The TRUTH behind T5 aquarium lighting.

I'm starting this thread to give people some direction when they need answers to questions such as:

1. What type of T5 lighting is best for vegging?

2. What type of T5 lighting is best for flowering?

3. What T5 bulbs to avoid?

4. Do T5 bulbs really have as much potential as HID lighting has?

These are all questions that have been floating around the web for quite some time. There is also a thread that has many followers on this website asking "which T5 aquarium bulbs should I buy." I would like to start by saying that T5 aquarium bulbs are NOT CHEAP! One needs to be careful in selecting the right bulbs for the job. There is a lot of misinformation floating around about T5 bulbs and that THEY ARE PRODUCING BETTER RESULTS THAN HPS lighting. This is simply not true. If it was true, this would have been known for a long time by now. The problem with T5 bulbs, is that they do not provide the intensity that plants need to really flourish. They do, however, produce higher intensity key wavelengths that plants need for photosynthesis. Therefore, as supplement lighting they will not only produce better quality results, they will keep your plants healthier.

The best mixture I've found for vegging with T5 ONLY lighting is a combination of four 6500K bulbs, four "plant grow" pink colored bulbs(such as floramax, plantgrow, florasun, including others.) and 2 blue colored bulbs such as Ati blue plus or KZ fiji purple. No other T5 bulbs are necessary. The overall color mixture of light emitted is a pinkish/purplish/white glow. Any more red, and the plants stretch, any more blue and the plants get stunted. There is already PLENTY of blue that is emitted in the 6500K daylight bulbs and that is why very little "blue specific" bulbs are needed. As far as flowering goes, just get rid of the extra blue bulbs and add 1 more each of the white and pink bulbs.

If you really want to have EXCELLENT results, just add a 250 MH light or HPS light(veg or flower) inbetween your T5 lights. This will give your plants the intensity(food) they need to flourish.

Feel free to add any other info from your experience with aquarium T5 lighting. I have been testing these bulbs out for the last few years and this is what I have come up with.

I'm curious as to what you think about this? https://www.rollitup.org/cfl-fluorescent-lighting/497875-actinic-linear-flourescents.html <--- link

I've tried using Actinics and they really haven't done a damn thing for growth. Also it's a well known fact that in the aquarium industry they are only used for looks. I know plants utilize part of the lower 400nm spectrum, but not to the point that adding excess amounts will change anything, in fact, I have found excessive blue light to be more inhibiting than productive. The most important part of the spectrum is the RED side. I have done many side by side comparisons to come to this conclusion. For every 6 Red bulbs I had only 1 blue bulb. If you are using the 6500K bulbs then adding blue is almost pointless. Adding red bulbs however will make growth accelerate. Only a little blue is needed to prevent excessive stretch. I believe that pretty much any cfl bulb on the market today will have enough blue in it to suffice. The RED phosphors are the ones that are hard to come by. The pink T5 bulbs are just 6500k bulbs with RED phosphors in them. The added 6500K bulbs will provide the energy the plants need in the yellow/orange spectrum much like a HPS does. Adding one blue bulb will help with stretching. Adding mostly pink bulbs is what is needed here.

I have a question if you're still around okthanks2 or anyone here that can help. I just got 8-GE Starcoat 6500k T5s for an 8 tube fixture and was wondering
if I could add the 3000K "red" GE Starcoats and how many? Maybe use 4-6500K + 2-3000K GE Starcoats and 2 ATI Blue Plus? The 6500K GE Starcoat does
have red and yellow in it's spectrum (triphosphor coating).

It would be interesting to do a side-by-side comparison for veg stage. I like going MH/HPS for flower (1 600 watt each in a vertical bare bulb donut).

So wrong ok. You only used a 2 ft light. 2 inches at each end don't put out light. so yoU were only getting 20 inches of light. 2ft t5's put out 60% less light than a 4ft. With a 4ft I produced produced bigger denser and frostier and definitely more gpw. I thought you were banned from this site for bashing on everyone.

For flowering i used 2 fijis, 2 redsuns and 4 flora suns with awesome results. Next Im trying 4 redsuns and 4 flora suns.

could i ask what kind of lighting/lights i could use best to supplement a 600w hps?
thanks

the 2 best bulbs ive had the most growth with is 10000k aquasuns(6500k would be a good sub for these) and 5000k florasun, these are the best bulbs overall and probably the only bulb needed.

BeanZyBoo said:

could i ask what kind of lighting/lights i could use best to supplement a 600w hps? thanks

Click to expand...

