MH or T5???

[hanayama]

so heres what i got......

im a few days away from my first harvest.
after that i have to stop growing because i am moving.
however, once i move im going to immediately start growing again.

i vegged with a dick ton of CFL's and flowered with a 400 watt HPS.
i just recently read somewhere that those CFL's loose their luminosity after a month or two...so that sucks. those are out

so in my new set up im planning on having 2 rooms, 1 veg 1 flower. each maybe 3x3 or 4x4 at best
i already have the HPS. i want to get a new veg grow light, but i want to order it to where i live now, so...

would i be better off with a 250 watt MH or a 4 Ft. 2 or 4 bulb T5?

i think im leaning towards the T5 because it runs so much cooler.
but then again the MH will have better light penetration.
so i dont know....im kinda torn.
i dont mind spending some money on, so thats not an issue.
i just want to get whats going to be best.

any input or thoughts???
thanks!

[anbesol]

High Tech Garden Supply (http://www.HTGsupply.com)


go with the T5. I have 2 of them and when blooming starts just switch the veg bulbs with the bloom bulbs. go to that website above. they have what you need

[enquadrider16]

i would personally go with the hid. i personally like the mh more and it outputs about 3000 more lumens according to htg.

[hanayama]

High Tech Garden Supply (http://www.HTGsupply.com)


go with the T5. I have 2 of them and when blooming starts just switch the veg bulbs with the bloom bulbs. go to that website above. they have what you need


i would personally go with the hid. i personally like the mh more and it outputs about 3000 more lumens according to htg.

i already have a HPS for flowering. im basically looking for the best veg light that i can get. best for the plant and best for my money (does this sound greedy??? lol... so be it....this is tweeds were talking about people!!!!!:rastasmoke::stoned::rasta::rastasmoke: :stoned::rasta:)
so i dont know
i feel the lack of penetration of the T5's could be remedied by a couple CFL's on the side of the pots.(plus i have a 4 ft. fluorescent fixture just dying to get in on the grow scene)
plus they run less watts, which would be good for the 'ol 'lectric bill.

But the MH's are much stronger. and a little cheaper up front
Hmmmmmmmmmmmm....

Or maybe i'll just scratch all that. fuck the environment and
use my 400 watt as my veg(switchable ballast)
and buy a 600 watt HPS for flowering
jesus...idk, idk, idk!!!!

somebody make up my mind for me please...lol
thanks

[FlyGuyOU]

actually im leaning towards the t5, you can keep the lights real close and if you bring in yo 4 footer you can stack them at different heights for different sized vegging. you can take out one of the bulbs temp for freshly cloned plants, and if in the event of a 5-0 shutdown the t5 doesnt look as conspicious as mh

idk

[phatsesh101]

heres a pic of my veg /clone area. the t5s are ok here is 100w of T5 HO over clones works great, also the light has a 150 hps which i dont use much unless i want to stretch something. and the mh over the mother is 100w also .t5s side by side the mh of the same power at closest possible point for both lamps the mh doubles vert growth and gives me node spacing of not more than 1/4 in which is great for denser buds but my mh likes to kill my clones. so in my experiments watt for watt the mh gives better vegg growth

[hanayama]

actually im leaning towards the t5, you can keep the lights real close and if you bring in yo 4 footer you can stack them at different heights for different sized vegging. you can take out one of the bulbs temp for freshly cloned plants, and if in the event of a 5-0 shutdown the t5 doesnt look as conspicious as mh

idk


heres a pic of my veg /clone area. the t5s are ok here is 100w of T5 HO over clones works great, also the light has a 150 hps which i dont use much unless i want to stretch something. and the mh over the mother is 100w also .t5s side by side the mh of the same power at closest possible point for both lamps the mh doubles vert growth and gives me node spacing of not more than 1/4 in which is great for denser buds but my mh likes to kill my clones. so in my experiments watt for watt the mh gives better vegg growth


both good points.
opinions noted.
thanks

anyone else got:twocents: on it?

[daihashi]

How much is a T5 setup vs a 250watt HID w/inline fan and cool tube?

