Lighting Quantum & Spectralux T5 Bulbs

[AndyBotwin]

I'm getting my new grow space set up and I got a great deal on a Hydrofarm 4' 6 bulb T5 fixture. It has some generic 6500K bulbs with it, but I'd like to replace them with something a bit better. I used to grow with a Quantum Badboy fixture and bulbs, but these seem to be out of favor and not as available as they once were. The only places I can find that still sell the Quantum bulbs sell them in 8 packs. With a 6 bulb fixture I obviously don't want to buy 16 bulbs to get a mix of warm and cool spectrums. Does anyone know of a place that sells single Badboy 4' bulbs, or even in a 4 pack?

Also, I've seen tons of sites with the Spectralux T5 bulbs which are at a higher price point like the Quantums. I was surprised when my search came up with no hits on AFN since these bulbs seem to be everywhere. Has anyone used them, and if so are they worth the premium price?

:thank:

 

[Muddy]

It appears that Quantum has gone out of business. Their web site is gone and companies like Plantlightinghydroponics that previously carried their whole line are phasing out their products as they use up their inventories.

 

[Ronin]

Quantum got eaten up by the Hydrofarm empire.
I run a 12 lamp badboy. I could never justify the price of the quantum bulbs.
I currently run 54w Agromax HTG bulbs. The best price I have found for decent t5's.
I pay $5 per bulb.

 

[AndyBotwin]

Thanks, guys. I did look around and found nothing recent from Quantum, so I figured they're either gone away or merged in with someone else. The fixtures can still be found but my last one burned out a ballast after less than two months of 18/6 use. Not going to drop that kind of money again, especially with questionable support due to the state of the company. But reading some other posts I thought that the triphosphor coated bulbs were the real key to the Badboy's good results anyway. For anyone who is interested, Gotham still has the bulbs available in 4 packs:

http://www.gothamhydroponics.com/gr...phor-super-ho-t5-bulb-48-cool-6500k-pair.html
http://www.gothamhydroponics.com/gr...-super-ho-t5-bulb-48-cool-6500k-pair-500.html

And this site has the 2900k bulbs for sale as singles:

http://www.ehydroponics.com/quantum-badboy-t5-lamps-bloom-single.html

I'm thinking I may pick up a couple of those and put them in with my 6500k HydroFarm bulbs to get some mixed spectrum.

 

[Bgrow82]

The web site 1000bulbs.com has 10,000k t5 bulbs. I though about trying those out after I checked out the reviews and what ever else I can find.

 

[Bgrow82]

Sorry saw the rest, guess I premature posted lol. Ok so I have the 2 foot 4 bulb t5 light, two of them. I started off with 4 6500k blue and when it went into flower about day 58 I switched out 2 of the bulbs in on light box to 3500k rsd bulbs to kinda create the harvest sun and I couldnt tell you if that helped or not. Here I can tell you a diffrence, now when my autoflower was at day 30ish I placed it under the other box with those red bulbs in and I swear it didnt do anything for a week(the plant) I switched out the reds put the blues back in and it started to grow again. I wasnt sure what was causing the stop I growth cause I used light nutes and ph'd water everytime. But after the light switch it was dine.

 

[AndyBotwin]

Sorry saw the rest, guess I premature posted lol. Ok so I have the 2 foot 4 bulb t5 light, two of them. I started off with 4 6500k blue and when it went into flower about day 58 I switched out 2 of the bulbs in on light box to 3500k rsd bulbs to kinda create the harvest sun and I couldnt tell you if that helped or not. Here I can tell you a diffrence, now when my autoflower was at day 30ish I placed it under the other box with those red bulbs in and I swear it didnt do anything for a week(the plant) I switched out the reds put the blues back in and it started to grow again. I wasnt sure what was causing the stop I growth cause I used light nutes and ph'd water everytime. But after the light switch it was dine.

Autos LOVE blue light - I have grown some sweet plants with nothing but 6500K. With CFL or T5 I've defintely never been happy with the results using only red spectrum, whether in veg or bloom, and I have been preaching that for years. A lot of folks try to duplicate HID grows with flouros (hard switch from blue to red when flowering starts) but it just doesn't work with autos in my experience. I do like to get a mixed spectrum though, so I did order a few of the 3000K to put in my tent. I will likely go with 4 blue and 2 red throughout the grow.