Having reached the end of my first PAR T5 grow, I now have a review of the setup. Copied from my journal:
The use of PAR T5 lighting was a pleasing and effective method to maximize the return on investment in this small space. During the planning stages, the tent was intended to be a seedling/clone space; a 2 foot 4 bulb T5 fixture with 6,500k bulbs was purchased under this assumption. When the plan changed, a decision had to be made: get a small HPS, switch to CFLs, purchase 3,000k T5 bulbs, or a combination plan. Out of the actinic, I stumbled on the pr0fesseur’s thread. He offered a way to maximize ROI using the T5 fixture through the implementation of aquarium bulbs. A combination of 50/50 red/blue was recommended for a 4 bulb fixture. 2x Fiji Purple, 1x UVL Red Sun, 1x UVL 454 were purchased from ReefGeek and installed. This combination was very successful. It produced healthy, green growth with compact internodes while using only 96w of electricity with little extraneous heat. During flowering, the buds developed quickly and started packing on the trichs. At the time of purchase, the Fiji Purple was believed to be 50/50 red/blue; however, I believe that it is dominant in the blue spectrum and until this can be confirmed or denied from multiple sources, I believe that it should not be the “base” bulb. Please note that this bulb is unique in its output and similar results with different “purple” bulbs have yet to be shown. If a four bulb fixture is used, this could be better employed as a filler bulb in a red dominant combination: RedSun, Coral Wave, Fiji, RedSun; Fiji, RedSun, Fiji, RedSun; or RedSun, 454, Fiji, RedSun - for example. Given the space, heat, internodal length, and resin production: 5/5 rating (with room for improvement).
Thank you, pr0fesseur and PAR T5 community. I am grateful to be able to participate and I hope that my experience has contributed to this thread.
