t5 uho bulbs?

I went into my local hydro store to order my t5 bulbs and he said there was some 96watt (opposed to 54watt) bulbs for my 4 bulb t5 fixture.. They give off 7200lumens per bulb as opposed to 5 and cost 2 bucks more each.. made by spectralux. Will these just replace my current bulbs and I wont need a new ballast or anything?

Thanks again!

oh and thoughts of these bulbs?

You would need a higher output ballast.

orly?

he said they would work at the store so I ended up putting them in and they have been for 3 days now.. seem to be working fine?

anybody know anything? ive had these in for about 2 weeks now and just making sure im not messing anything up.. the plants look great though!

I haven't heard of this, and a search on google for t5 uho doesn't find anything related. It simply suggests you search t5 ho instead. It certainly isn't going to work with your ballast, they might light, but I'd suspect they wouldn't last long (underpowering a bulb isn't good on it). It sounds to me like one of the aquarium style, something like http://www.marineandreef.com/Lunar_Aqualight_72_inch_Coralife_p/res53409.htm

those are rather old, and are nowhere near as good as a t5 setup... If that's not what you're talking about then sorry, no idea.

I think you are probably referring to T5 VHO (very high output) They are designed to run at just under 100 watts I believe. However since you are using an HO ballast they will not be running at their full potential. I cannot answer whether or not the bulb life expectancy would be reduced, that I dont know.
As far as I do know, I believe the VHO bulbs are simply overdriven HO bulbs with a bigger ballast. So going by this school of thought, I would say that the bulbs you got should work fine, however won't be emitting anywhere near there advertised wattage.
I'm not 100% on this though, anyone else care to chime in?