Darth, I called up those guys you left me the link for, and talked to Perry, an awesome guy who answered all my questions.
The T5's are great, but anyone that tells you they don't degrade rather fast is selling something. That 12/12 cycle wears your bulbs out fairly quick. Every time you turn on a flouro, it strips off a bit of the phosphate coating that gives it the K temp you're expecting. Most folks I know of that are growing with T5's were getting about a year out of them in their flowering tents.
NICE! If i can help I am happy dude! I just love the idea of people making their own, and ive said before its a hugely rewarding hobby on a lot of levels. Remember you want to grab some of their 3000k bulbs for when you want to swap over to flower. And please remember to tell me about that light! i am going to order the 2ft 2bulb one eventually for my mommy box (I veg in a home depot wardrobe box, it wont fit the 4 tube.)
KP, I did some research tonight and found some very interesting facts:
No offense but a T5 setup does not stand out above the normal grower standards. I think most folks use those types of fixtures for side lighting. HP/MH setup with blow away anything a T5 setup will do. Lumens really don't mean shit to a plant, lumens are what humans see. The plant cares about the spectrum of light. After a couple of grows you'll have to replace all those tubes because they degrade quickly over time, so really in the long run you're going to be spending more money.
If you want to get all crazy with the T5's you should check this out. https://www.rollitup.org/indoor-growing/358190-led-without-leds-my-first.html I learned alot of crazy stuff there. It's all just different means to the same end. Equally killer weed can be grown with t5's or HID. Now if they start tweaking the spectrum on HID's; watch out.
There's plenty of people that grow and flower with them.But yes, it can get expensive quick. I have had to replace a few bulbs in less than a year. The one big upside is that I could run about 1000w of T5 in a room and cool it with a box fan in a house with no AC. The way they disperse heat is nice.
It comes down to the evidence in favor of the fact that, generally, a mixed spectrum is preferred over an imbalanced one. Generally, your mixed spectrum hits all of the important spots (Albeit, not in the most optimal way.); while your full rack of a single spectrum hits several optimum areas well while neglecting some others. Your weed won't be shitty if you do it your way. It will be one thing working against your overall yield though. If you aren't running a business, then it shouldn't matter in your monetary situation.
If ya ask a bunch of people who have not tried the mixed, they will probably say use 6500K only to veg and 2700K to flower.
I came to think about it like building a hot-rod: You strip the weight (Getting a mixed spectrum.), then you start tuning up the more minor upgrades (Tuning your light rack for what should be optimum.). One way gets you a car that's worth driving, and the other gives you one worth competing with. I know it's not a perfect analogy, but I think it gets the point across.
Shit man, I paid like $2.40 something for each of my splitters.
By all means good sir tell me where to get them for 2.40 =)