T8 light fixture questions! Plz help!!! Church, Big bang, white skunk, purple wreck

my 2 MH died 2 nights ago. I was using them for veg. I had to use 2 of them to grow 7 plants cause the hoods are horrible... Idk what happened or why they shit out on me. Can I use a 6lamp 4' T8 fixture positioned 1" away from the canopy To veg these to 20" tall? The bulbs are all 6500K. The dimensions of the light are 2'X4'

help soon would be great so if necessary I can get some CFLs or something

streets said:

my 2 MH died 2 nights ago. I was using them for veg. I had to use 2 of them to grow 7 plants cause the hoods are horrible... Idk what happened or why they shit out on me. Can I use a 6lamp 4' T8 fixture positioned 1" away from the canopy To veg these to 20" tall? The bulbs are all 6500K. The dimensions of the light are 2'X4'

help soon would be great so if necessary I can get some CFLs or something

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i would get a t5 instead. t8 might work, but probably not very good. my friend tried using a t8 and his plants stayed alive, but didnt look too hot. you happen to have any local hydro stores in your town? they always have lights. if you have a hps you can even use that to veg and it's fine. they will probably stretch slightly more though than the mh because of the spectrum.

also did you try turning off your mh for a few minutes, then turn on? repeat the process a few times. i turn my mh off at least once a week for about 15 minutes like the manufacturers say to for any MH. sometimes when i turn it back on tho, it wont light back up. i think like the arc or something doesnt strike right. so i just turn it off for a few minutes then retry. im not sure if this is the issue but thought i would let you know in case your lights are playing tricks on you like mine does to me.

i was using t12s and they were working great, and im pretty sure t8s are better, you can have them touching the plants if you want they make 0 heat

pocw94 said:

i was using t12s and they were working great, and im pretty sure t8s are better, you can have them touching the plants if you want they make 0 heat

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yes t8s are better than t12s. but t5 is even better than t8. t12 < t8 < t5

I have used t12's and t8's for vegging to 20"-24" with no problems. I'm sure t5's would be better, but there's the cost factor.

how many plants do you veg under the 6 lamp T8 bulbs?

thanks everyone for responding,i cannot seem to find any threads on growing with T8 fixtures... Only T5... From what I read T5 and T8 are practically the same lumen output per watt.. And they run so much cooler.

any specifics or grow journals involving T8's it would be awesome to push them my way. I'm sure alot of people will find this useful,unless I'm growing in an outdated style...

anyone?? Bump for some answers!! +rep