Lightwave (8 x T5 bulbs)

http://www.greenshorticulture.co.uk/Propagation-23/Propagation-T5-Lights-154/Lightwave-T5-1158.asp

Anybody in here have any experience with these?

I usually use 3x 600w HID but the electric bill is killing me. So this time round I'm looking to invest in something that won't cost as much, electricity wise.
I have very little experience with using fluorescents.
I plan on using it for seedling and veg stage only.

I plan on having 27 plants and growing to about 10 inches. (Aurora Indica)
The question is - Will this unit be enough?

I have a 4foot t5 8 bulb of a different brand and my plants LOVE it. I think you would be very happy with it. 27 plants would do fine underneath it, maxed out, but ok.

cannatari said:

I have a 4foot t5 8 bulb of a different brand and my plants LOVE it. I think you would be very happy with it. 27 plants would do fine underneath it, maxed out, but ok.

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Thanks.

How many plants have you had beneath it?
How much heat does it produce?
How much electricity does it consume?

Hope you don't mind me asking.

I use 4 ft and 3 ft t5 high output lights from sunblaster. I use my 3 footers in the veg room and they are great. T5's are some of the best lighting you can get for veg. They are not as good in the flowering stage but they do work. I use my 4 footers in one closet for flowering as I don't need them in veg right now and I don't like having them and not using them so my smaller closet gets them. Hell in a 4 X 2 closet I can get a little over 4 oz. I get about double that in the same space on my 400w hps. So for the electrical consumption they work good, but in veg they are amazing, you will love them. I wouldn't use anything else for veg anymore. My local hydro shop loves to try things out and they used to use mh lights for veg. The entire shop has been converted to t5's for their veg stuff. They are testing out some led lighting now to so they can see the results. They keep the plants nice and compact, not really any stretch (unless you use them to flower.

Airwave said:

Thanks.

How many plants have you had beneath it?
How much heat does it produce?
How much electricity does it consume?

Hope you don't mind me asking.

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I've had about 16 clones under my 4 footers with lots of room left over.

The heat is a fraction of what a mh or hps produces. I keep my lights about 2 inches above the plants. I've had plants touch the lights and they didn't burn very quickly. if they touch the lights and you move the lights resonably fast you can move the lights without damage.

Electricity depends on wattage. My 4 foters are 54W each so total wattage of 216W and to say I get half of what a 4oow will yield for half the electricity I'd say they work really really well.

Defcon9 said:

I use 4 ft and 3 ft t5 high output lights from sunblaster. I use my 3 footers in the veg room and they are great. T5's are some of the best lighting you can get for veg. They are not as good in the flowering stage but they do work. I use my 4 footers in one closet for flowering as I don't need them in veg right now and I don't like having them and not using them so my smaller closet gets them. Hell in a 4 X 2 closet I can get a little over 4 oz. I get about double that in the same space on my 400w hps. So for the electrical consumption they work good, but in veg they are amazing, you will love them. I wouldn't use anything else for veg anymore. My local hydro shop loves to try things out and they used to use mh lights for veg. The entire shop has been converted to t5's for their veg stuff. They are testing out some led lighting now to so they can see the results. They keep the plants nice and compact, not really any stretch (unless you use them to flower.

Click to expand...

Defcon9 said:

I've had about 16 clones under my 4 footers with lots of room left over.

The heat is a fraction of what a mh or hps produces. I keep my lights about 2 inches above the plants. I've had plants touch the lights and they didn't burn very quickly. if they touch the lights and you move the lights resonably fast you can move the lights without damage.

Electricity depends on wattage. My 4 foters are 54W each so total wattage of 216W and to say I get half of what a 4oow will yield for half the electricity I'd say they work really really well.

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I see. Good to know.
Also, do you mix the bulbs or just use all blue/white?

good info guys. i'm going to get some for vegging too rather than get another HID energy hog

Anybody else got any input?

from what everyone says and all that i've read, t5' are the real deal. are you going to use them for just for veg or flower too? by replacing the regular light bulbs in your house with cfl's, you will free up enough energy to use one of your HID's for flowering for a bigger yield and no rise in energy cost. just something to think about.