For me I use a 600 watt MH along w/a 600 watt hps for flowering @ 50 watts/sqft. So that's 24 sq ft. If you use T5's try for 2-400 watts of 6,500K and/or T5s in the blue spectrum. You'd want bulbs in the lower nm range (400-700 nm is what plants like overall). Others here can suggest what bulbs and brands to get like ATI, GE, Plantmax, ,UV Lighting, D-D Giesemann and Zoo Med among others.

BeanZyBoo said:

could i ask what kind of lighting/lights i could use best to supplement a 600w hps?
thanks

Click to expand...

Hps is generally great for flower but often a couple of 65k fluro are used as side lights for adding a little blue.

Stonefree69 said:

For me I use a 600 watt MH along w/a 600 watt hps for flowering @ 50 watts/sqft. So that's 24 sq ft. If you use T5's try for 2-400 watts of 6,500K and/or T5s in the blue spectrum. You'd want bulbs in the lower nm range (400-700 nm is what plants like overall). Others here can suggest what bulbs and brands to get like ATI, GE, Plantmax, ,UV Lighting, D-D Giesemann and Zoo Med among others.

Click to expand...

When using fluros in flower a mix of blue and red is usually good. Cool White at 4100k or 3100k give more red used for flower. Be careful buying fluro tubes that are not HO. Cheap brands of cool whites sometimes fall short in lumin output. A 4100k cool white should be at or very near 3000 lumin per tube. If it has less your grow will suffer. You can get soft white tubes but they are usuall short on lumin output.
5000k lamps are considered to be full spectrum containing fairly equal amounts of both red and blue.


Brief Description Detailed Description Specifications
The SolarMax 600w flowering High Pressure Sodium lamp has been designed to give the grower the stronger healthier blooms by supplying light with a deeper red spectrum than other lamps. This lamp puts out light between the 610-720 nm range with a Kelvin rating of 2100* K and producing 95,000 lumens. Ratings like these will promote more vigorous flowering and larger harvests.

george xxx said:

The SolarMax 600w flowering High Pressure Sodium lamp has been designed to give the grower the stronger healthier blooms by supplying light with a deeper red spectrum than other lamps. This lamp puts out light between the 610-720 nm range with a Kelvin rating of 2100* K and producing 95,000 lumens. Ratings like these will promote more vigorous flowering and larger harvests.

Click to expand...

I think the Solarmax 600 watt bulb requires a 600w S106 ballast. I like to use Phantom & Lumatek ballasts. Plantmax bulbs are supposed to have pretty high output, comparable to Gavita (which I think also needs a prioritized ballast & reflector but was rated at top of heap). I heard a Gavita rep on Youtube saying cooling reduces lumen/PAR output but other bulb makers say it would have to cool the arc tube which is hardly possible even at sub zero temps (would only delay startup).

I also make sure the bulbs are compatible w/digital ballasts. I'm wondering about GE Lucalux PSL/XO, 90,000 lumens (maybe good PAR). To throw in a few others: Agromax, Philips Master SON, Sunpulse, Digilux and Digital Plus.


Oh and to answer questions 1-4 by okthanks2:

1. I like to use a good triphosphor 6500k like GE Starcoat. And I'm learning from you guys on where to go from here. I heard seedlings sprout better with straight 6500K and no red. Clones and moms another story I guess, that's where the reds, pinks, etc. could come in. Also for early veg looking at induction fluorescents too. That could also delay me having to switch to a good MH for veg.

2. For flowering I like to use hps, mh and some reptile bulbs for extra UV.

3. I like to avoid cheap T5 bulbs, "you get what you pay for". But some people say they notice little difference with using a cheap 6500k bulb. The only other type of fluoro I look at are PL-Ls.

4. T5s definitely have potential in veg. Also to supplement hps in flower. I suppose they could replace hps in smaller grows.

many of these light have substantial energy in the ultra violate and infra red range (aquaticlife 650 nm has 8.11% UV and 3.8% IR) they claim that this light should be used to complement 6000K bulbs but I wonder if the UV and IR levels would be harmful to plants. HPS lamps seem to have a lot of IR in their spectrum as well but these bulbs have a lot of orange and red which seems beneficial to plants I am a newbie my state just legalized MMJ this year so any advice would be greatly appreciate. I studied electrical engineering so do worry about getting too technical.I have a small closet to grow in so don't want the heat from HPS

http://www.iquaticsonline.co.uk/bulbs.html
I run a marine tank and so its handy I have lighting around I can use to grow with.. I get my t5's and halides from this place they do good deals

can't handle the truth