Going by HTGsupply prices they're the following:

4 bulb HTGsupply T5 fixture w/bulbs: $129 + shipping


250watt MH w/ ballast: $118
Cool Tube: $85
4" 170cfm inline fan: $99
flexible ducting: $10

alternative air cooled hood option
--------------------------------
4" Pyrex Bake-a-round tube: $13 on ebay

So you're looking at $129 for a t5 light and $240 on the low end for a 250 watt MH air cooled system. $312 on the high end.

With that said I would go with the 250watt MH with home made cool tube. Sure you spend about $100 more but you gain a completely enclosed air cooled light system that you can bring closer to the canopy, get's better penetration to the lower canopy and has a slightly higher lumen output.

With that said a 400 watt Light and ballast at HTG is only $2 more.. so you could really run that same setup, gain a crap load more lumens than you would over the T5 and still be air coolable.

I would go HID, that's just me though. Actually I would get an HPS with MH conversion bulb. That way if you wanted/needed to you could have two flowering rooms at the same time. Not just that but you can modify an HPS ballast to work with regular MH bulbs I believe (I think you basically just disconnect the HPS ignitor)

Hope you figure out what's best for you :thumbsup:

[stelow54]

400 Watt Metal Halide for sure and with young plants run em in a cooled hood works great.

[hanayama]

yea.....im leaning towards straight HID.
dont you need more lumens in your flower room than in your veg room tho? i think i read somewhere about that.( i.e. 20,000 lumens for veg. and 50,000 for flower)
maybe it has to do with simulating nature more...higher sun intensity in summer and early fall when a plant would start flowering...

i have a 400 watt HPS with a switchable ballast already. so i could make that a MH and could get a 600 watt HPS for flower.

but then im back to the energy usage.
im definatley not trying to have a crazy electric bill...

hmmm...must smoke....more on this later im sure

[turksteelman]

Just finished a T5 grow from veg to harvest. The T5's (4ft, 8 bulb) definitely run cooler than the HPS setups. The only problem is that they just can't penetrate the canopy of a good batch of indicas. I had to constantly move fan leaves around so the buds could be exposed. I even had to turn the plants each day. I also added 2 additional single T5 4ft fixtures on the sides. Overall, I yielded 7.5 oz for 5 plants that did 1 month veg, 2 months flower. Not bad but nothing to compare it to.

[daihashi]

yea.....im leaning towards straight HID.
dont you need more lumens in your flower room than in your veg room tho? i think i read somewhere about that.( i.e. 20,000 lumens for veg. and 50,000 for flower)
maybe it has to do with simulating nature more...higher sun intensity in summer and early fall when a plant would start flowering...

i have a 400 watt HPS with a switchable ballast already. so i could make that a MH and could get a 600 watt HPS for flower.

but then im back to the energy usage.
im definatley not trying to have a crazy electric bill...

hmmm...must smoke....more on this later im sure

If you use two 400 watts you'll only be using 800 watts at any given time and use a total of 12Kwh a day if you use the 18/6 and 12/12 schedules. Thats 360Kwh a month. Not bad I say :thumbsup:

Not too shabby if you ask me

edit: Also it's worth noting that your flower room will be more intense than your veg room even if your wattages are the same in both rooms. Remember HPS puts out more lumens than MH per watt. :thumbsup:

[hanayama]

thanks for the testimonial turk!



If you use two 400 watts you'll only be using 800 watts at any given time and use a total of 12Kwh a day if you use the 18/6 and 12/12 schedules. Thats 360Kwh a month. Not bad I say :thumbsup:

Not too shabby if you ask me

edit: Also it's worth noting that your flower room will be more intense than your veg room even if your wattages are the same in both rooms. Remember HPS puts out more lumens than MH per watt. :thumbsup:

good point daihashi. i forgot about the lumen difference btwn. the HPS's and the MH's.
im going to stew over all this for a while and see what comes of it all.

i wont be growing again for a couple months so there's no rush

thank you to everyone who chimed in.