PetFlora, a green spike will do your plants absolutely no good at all, they don't see light in the green spectrum. I have to confess I haven't looked at this 16 tube bad boy I'm reading about. To be honest I use a four tube four footer in a 2x4 tent. It's actually an industrial light, my plants don't know the difference. As to spectrum, I mix my tubes. I use two 4100k all the time and then I change the middle two to 6500k for grow and 3000 for flower. The reason I use the 4100k is that spectrum contains both blue and red light and then my two middle lamps that I change will give the plants a larger dose of either red or blue light when needed at each appropriate stage of growth. I now use hid lighting but I still use my t-5 light for vegging my plants. I actually prefer the way a plant grows in its veg stage under t-5's than metal halides. I think it keeps the plants much more compact and as a side effect they seem to develop a better root system with t-5's than metal halides. All my own opinion from my own observations.
I pay like twenty bucks for four tubes. I'm not convinced a name brand 'super' anything exists. My plants don't know I'm not using a 'growlight' on them, they also don't know I paid cheapo for the tubes. They seem very happy and healthy and the light. Why pay for the hottest new thing when if you look around you can find things that do the same thing cheaper. It's like buying a generic drug instead of one made by Pfizer.
I have been pioneering a new method of growing with the T5. I was told long ago i would have poor results with T5 blooming.. im on week 3 and as soon as my lights come on ill post new pics.. i have seen faster growth with MY setup than cheap "grow" "bloom" bulbs... and MUCH faster than 400W HID... ALL ORGANIC ALL T5 some people even accused me of switching my lights with HID LOL. Please read my entire thread and it is explained in FULL detail..
