T5 HO strip cab -- plan for 1st time

[bstheory]

Hi all. I don't have this equip yet, but have priced it all to build when I have some down time this December. Comments and suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

This is will be placed in my relatively small bedroom.

custom cab:
2' x 2' (4'6" tall)
All vertical walls made from one piece of Flexiwood (Econokore to be precise) for nice appearance and rounded corners. One side "cut" for doorway.
Reflective space blanket (cheap cheap mylar) covering entire interior.
Foam weather stripping used around door to seal air and light.
Exhaust fan and carbon filter unit (- aeroscrog's Store). Rated at 60 CFM with filter attached, will circulate entire cab in <1 minute.
Air intake... haven't decided exactly how I'll do this to have minimal light light, but I hear this open should be a little smaller than the exhaust fan hole. Planning to place in opposite corner of cab.
Growing 1 monster plant for more fun.
Growing in soil for best taste.

lighting:
4 x 4ft Sun Blaze 54W high output T5 fluoro strip lights. Total of 20,000 lumens. Each strip is $25 and comes with a 6500K tube.
Will swap out tubes with Ushio 3000K 54W T5 for flowering ($6/ea).
These will be standing upright and in opposite corners of the cab to ensure straight growth.
This is where I'd like most input.

www.plantlightinghyrdoponics.com was clearly the cheapest for strips and tubes. Anyone have experience with these guys?
More importantly, anyone have experience using these Sun Blaze strips? They're by far the cheapest high output T5 fluoro system I could find.
Should I spring for the Sun Blaze strip reflectors ($15/ea)? Or will the mylar interior be sufficient?

Thanks for the help!

bstheory Reviewed by bstheory on 10-16-2007. T5 HO strip cab -- plan for 1st time Hi all. I don't have this equip yet, but have priced it all to build when I have some down time this December. Comments and suggestions would be greatly appreciated. :) This is will be placed in my relatively small bedroom. custom cab: 2' x 2' (4'6" tall) All vertical walls made from one piece of Flexiwood (Econokore to be precise) for nice appearance and rounded corners. One side "cut" for doorway. Reflective space blanket (cheap cheap mylar) covering entire interior. Foam weather Rating: 5

[bstheory]

Oh, and I've decided on "Purps" from BCSeedKing.com. Is $60 a decent price for some quality seed?

[killerweed420]

I think you would be better to have the lights overhead but it looks like your area is too small for that.
Haven't tried t5's but I think I will next grow.

[OrganicDelight47]

I've been looking at a 4ft T5 fixture with 8 bulbs to use in an additional but smaller newly converted flowering room. I can't use a HPS due to space constraints in the particular section. Do you know how T5's do for flowering? I've been using 400W HPS. I think I might try cycling my 3 flowering rooms and fully max out my 1 veg room by only keeping plants under the T5 for 2 1/2 weeks, then each HPS for 2 1/2 weeks, to have 3 stages of flowering at a time. Any thoughts or recommendations?

[bstheory]

OD47-This will be my first time, so I can't say anything for certain. I don't see why you couldn't use T5s for flowering. As long as you use 3000K (warmer spectrum) bulbs, the lumens produced should work fine for flowering. The posts on T5 use is fairly light (no pun intended) which is a big reason this thread got started...

With that size of an op, you should be the one telling me!

Good luck though!

[bstheory]

Almost have all my equip now I decided to switch to a tall storage unit (30"x20"x72") because it was fairly cheap ($140 incl tax/ship) and a hell of a lot easier than building my own, plus with the extra height/shelving I can have a little clone chamber within unit. This thing is an outdoor type plastic storage cabint, so it's not going to be as classy looking as I was hoping for, but it should function better. Also, I've decided on Apollo 11 from Joey Weed.

Here's a SketchUp model pic of it (this is assuming all one chamber w/o a separate cloning chamber). I have 20,000 lumens already, but might get a small (70-150W) HPS for overhead lighting and an extra kick in the pants :jointsmile:

I'll keep updating as the vertical T5 cab info seems pretty non-existent.

Peace.

[killerweed420]

I've been looking at htgsupply. They have 2, 4 bulb 4 foot t5's with bulbs for $300.That would be 40,000 lumens.They look like a nice setup.

[mushaboom]

how did your order with planlightinghydroponics go? are they discreet or do they ship in boxes that say PLANLIGHTINGHYDROPONICS?

[bstheory]

Haven't gotten the lights just yet, but I think they said they ship under a different name. That $300 deal seems like a pretty good one. Note however that my 4 strips were less than $25 each, so for $300 you could have 60,000 lumen vs 40,000. The setup is probably nicer with the bigger fixtures, but I think you can chain up to 10 of the strips and you can then position them anyway you want. (I think I'm going to start off with a tepee :thumbsup

Peace.

[bstheory]

Got the lights today. Packaging was discreet, from Alladin's Lights. The strips work great. Happy so far. Took my 4 3000K flowering bulbs out to notice a slight "bend" in the group of them. Somehow the four of them all broke in the middle. This was surprising considering the great packing job they seemed to have gotten. Sad, yes; but they were only $6/ea and I won't need em for another cpl months.