed making project in a month or so, but for now I have a tent of 4'x3' that has some tangerine dream clones and I'm planning to veg for a few weeks and then flower using either one of these lights. 
     
    Which would give the most growth do you think?
     
  2. I just bought the T5 for 50 bucks, I couldn't walk away without it at that price
     
  3. #3 tenshuu, Dec 8, 2014
    Last edited by a moderator: Dec 8, 2014
    Don't blame you... I think the led panel might do better personally, at least with canopy penetration, but that t5 fixture is definitely more power.... What about running the led on the back wall and t5 above?

    For flowering that led will be more worthwhile unless you pick up some 2700k bulbs
     
  4. I also have a 250w HPS / MH, that uses 270 watts too. I feel it and the LED are about equal but as with all HPS you do get a bit of stretching. I have noticed tighter nodes with the LED. I have never used the T5 so have no idea how much heat it's going to put out. I guess it's going to be a lot more than the HPS and LED as it uses a lot more power
     
  5. Having them both is going to use too much electricity and create too much heat for my ventilation system to handle
     
  6. I'm running an 8 tube 4ft T5 for vegging my babies and it's doing a very good job. I'd use the t5 for vegging then switch them to the led for flower
     
  7. I'm fairly certain t5s keep cool enough that your plants can be touching the light with no problems.
     
  8. 6500K bubs tend to keep inner-nodes very short
     
    Buy some ZooMed Fluro Suns: mix ~ 1:2 for veg, then 2: 1 for flower
     
    That led will be fine for short height plants, not intense enough for > 3ft
     
  9.  
    I don't mean the surface of the  bulb getting hot but the unit as a whole heating the tent,  this includes all 8 ballasts and the bulbs themselves, even though the surface doesn't get to a very high temperature. There is a hell of a lot of surface there to contribute. 
     
    I could be wrong but I would have thought that a 432w florescent unit would produce more heat than a 250w HPS
     
  10.  
    I'm not buying anything else. The plants were initially going to just have that LED. But now as chance would have it I picked up the T5 cheap so I might use that instead
     
  11. True enough, 8 bulbs is quite a lot.
     
  12. You won't get many buds flowering under 6500K
     
    The ZooMeds are critical for flowering,
     
    or, veg under the t5 and flower under the led
     
  13. I have a t5 ho 2 foot 4 light fixture. I'm probably only going to use that for clones. Month and half I can grow again :D
     
  14.  
    Despite popular belief the whole Kelvin temperature flower/veg thing really isn't that important when it comes to fluorescent. But either way I am not buying anything. I was originally just going to use the LED. If the T5 was better I would use that instead as it's just going to be sitting there doing nothing. I don't need to worry about getting great yields, I have a 600w HPS for that. I was only asking for opinions on the two lights because I have both available right now 
     
  15. My 4' 8 bulb t5 puts off very little heat. 2-3" off my seedlings and in looking at a thermostat for my exhaust fan so my 4x4 veg tent will will remain warm enough this winter.
     
  16.  
    I like the sound of that. My T5 light will eventually be used in a 4x4 for a breeding project. Ill be using a lot of very small plants so need to keep stretching to a minimum. That's why I wanted the T5. Originally I was going to use the  HPS but I fear the plants will stretch like crazy, the middle plants will get a lot more light that the border, and the heat it gives off will cause me to use a bigger exhaust fan and my grow op is noisy enough as it is. They will be flowered with this light too but I'm not looking at big yields as it's only seeds. If I get 100 seeds per plant I would be more than happy 
     
  17. the t5 works good but get it close to the canopy im using two of the mars 192x3 in a 5x5 now and like you said the nodes are much tighter..
     
  18. That's a decent Mars! I'd be doing the Mars. Although I have been asking about supplemental UVB with the Mars as it lacks...

    That's a tricky issue though.. I have a thread in the beginners section about it :)


    Come join the revolution!! Australia needs its medicinal cannabis!

    IG: 420.Australia
     
  19. LED. Without a shadow of a doubt. Better taste and smell amongst other things. IMHO.
     

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