T8 Fluoro for my veg box???

Okay so I just went to wal mart and in the light bulb aisle for 9.98 a twenty four inch 17 watt t8 bulb and ballast marketed as gardening lights. I am setting up my new closet grow with a veg and a flower area. The veg area I wanna use fluoros to and then flower under my 1000 watt hps. I'm not familiar with fluoro I know you generally use T5 but If I can use T8 and get good results then I'd defly buy those. Thanks if anyone can answer this question.

Dude....c'mon anybody?

t8's should be fine if you aren't vegging too tall.
I'd suggest buying a fixture with more than one bulb if you plan on vegging more than like 8ish inches.

keep 'em close.

t8s should do the trick, but cfls are brighter. cfls are actually brighter than my t5s according to my light meter, but i like the simplicity of multi tube t5 system with reflector. i would definately get more than just the 1 tube, though, especially since you are going to put them under the 1000 watter for flower.

I know a very smart grower that gets excellent results and swears by t-8s

they aren't h.o. (high output) and the lumens are not as much but i hear they work from supper reliable source just make sure it is the right spectrum or 42k kelvins or even 72k kelvin

potheadhippy said:

they aren't h.o. (high output) and the lumens are not as much but i hear they work from supper reliable source just make sure it is the right spectrum or 42k kelvins or even 72k kelvin

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Thanks I'll make sure to double check the box before I go buying six of them.

Total Head: Since theyre ten bucks for bulb and ballast I'm definitely going to buy at least six of them, which should be enough to veg four plants 12 to 14 inches before I put em into flower.

I have 14x 6 bulb T8 fixtures. They work, great actually.

q3aserver said:

I have 14x 6 bulb T8 fixtures. They work, great actually.

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Awesome, I've decided to give em a try. six for sixty bucks is a deal I cant pass up compared to 30 bucks for a single T5 ho. I am assuming they dont put out a lot of heat so Could I get away with having the bulbs an inch or two off of the canopy?

It all comes down to lumens and spectrum. Bulb shape and wattage is pretty irrelevant. The sun puts out 10000 lumens per sq. ft. You need at least 2500 per sq. ft. indoors. The more the better.

Depending on how many lumens that bulb puts out, as long as you can fit enough to meet the lumen requirements and it's in the correct spectrum then you can grow with it.

My buddy uses 4 4foot florescent tubes and they work fine, but I have the t5 44 sunblaze and if you got a extra 125$ i recommend it They make a red spectrum bulb for them for 10$ a bulb.

I use 4 2 tube t-8 with split of spectrums, limited space, results were fantastic and low heat, yes. I keep the plants 2 inches away at all times. longer flower times, I had to go 14 weeks on a 10 week strain. have fun and enjoy.

Niko Bellick said:

Awesome, I've decided to give em a try. six for sixty bucks is a deal I cant pass up compared to 30 bucks for a single T5 ho. I am assuming they dont put out a lot of heat so Could I get away with having the bulbs an inch or two off of the canopy?

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I would go for this:
http://www.htgsupply.com/Product-HTG-Supply-2-Foot-4-Lamp-PL-55-Tek-Lamp.asp

Or this instead:
http://www.htgsupply.com/Product-HTG-Supply-2-Foot-2-Lamp-PL-55-Tek-Lamp.asp

I've got two of the four bulb fixtures and they grow like a mofo.

mange said:

I use 4 2 tube t-8 with split of spectrums, limited space, results were fantastic and low heat, yes. I keep the plants 2 inches away at all times. longer flower times, I had to go 14 weeks on a 10 week strain. have fun and enjoy.

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well im getting six of the single bulb with ballast. Thinking bout putting for in my veg box and two for my clone box. I have no idea what spectrum these bulbs are that come with it though. I'll figure it out and put two of each spectrum for the veg box. As far as flower goes I'm sticking to my 1000 watt hid. Just gotta figure out the best way to keep it cool in my walk in closet and I'm set.

Niko Bellick said:

Okay so I just went to wal mart and in the light bulb aisle for 9.98 a twenty four inch 17 watt t8 bulb and ballast marketed as gardening lights. I am setting up my new closet grow with a veg and a flower area. The veg area I wanna use fluoros to and then flower under my 1000 watt hps. I'm not familiar with fluoro I know you generally use T5 but If I can use T8 and get good results then I'd defly buy those. Thanks if anyone can answer this question.

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All the grows I have posted are done with highbay 6 lamp high-output ballast T8's with 5000K bulbs in them in veg on mom areas. I used to run T5's but had better growth from the T8's with 5K lamps in them. The fixtures were $80.00 bucks plus the new lamps $30.00 since the new fixture did not have any lamps in it when I bought it at home depot. PLus the T8's lamps will last 20,000 hrs with out loosing more then 10% of the light out put over the life of the lamps. The T5's loose 30% of there light output in the first 60 days of use.

T8 run at half the rated heat of that of a T5 and run the same lums after 1 hrs of operation.

I will never go back to a T5 or a MH lamp system again.

This 220W PLL fixture (pictured below) is rumored to be the best fluorescent fixture available for growing, brighter that a T5 Lightwave for half the price, Its only $112 (70 euro), I would HIGHLY recommend this fixture over CFL's, T8's and even T5's, they grow plants like CRAZY! Check it out, 15th from the top called "Quad Cuttings & Propagation Light 220W": (-->CLICK HERE<--)