T-5's in Veg Room and HID in Flower

Hello All,

First post and I have a question about moving from one room to another. I currently have 2 1000w Lumiteks connected to 8' Hydrofarm Raptors in a 10x5x6.9 Tent. Air cooled reflectors and I have a carbon filter, duct silencer, Co2 Monitor / Controller and am using semi rigid ducting. For the Hydro setup I am using the Titan Controls Flo n Grow 12 site (Only 10 sites in mine because of light coverage, 5 under each light). I am good on light setup and CFM / Co2 / Temp. What I was wondering is, I am building a veg room. Exact same setup except for the lights. I wanted to use T-5's in the veg room. The advantage of the Flo n Grow is I can take the mesh bucket and put it anywhere in the system so I figure I could just take that part from the veg room and put them right into the flower room. Moving from T-5's to HID lights, is that going to affect the plants in a bad enough way to throw them into shock or stress them out? Any precautions I should take moving them from one type of lighting to another? I searched the forums and did not find anything that answered this question specifically but then again I am a newb here and it could be that too. Hello to you all and thanks for any advice!

-Variable

If you can it's good to do whats known as "Hardening" start by putting them under the hid for a few hours and increase daily until you get to a full 12/12 hope this helps.

That would be a little time consuming and hard on all of the plants as I will have a full set in the flower room also, so I would have to swap them all for a few hours a day for a bit. I do have one 6' reflector that I could get a 400 or 600w ballast for and run that in the room for a few hours each day. I made it so I can just swing the T-5 lights out to the side if need be. Thanks for the reply!

Anyone have any direct experience switching from T-5 to HID? I would rather do that directly. Raise the lights for a few days moving them down 6' or so a day? Think that might help with stress?

Check the lumen out put of both light sources you may find there not that different. Either way this information would be helpful when determining how far away to keep the hid lights remember the lumens decrease expotentionally in relation to distance from the source.

i do...i used a t5 in my veg tent...since i switched to a 400w mh growth has been faster and greener....

babysas said:

i do...i used a t5 in my veg tent...since i switched to a 400w mh growth has been faster and greener....

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HID metal Halide will always be a better source for veg. They promote stronger root development and have better penetration than the t5's But it's a trade off most growers concede to help with the cost factor. I use MH, but that a topic for another thread "Variable" is concerned with switching.

P.S. MH also provides more uv than t5's

i would only use my t5 again if things got super hot in the veg tent...before i bring in an ac

my t5 is like 450 watts so it will cost more to run than the 400 mh....

Thanks for the replys. I have made the decision to go with T-5's and bought / setup them so I am stuck for a bit with them. It was a Coverage vs Cost issue for me. Time will tell. The longer Veg time is not a concern with me as I expect them to veg about as long as the flower in the other room goes. I was mainly worried about burning them or the strength of one of the spectrums of output of the HPS being to much for them to transition into from T-5's. I figured when I moved them I would start by hanging the lights a little high for a day and bring them down 6" every 24, maybe 12, till they are at the optimum height. 2 days or so. I am a newb who doesn't know anyone else doing this local so I just have common sense / Books / Internet forums most of the time. Any advice is appreciated.

Variable said:

Thanks for the replys. I have made the decision to go with T-5's and bought / setup them so I am stuck for a bit with them. It was a Coverage vs Cost issue for me. Time will tell. The longer Veg time is not a concern with me as I expect them to veg about as long as the flower in the other room goes. I was mainly worried about burning them or the strength of one of the spectrums of output of the HPS being to much for them to transition into from T-5's. I figured when I moved them I would start by hanging the lights a little high for a day and bring them down 6" every 24, maybe 12, till they are at the optimum height. 2 days or so. I am a newb who doesn't know anyone else doing this local so I just have common sense / Books / Internet forums most of the time. Any advice is appreciated.

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You can't go wrong Good Luck!

Problem is that most people have no idea what a good T5 fixture is....


Low cost T5 fixtures sold in hydro stores cannot compare to a well designed fixture that utilizes a properly bent reflector and active cooling. Since you have already spent the money, stick with the T5s that you have. If you have to sacrifice a whole whopping extra five days for vegging....you'll be five days behind and will never ever be able to make it up and will be a lesser man as a result (I'm kidding if you cannot tell!)

CoralGrower. I can see where you are coming from. In my industry I could go on all day about the bad decisions that people make when it comes to buying hardware / software / SAN / Network components. In the end people have to make informed decisions based on knowledge / need and cost. As of yet you do not know the brand of T-5 fixture I have so you can't even ridicule me for that yet. I will tell you I went with the HydroFarm Commercial Grade 4ft 8 bulb. x2. I considered going with the Badass 12 or 24 fixture but I am not that advanced quite yet. Plus it seemed to be a cost jump for for me at this point. I wanted the safety of something UL listed on the ballasts and reliable for the long run so 5 years is good enough for me on the ballast warranty. What I really want to do with these T-5 is experiment with the types of light in the blue spectrum. Arcitinic I think they are called. Plus various other lights in different nms. I am still new and just learning so I imagine I am wrong on a few points but in the end if I listened to every dude on the internet about what's wrong with my setup and never pulled the trigger or kept changing it out, why.....I'd never grow anything.

Again. Advice is appreciated.

was a good choice not going with badass, they just rebrand other peoples shit.

not saying they arent good, just can get the same stuff for cheaper

In the coral growing world, especially SPS, you actually have to be very careful going the other way (T5 to MH). Many an SPS grower have bleached their corals doing this switch by not respecting the output of T5s. There's no doubting the PAR that today's T5s are putting out...especially with high end bulbs and fixtures (think ATI) like Coralgrower mentioned.

It's funny cause I'm actually having this same dilema right now....can't decide to Veg under T5s or HID. I have a Quantum 12 x 54w that I was intending to put on a light mover over an 4 x 6 ebb and flood for veg....but I also have a spare 600w hood and ballast. I'm really intrigued to see what kind of veg the T5s alone can do...but don't want to short myself. May just end up running the 600w on the light mover. Decisions...decisions.