Was thinking 2 Bluewave and 2 Reefwave for my veg/clone t5 panel? Would this combo be worth it? or maybe a different combo of light? Recently bought a 4ft 4 bulb T5 and looking to upgrade
2 of each in an 8 bulb? sure! But if only 4 total, you'll want to have no more than half of your bulbs Actinics (pure blue, reef/blue wave are both actinic) So one of each and 2 other full spectrum lights like a 6500k/FloraSun. Actinics do produce PAR useful light, but your plants need a balance of both blue and red with touches of color from inbetween to use as catalysts. If you have half 6500k's or FloraSuns, they will give enough of the other colors to balance out the blue of the actinics. If you have ALL blue you may get growth, but they will be very slow growing and may stall all-together or suffer from internal structural cell development issues, they may get all fucked up in other words
Chlorophyll also needs to function properly with a tiny bit of cyan/green/yellow present which will help the photoreceptors absorb and utilize the proper blue/red
extra knowledge*
Actinics are not blacklights (blacklights are filtered using "woods glass" I think its calld, filtered down to those wavelengths that cause fluorescence in neon colors) Actinics actually produce those wavelengths in the violet range that cause fluorescence, but dont appear as dark since they're a wider band of light including lighter indigo and blue. So dont use blacklights, or any other painted/colored party lights cuz they're just filtered and block most of the output.
Ive said it before, PARTY LIGHTS DONT GROW, AND GROW LIGHTS DONT PARTY (well, mine do!)
*** I know you didnt ask about blacklights lol, I ramble when im sleepy!
