Looking for short, bushy plants, on a budget?

If you are a new guy looking for a 'sure thing' as far as lighting for the vegetative stage, then look no further. This T8 unit performs way better than my 400 watt MH, by a long shot. http://cgi.ebay.com/T-BAY-6-LIGHT-T8...item45f0889d58 I recently switched from the MH because my plants were stretching so much, and I was only trying to cover a 3' x 3' area. The results were totally shocking, as it stopped the plants dead in their tracks, and caused them to grow outwards into super-bushy, thick stemmed, healthy plants. The side branches are growing like crazy, and are thicker than I've ever seen. I also have double-bulb T5 units, and they aren't doing as well as the T8 unit is. And, the T5's burn the plants if they touch them, so you can run them as close as you can with the T8's, which is why it works so well. They can be touching the T8's and be perfectly fine.

Also, I checked the unit with a light meter, and am getting way better light penetration that the double-bulb T5 units. Also, it outperforms CFLs because the light is coming in at all angles, rather than straight down. It's also the most efficient source of fluoro light, watt for watt, covering more area for your money. Plus, you can use it with newly rooted clones or seedlings, and not worry about hurting them. It truly is a sure thing, guaranteed to supply the proper amount of light and promote excellent compact growth. Highly recommended to new guys looking for a sure thing.

Also, that's with the 5000K bulbs(the suns natural spectrum) that come with the unit. I have 6500K bulbs coming soon, so they will perform even better than it is right now. If you absolutely have to have T5's, make sure you go with a 4 bulb unit, or bigger, or you won't get the growth that you will out of this T8 unit. I can cover a 4' x 4' area with two of these T8 lights,(at just under 400 watts) and that crushes the coverage of the T5's or a 400 watt MH. Bang for the buck, these can't be beat.

I'll have pics coming in a few days, showing the difference between the 400 watt MH and these T8's, and you're going to be shocked. The growth is so different that you won't even believe they are the same strain of plant. It's amazing.

If you can't afford to run a bunch of T5's side by side, this is the absolute best way to go, if you have the room.

you said you switched from 1-400 watt MH to 2-400 watt T8's? probably cause you doubled the light, MH put out more lumens per watt then flouros

Just FYI, the 'double T5s' you are talking about are not T5's at all. They are called PL-L bulbs and the very nature of their design makes them poor for our uses. Far more than half of the light coming off a PL-L is facing away from the plant and even with the best reflectors, can't be redirected.
A real T5 fixture with linear tubes will outperform your T8 fixture by a good amount, but cost quite a bit more as well.
Not really disagreeing with you, but don't go giving T5s a bad name as they can perform extremely well. PL-Ls as you've used do suck the donkey tho.

FYI, I am using the T5's with the 46" linear bulbs(6,500K), and the T8's are outperforming them, hands down. And to BeefSupreme, the T8 units are only 200 watts, and one of them does a better job that a 400 watt MH conversion bulb. Two of them would blow it away. And, a 400 watt MH puts out 26,000 lumens.(and soon degrades to way less than that. around 20,000, within weeks) Two of these units put out almost 40,000 lumens, and have a perfectly distributed area of coverage, PLUS, you can run them as close as you want, even touching the plants won't hurt them. THAT's why they kick ass. In order to get the kind of output the T8 units have(5,000 lumens), you have to run the MH very close to the tops, which cuts down the area of coverage to half that of the T8's, even less.

The T5's can outperform the T8's, but not watt for watt. If you chose to run the same 2-bulb units that i was running, you'd have to have them lined up side by side to equal the T8's performance, and it would take 600 watts to cover the same area as the T8's 400 watts. The reason for that, is that you can't run the T5's as close as the T8's, or you burn your plants. Therefore, the T8's put out equal max lumens per square foot as the T5's, and have better penetration(I checked it with a light meter, and the T8's won by a good sized margin)

Yes, if you could afford to run the multi-bulb T5's side by side, you could get better performance than the T8's, but you'd be running alot more wattage. I'd love to have a bunch of 8-bulb fixtures running side-by-side, but it just isn't practical for me.(plus, it would cost quite a bit to buy them)

So, I still stand by my findings.....these units are the perfect setup, for any person looking to get maximum bang for the buck. They provide awesome internode distance(less than an inch), zero stretching, zero chance of burning the plants, are very efficient, impossible to fuck up(unless you don't run them close enough)(2 inches or less),and are very cost effective.

Interesting info... I'm gonna have to dig out my old T8s and do some comparisons. I notice that those fixtures have rather nice reflectors tho, my T8s have flat reflectors so I expect that will make a notable difference.

I doubt you'll get good results with those, because I have a couple regular 2-bulb fixtures that can't compete with that 6-bulb fixture. The reflector design, bulb spacing, and the 1.12 factor ballast are what makes it work so well. That ballast makes the bulbs brighter than the standard ballast, by 12%. I've looked at some other 6-bulb fixtures, and they always seem to have something that's 'off' whether it be weird bulb spacing, the reflector design, or high prices. That fixture in the link, is a guaranteed winner, and at $100, is a bargain too. The 4-bulb fixtures just don't have enough ooomph to get that nice bushy growth that we all seek, neither do the 2-bulb lights. I plan to make a 'ceiling of light' with 3 of those fixtures touching each other, side-by-side, and then my veg room will be complete. I don't have to worry about excessive heat either, because they run pretty cool too, cooler than the rest.

Seriously guys, I wouldn't steer ya wrong. If you want a cheap, efficient unit that will absolutely give you the type of growth that you're looking for, then this the one for you. I couldn't be happier.

I'm going to post some pics soon, to show everybody the results of two weeks vegging under that light, and they already look very nice. So for those who don't believe, proof is coming.LOL

jawbrodt said:

I doubt you'll get good results with those, because I have a couple regular 2-bulb fixtures that can't compete with that 6-bulb fixture. The reflector design, bulb spacing, and the 1.12 factor ballast are what makes it work so well. That ballast makes the bulbs brighter than the standard ballast, by 12%. I've looked at some other 6-bulb fixtures, and they always seem to have something that's 'off' whether it be weird bulb spacing, the reflector design, or high prices. That fixture in the link, is a guaranteed winner, and at $100, is a bargain too. The 4-bulb fixtures just don't have enough ooomph to get that nice bushy growth that we all seek, neither do the 2-bulb lights. I plan to make a 'ceiling of light' with 3 of those fixtures touching each other, side-by-side, and then my veg room will be complete. I don't have to worry about excessive heat either, because they run pretty cool too, cooler than the rest.

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What light is it? I would like to upgrade my setup. I also prefer t5 to any other bulb. I dont care if watt for watt you can eek a couple of extra lumens. I like the fact that with the t5's your can run those things so damn tight, that it makes for some good pentration ( ) of the light. I made a pretty decent light with those 25 dollar 4 foot 54watt t5 singles. For 200 you can make a pretty nice grow light and I even added a capacitor for start up.

For some proof of the results, see the thread I just started in the General Forum. I posted pics of 11 day old plants, both from when i was using the 400 watt MH conversion, and from the plants i have right now, under the T8 unit. The difference in performance, is clear.