I got one of these from petsmart and tossed aside the hood thinking the 18 total LEDs wouldn't be sufficient for any kind of plants. Any able to verify that? It's my understanding I would need about 90 for it to be effective.
IMHO I would keep the T5HO and just remove bulbs as needed. Based on your other thread and CO2, you then have the capacity to add remove light as you feel necessary.