No, although it is useful for mother plant propagation, it is a waste of money for beginners.
Check out these articles frm Cannabis Culture Magazine:
http://www.cannabisculture.com/backissues/cc00/phototron.html
http://www.cannabisculture.com/backissues/cc01/letter2.html
I had Phototrons since back in the OG days and I’ve had great success throughout the years…A lot of people failed in growing with them because they followed their directions…I actually went to the company when they were in Westchester, IL…I thought outside of the box that’s why I had success with them…I still use them today…here are some pictures of m my grows…
I use a phototron to grow lettuce for my tortoises and as a quarantine chamber… @PhilCuisine I’ve had a hard time sourcing the replacement “U” lamps locally. Need to hit HD again as right now my tron is running only an add on LED at the top.
Can’t wait to see you working with the phototron gonna be watching for ya.
Stay hazed
Jake
The U tube fluorescent bulbs were the 1st. generation Phototrons…the ones I have are T5’s…and i didn’t use the sphagnum moss that came with it…as I said I had to think outside of the box to be successful.
I run a mini dwc in mine as well… Did you ever try the phototron brand nutrients ? Still available on eBay 
Kind funny.
Been thinking about retrofitting the old gal to T5s myself… just need to piece together the kit… would love to find a second gen locally instead.
On the old OG site I had tons of pictures but not any more…I called my old Phototron thread SWC/TRON back in the day…I have about 7 of the newer generation P-trons both big & small…3 or 4 of them was given to me by the old OG members back in the day…I asked them what they wanted for it and they said all they wanted was some clone only strains so I gave them some clones and they shipped me their P-trons…I never did use there nutes either because I used Technaflora BC nutes on my SWC/TRON grows…btw, back then the P-trons was around $350-$700 each depending on the model.
I bought this LED light Monday because I thought it would be a great addition to my Phototron.
Oh damn it’s retro time. I had one in 1991.
Grew some great Mexican bag seed. But then I found HPS.
They are cool for stealth.
I saw this raised from the dead and thought @PhilCuisine kudos to you
your Phototron rocks 
all the best and be safe
Dequilo
Wish I had some of my old pictures from the old Overgrow but anyway here are some old grows from my SWC/TRON…they’re posted on some other threads here too. I wouldn’t recommend buying Phototrons now but if you do have them they can be a kickass growing chamber that’s a fact…just think outside of the box folks and don’t ever ever follow the directions that came with them…people who followed the company’s directions have all failed.
BTW, to me growing in a tent is just a bigger version of a Phototron if you really think about it…
Dr.G…the LED U bulbs might work better and brighter than the U bulbs you currently have now in your Phototron…
I actually saw those at Lowe’s last time I was getting a tube and I didn’t know if it’d be alright with the ballast but I guess that they are
