So I’m hoping that maybe T5 LED tubes are a thing? I need them for a 2 ft fixture I use for side lighting but I’m not really seeing anything that would out perform a 2000 lumen fluoro. I’ve found a couple cheap LED tubes but they seem more for home lighting and are low output. Any guidance/info is appreciated. Thanks!
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T5 LED bulbs are a thing. The LED bulbs use less power but that’s not a bad thing.
I’d go straight LED but if you want to use your existing fixture it’ll be just fine.
Keep in mind you can get a 100w panel for cheap so before you start spending money on bulbs maybe have a look first.
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Good For veg and clones
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I still use a T5 HO fixture for veg. It does just fine and gives the plants plenty of light.
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They are a thing but I’ve only been finding 4ft units on a glance:
http://www.bulbscanada.com/index.php?route=product/category&path=77_1426_1425
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So even the t5’s and my 200w led will burn the leaves if they Grow too close. You think a 100w panel could have the same issue? I’m newer to LEDs can you hang the panels horizontally?
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Yeah there’s plenty of 4 ft no 2 ft. I’ve been looking at LED light strips too or 50watt led clamp lights but I can’t find the clamp lights in a red spectrum. It’s for side lighting so I need ideally 2 ft vertical coverage and as close to 2 ft light penetration as possible
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not sure where you live us or canada but where i live walmart has 2ft t5 bulbs might want to check into them
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I see 2ft T5 LEDs in the US but not in Canada.
I suspect that these LED replacement tubes will soon be a thing on the past as they are phasing out the T5 and T8 florescent tubes (and fixtures) next year.
Cheers
G
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Yeah looks like it might be a better idea to just buy a new fixture.
Maybe a dumb question but none of the manufacturers I’ve looked at show LED being hung vertically. Is this something you can do with an LED panel or should I get an LED light bulb?
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I love flouros and bought about 20 CFL bulbs recently.
A friend has a 2ft t5 I will see where he got it
I’ve noticed that as well.
It may be something about the thermodynamics, for instance, hanging vertically would cause the LED chip higher up to receive some of the waste heat from the one below causing each higher chip to run a little hotter.
Same for the quantum boards, but the question is whether this is significant or not. I suspect that an aluminum backed quantum board would be easy to check and run vertically you just need to verify temperatures with an IR thermometer.
I’ve seen lots of COBs run in that position and thermally they can be trickier to manage.
Cheers
G
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Noooooo, not my t5s !
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@Naptown916 I also use 2’ T5 HO’s, but here’s a guy whose been using led strips as side side lighting for a while. He’s doing pretty well 
Dang. I use LED shop lights from Canadian Tire bought on sale around 20$ a pop. They have many versions but I use 4ft (2800 lumen, 3000Kelvin) units in my 4x4 and have 24" units (3000 lumen, 3000kelvin) for the smaller tents.
A friend of mine that works at a home depot got me a 5 24" Red-spectrum grow led (Feit brand) because they were in clearance for $5 each! I use them now for added supplemental side lighting for flowering and as my 24 hour on light in my propagation tent because it was so cheap I don’t care if I burn it out faster than the other fixtures in there 
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I think I’m leaning towards putting one of these on each side unless Mars Hydro tells me it’s cool to hang their panels vertically. You seem to know a lot about LEDs thoughts on these bulbs? I know old school lights but don’t really know how to read the intensity on these and compare cheap Amazon junk to legit stuff.
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I have used and have seen plenty of grows utilizing horizontally mounted or hung LED’s to boost their light levels beneath the main canopy… Only ~5% of light will penetrate past the outer canopy so cross-lighting is very beneficial with larger/taller plants crowded together. As long as airflow around the led’s is not restricted so that the heat can be carried away they should be all good. My fans hit mine to keep them a little cooler than normal convection would.
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Thank you sir! I think I’m just gonna give panels a whirl and see how they do. Also considered it might be too strong for the plants to grow up to but gotta cross bridges as they come. Thanks for all the input y’all.
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On note: All my panels are dimmable. I would highly suggest looking in to that option… With dimmable panels you can consider buying a higher wattage panel and using it for all stages of growth, since you can turn it down for clones and then crank it up for flowering.
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I have a compact Fluorescent fixture with the type of bulbs that have a 4 pin male ending
Each bulb is 29 .00 USD It’s cheaper to buy a new light led which is much more powerful and cheaper bro run
I keep it as a back up now
Paps
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