Reddit mentions of Hydrofarm Agrobrite Designer T5, FLP44, 216W 4 Foot, 4-Tube Fixture with Lamps Fluorescent Grow Light, 4-Feet/4-Tube, Brown

If anyone is interested, here is the grow light I decided on: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007FGE6C0

Try to get them in a south facing window if you can. If you do not have that, west, then east, then north. North is the worst, and you will want to avoid that if possible because they will never get direct sunlight in a north window.

The window will be the biggest difference because you can't beat the sun in terms of light.

Once they are in a good window, get a light above them if they are still stretching. I try to get daylight spectrum flourescent bulbs in as high of a wattage as I can find. 6500k, 100watt equivalent florescents do great for plants. You might find a T5 HO setup that uses the long skinny flourescent bulbs. I prefer the T5 setup because it is brighter and cleaner looking in my house than a bunch of metal cone reflectors for standard light bulbs.

Put the lights on a timer so that they are on for about the same amount of time that the sun is up. Adjust the timer once a month or so to match the changing daylight hours. Mid summer the light should be on ~16 hours a day, and mid winter just under 12 hours a day. You want to do this because plants are sensitive to seasonal day length, and will grow, flower, or be dormant depending on the amount of light they receive per day.

I like to put lights about 2 feet above plants so that I can still see the plants instead of the light fixture.

I avoid LED lights because I find the purple glow to be ugly.

Depending on the setup, I find ~25 watts of supplemental light per square foot to be adequate, but it's really hard to say how much light actually makes it on the plants...

I have a 330 watt fluorescent light about 2.5ft above a 12 square foot table in a shady west window. A ton of the fluorescent light spreads out to the sides, so it's hard to say how much light I actually supplement. The plants do fine, though.

That does look nice. I did consider Bright Agro's Farm Wall, but those things are insanely expensive and hard to find in Canada -- although they do kind of take care of all the filtration and structure as well. One downside though is that my room only gets sunlight in the AM, so I would have to put my lights up vertically, which ends up ruining the aesthetics anyway.

That's a good point about elevating the tank. I'm a tiny Japanese guy, so both physically and culturally, I'm used to things being closer to the ground. I actually wouldn't have very good access to the plants if I were to stack a grow bed above the height of the tank as it is now.

I have one fixture that holds four 4 foot T5s. Could eventually expand to a second one.

What would you suggest for solids filtration? It seems like a swirl/radial flow filter would be overkill for somethign like this.

Get one! They’re great..and then graduate up to this...can’t recommend it enough!


https://www.amazon.com/Hydrofarm-FLP44-Agrobrite-Designer-Fixture/dp/B007FGE6C0/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1538566880&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=hydrofarm+designer&dpPl=1&dpID=41x5gViSbFL&ref=plSrch

I have both an LED Ebb and Flow system running and i do basil, bib and Paris Island lettuce's in that system and i am growing some leafy salad bowl lettuce on a rack under T5 lights on the side of the room by just watering the flat each day. The T5's are legit and will indeed grow herbs and lettuce with ease but you want to keep the lights close so it may be best to do similar sized herbs under the T5 and like the above poster stated, the light penetration into tall plants may not be the greatest. Stuff like cilantro, perhaps a dwarf basil, dill, chives would grow like crazy under a well placed T5.

A good $250-$500 range LED is going to be stronger then a T5 and i am not suggesting a T5 is better then a real deal LED im just suggesting that a T5 is an easy entry option that will indeed work well.

Want my opinion? Start out by getting a light and a few 1020 flats, 2 sheets of grodan rockwool cubes 1.5" some nutes, ph stuff, tds pen and grow them for a bit outside a system and under lights by just watering the flats with the rockwool cubes each day. In like 3 weeks you can be using your new herbs to cook and its cheap to start out and could even move them into a system at a month or so into it if you wish to do so.

Here are the gold standard T5 lights below - both are gold standard hydroponic T5 lights widely used and time tested and are both great.

https://www.amazon.com/Hydrofarm-Agrobrite-FLT48-Fluorescent-System/dp/B005H1C7NA/ref=sr_1_10?keywords=t5%2Blights&qid=1569300542&s=gateway&sr=8-10&th=1

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B007FGE6C0/ref=twister_B01N7P0ZSB?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

Thanks for that. I try and educate myself before bothering you good folks.

As for the 40,000 lux of this unit.
How does this unit compare to a 4ft 4 tube T5HO

I know lux isn’t a good measurement for light that plants use, I’m just wondering how this compares to this light

If energy cost savings is the only real factor that differs, I’ll go with the t5.