fluoro tubes vs cfl's

[watermelon]

it seems that not many people use tubes these days now that cfl's have become more availiable.

from my knowledge cfls are essentially the same as tubes, but they are coiled up to reduce thier length and create the same amount of light in a smaller space. with a smaller size you can fit more in a given space and in places traditonal lights wouldnt fit.

however if space permits surely you could fit the same wattage and lumen output with tubes as with cfls. just increase the amount of them and fit as many as possible in the grow area.


with that all said, how good are tubes for micro growing? i know they are used in veg alot and i dont expect HID results, but are they comparable to cfl flowered bud? or worse?

 

[Trev]

the problem with tubes is, they're wattage/lumens are spread out in a greater space, thus not allowing the plant to sue all lumens efficiently. when with a CFL you can direct your light more accuratly increasing porductivity.
one situation tubes would be good, is SOG with alot of 4 foot fluoros you can do a decent sog.

MICROgrowing with tubes wouldnt even bother.
anything under 4 foot in tubes wont have nearly enough watts or lumens to make it worth wild. think of this.. you'd need 2- 2 foot fluor tubes a 20 watts each to get the same output of 1-40 watt CFL!??! less space used, and more ability to direct your light. so unless your doing large scale grows with many plants, tube are just not practical.

 

[watermelon]

i was actually planning on doing a sog, but i can only fit 3 foot tubes in my small growspace.

the space is about 1.5 feet deep by 3 foor wide and i dont know how many i could fit in there. maybe 6 or 7 if tightly packed.

bah well, may stick to cfl's then

 

[Trev]

stick with CFLs or low wattage HID and you'll be fine!.

 

[pieceofmyheart]

I agree. I used tubes for my first grow....I don't recommend it.

 

[Makavellian]

ive seen 24inch t5's which look pretty good. 24w/2000 lumens. they are pretty pricey though. last i seen, a 2ft 4tube 96w/8000 lumens rack costed 100+

 

[Guest]

Tubes will work but growth will be slow. Tubes are okay for clones and seedlings......after that, you'll just need more light to do very well.

Bh

 

[cid420]

yeah get a few 200watt CFL one for growing another for budding. then build box 2'wide 4.20'high 3'deep mylar each chamber 1'x3' vent from top 2 fans, or if u got the money co2 tank works good on small scale like that . cfls ok in my book 17,000lumens not bad when u can get it that close to plants.

 

[Azra3l]

Hi,


in my opinion, CFL is just a bunch of marketed light. It depends on your way of seeing it.
If this grow is just gonna be a one-shot try, you can go with CFL.
But if you're gonna keep a stealth cabinet, go on with tubes for the simple reason that you can change your tube every 6month to 1 year. That is not the case with CFL, after a year it's dead.
And there is some turbo fluorescent lights 60cm long with a 2x55w power that are as efficient as CFL



+++

 

[Makavellian]

^-- what are turbo fluorescent lights? also, t8s and t5's are way more efficient than cfls, i dunno about envirolites though because there are a lot of diff output number floatin around for 125 and 200watters

 

[watermelon]

from what ive seen those high output tubes are pretty expensive, which rules out much of thier use when you could buy a better bulb for a comparable price.

 

[BLunTeD4LifE]

i use CFLs for my vegging room, the room is 1ft x 2ft, and i have 240w of cfls in there (12 x 20w bulbs)...

and i have to say the veg that my plants get under just cfl lights is excellent... really tight internodes and nice and bushy growth to...

i finished a lowryder grow about 2 months ago now, and they were grown from start to finish under those cfls and they flowered just fine under there...

i still use HPS for blooms for my other grows though because nothing beats HPS for flowering IMO...

 

[DurbanPoison]

I use both

I use both

The CFL's provide more blue spectrum and the tubes provide more red.


Make's sense to me. In my head its like using MH and HPS. However, I only use the tubes/cfl combo for veg.

 

[sannie]

A T5 tube is a streched cfl tube.
T5 has a higher lumen output and has an electronic ballast(so less heat)

greetz sannie

 

[mrwags]

I have seen the light so to speak and have become a T5 lover.






I usually vegged under a 400 watter but the heat in the summer was to much and the node spacing left much to be desired. kokua did a wonderful grow with one of these and had to try. Second best addition I've bought this year.


My 2 Cents
Mr.Wags

 

[kokua]

T5's are great...but CFL's are excellent too and T8's and HID's. They are all good sources of light, they all just have different applications.

i was actually planning on doing a sog, but i can only fit 3 foot tubes in my small growspace.

the space is about 1.5 feet deep by 3 foor wide and i dont know how many i could fit in there. maybe 6 or 7 if tightly packed.

bah well, may stick to cfl's then

I would say cfl's are the way to go in your situation. They do make 3 foot t5's, but they are hard to find. You can get them online at several places (pm me if you would like some links for these) I would still say that cfl's would be easier and cheaper for you.

from what ive seen those high output tubes are pretty expensive, which rules out much of thier use when you could buy a better bulb for a comparable price.

...don't skimp on light. And to be honest with you, if you are going to take a risk and grow this plant you should do it right...or don't do it at all. If you were to (knock on wood) get in trouble, you would get in just as much trouble for 3 beautifully grown, stinky, resinous plants as you would for 3 bagseed males under 18 watts of light. You need to shoot for a minium of 40 watts per square foot whatever light you choose.