T-5 upgrade from PC?

[aalvarado87]

i saw that you wanna stay around budget best way to do this is browse the forums their is bound to be someone on here trying to let one go at a reasonable price. I found it easier to post a want to buy because their is always someone who has one in the basement because they plan to set somethign up but when you wave some cashola in front of them instant sellers good luck with the purchase and heck yeah its an upgrade. you'll get way better color out of the t5's

 

[m and m]

Yes that would be a very big upgrade if they had indavidual ReF, I wouldnt be scared to keep anything under the t5's the pc's i would,pluse alot more par.

 

[skinz78]

I have 2 of the 48" Odyssea MH/PC combo lights and am planning on replacing the PCs in them with T5,I'd be taking out 4x65w PCs per fixture,I planned on using 2x54w T5s per fixture...would that be brighter than the 4x65w PCs or should I go with 4x54w T5s per fixture ?

I think that you will see quite a positive difference with this upgrade. I say if you can do it I would go for the 4 bulb fixture over the two bulb.

 

[redtop03]

I think that you will see quite a positive difference with this upgrade. I say if you can do it I would go for the 4 bulb fixture over the two bulb.

thank you for the reply....I think there'd be room for 4 of 'em,my worry is having too much heat build up and shortening the bulb life,and there really isn't enough room for extra fans...I have the 65w UVL super actinic PC bulbs with the built in reflectors and they're the brightest I've found so far but I'm really disappointed,they are very bright for a few months,the brightness seems to drop very fast after that,the color is still great though....

sorry to hi-jack this thread but it seemed like a good place to ask advice

 

[skinz78]

I wouldn't worry too much about shortening their life, you aren't going to see a whole lot more heat by going from 2 to 4 bulbs.

 

[redtop03]

I wouldn't worry too much about shortening their life, you aren't going to see a whole lot more heat by going from 2 to 4 bulbs.

I ordered the Tek 4x54w T5 retro kit with individual reflectors along with 4 ATI blue + bulbs from BRS today,I'll post some pics of the conversion when they come in and some comparison pics of before and after...I'm gonna try it with just 2 per fixture and see how it looks,if I like it,I'll add 2 more later

 

[skinz78]

Sounds great! Maybe get some before and after pic's and show it off in another thread?

 

[redtop03]

Sounds great! Maybe get some before and after pic's and show it off in another thread?

absolutely,probable in my build thread...I've already hi-jacked this thread LOL

 

[redtop03]

well,I got my T5 retro kit today but it's too big for my fixtures....there's no where to mount the ballast and the sockets are too big....I've got to do something different,any suggestions anybody ?

 

[skinz78]

Can you post up some pic's of what you have to work with?

 

[redtop03]

here's the kits and bulbs that I have,my MH fixtures are the Odyssea 48" but they're about a 1/2" too short and the T5 end caps would stick out below the fixture,I'm thinking just mount the T5s to a piece of wood and set 'em in beside my MH/PC fixtures

 

[redtop03]

if there's any one who has doubts that T5s are brighter than PCs...take a look at this

left side is 2x54w T5 HO with ATI Blue Plus (new bulbs)...on the right side is 4x65w PC with UVL super actinic (2 new,2 are 6 months old)