WOW, What a thread!!!
It took me three days to read all 128 pages but I wanted to get through the entire thing before posting because I don't want to be that annoying asshole that asks some ignorant repetitious question that's been discussed a thousand times already. This thread is so packed with information that I will probably need to read it again just to digest it all! I should have taken notes and demarcated the pages with the bits that really caught my attention...but I didn't haha.
Thank you Pr0fesseur for all of your hard work and countless hours of research! And to all the participants in this experiment as well, thank you for helping to further our knowledge and improve upon our methods which are ever evolving!
I would like to try the T5 experiment as well. Unfortunately I live in a very 420 unfriendly place, so posting pics or dong a journal is probably not in the cards for me. I don't know if anyone would even want anecdotal accounts without pictures.
I had bought two GLH LED lights several months ago for the exact reason that you made this thread Pr0f. On their website, they discussed the limitations of HID lights and introduced me to the concept of PAR light for plant growth. I said to myself, huh, that sure makes a lot of sense...I wonder why more people aren't researching that. Low and behold, here you all are, doing it not with LED but T5. What a creative idea to use aquarium lights! T5's are wonderfully dynamic in so many ways. They come in an endless variety of spectra, and can be switched mid grow, something LED's can never do. I am fully on board here and can't wait to see how everyone's results turn out.
Here's my first question which has been touched on briefly and it's about heat. Never having owned a T5, I am completely unacquainted with how much heat they give off. It sounded like the 8 lamp units give off a fair bit, not from the lamps themselves but from the ballasts, which is why the pr0fessor was looking to keep the ballasts separate and outside the grow space. I don't really think this is feasible for me, so my options are to go with the Badboy and try to rig some kind of cool tube thing like...like...geez, I can't remember now if it was Altar, or DWC who did it (forgive me, it's been a long read). Or the other choice is to go with the air cooled Solar Wind which is significantly more expensive and can't be run without a cooling fan from what I understand. Both of these have drawbacks especially since I wanted to do a relatively equivalent watt run with the T5's to my two 600W HPS lamps. This would mean 3, 8 Lamp BadBoy's...24 bulbs total equaling 1296W. From what I understand about what you all have said, these would throw off a significant amount of heat. My grow room is roughly 10x10x9. I was hoping to use CO2 and thus keep my room sealed, but with that many lamps would that be feasible?
I guess I'm wondering what the best course of action would be to allow for the use of CO2 and a sealed room while mediating the heat from the T5 ballasts?
(His idea of trippy dub step, lol.)
Just use some S hooks and the holes on the corners of the unit instead of the stupid little V pieces they give you to use the middle holes.