Immature587 said:

from what everyone says and all that i've read, t5' are the real deal. are you going to use them for just for veg or flower too? by replacing the regular light bulbs in your house with cfl's, you will free up enough energy to use one of your HID's for flowering for a bigger yield and no rise in energy cost. just something to think about.

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Just for veg.
Already replaced regular bulbs with cfl's.
Ordered the Lightwave yesterday.

Hey, I usedto have a 90gallon saltwater aquarium and in early 2009 i purchased a Nova Extreme 6 bulb 48inch T5 HO light fixure for such aquarium. A year later i had to move and thus reduced my aquarium size but i had bgger and better plans for my light. Since i couldnt grow corals under it anymore, i decided to grow dope. There was very little information on the net about T5 growing but i did it anyways. I vegged 5 plants and comparing it to pictures on the internet with regards to time grown versus plant size, my plants were definately on the higher end of a positive correlation. My 6 54W bulbs produce a total 324 Watts, and since my light fixture was produced for corals it has reflectors directing the light straight downwards for efficiency. This my first grow and i wouldnt veg with any other light. T5 is efficient, low heat, and you can change the bulb intensities very easily. I was using 3 10,000K bulbs and 3 Actinic bulbs (blue colour) just because thats what i used for my aquarium, even though everyone says to use like 4700K for veg and 2700K for flower (those are not exact numbers).

I have been flowering one plant, only cause the other 4 turned out to be male for 51 days now. I chopped a nugget the other day to smoke my friends, it was the smallest nugget and weighed about 2.5grams wet (so almost a gram dry). This one plant will probably harvest 60grams wet (main cola is THICK). Flower with the T5 and same bulbs has worked for me, but im not a professional grower and dont even smoke that often so i dont have much to compare my buds to.

Anyways, i think T5 is a great option. I have four clones growing under it with my flowering mother, but i move the clones everyday for some extra light so they know they are vegging. Im super stoked for my next grow under the T5s because with all the techniques ive learned, I going to harvest a field full in my closet. but shhh, dont tell anyone...

goodluck, sorry i wrote soo much useless information.
touchee

Anybody else's plants seem to be growing really slowly under these T5s?

So, I did my vegging under T-5s. They seemed to be growing really slow, but looking back I'm wondering if it just seemed that way because they grew so short and compact.
Either way, I've had no problems with the T-5, health wise. Put down a great root system. Plants shot up when I switched to 12/12 with HIDs. Already twice the size and it's only been 11 days.

Airwave said:

So, I did my vegging under T-5s. They seemed to be growing really slow, but looking back I'm wondering if it just seemed that way because they grew so short and compact.
Either way, I've had no problems with the T-5, health wise. Put down a great root system. Plants shot up when I switched to 12/12 with HIDs. Already twice the size and it's only been 11 days.

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this guys journal has a lot of info on T5's in it,

https://www.rollitup.org/grow-journals/327032-touchets-perpetual-garden.html

they will grow the plants super short and compact, thiz dude had it down man, can you post some pics of yours under there so I can compare? going to hydro store tomorrow, was supposed to go buy lights today but got
caught up reading that journal

wow! said:

this guys journal has a lot of info on T5's in it,

https://www.rollitup.org/grow-journals/327032-touchets-perpetual-garden.html

they will grow the plants super short and compact, thiz dude had it down man, can you post some pics of yours under there so I can compare? going to hydro store tomorrow, was supposed to go buy lights today but got
caught up reading that journal

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I'm not seeing any T-5s in that journal.

Didn't take any pics, sorry. They are under HIDs now.

Airwave said:

I'm not seeing any T-5s in that journal.

Didn't take any pics, sorry. They are under HIDs now.

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T5 Feliz, used em on both veg trays


they aint all just straight tubes

wow! said:

T5 Feliz, used em on both veg trays


they aint all just straight tubes

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Feliz are CFLs.

T-5 are all just straight tubes. So are T-8s and T-12s.