Led Users Unite!

Dodgey99

Well-Known Member
I have to say, for all the Mars Hydro bashing, I've just flowered a 4x4 tent on them and I'm impressed.

I normally grow NFT, 5 plants to a 4x4ft tent, 400w MH veg, 600w HPS flower.

Depending on the strain, I get between 11 and 14 ounces. That's proper dry - self use dry - not "nearly dry" to sell. Mostly around 12 ounces. So we are looking at 0.5 to 0.6 gm per watt (my 600 HPS on digital ballast pulls 640w from the wall). I reitterate, dry - I see buds that get sold (someone else I know) and our idea of dry and cured are different, through different motivation.

The latest crop, I vegged with 400W MH, but then switched to LED for all of the flowering phase. I picked up two Mars Reflector "blurple" 144 LED units - the long ones with three panels in each . One is the older 3w led version, and the other the newer 5w led version. I paid around £100 GBP each. Together they pull 540 watts from the wall in full-on mode (veg & bloom both on).

Flowering was markedly different. The buds started with many more white hairs than I'm used to. Very neat. When the buds actually started getting bigger they were much much denser than I'm used to. Very dense structure, more compact and less airy than I'm used to (Purple bud, growing from cuttings used under HPS previously). Almost "knuckle like" in their density. Strikingly different. Also no signs at all of heat stress or bleaching. I kept the lights about 1ft above the canopy.

Because the two rectangular lights fill the space so well in a 4x4 tent I got very even bud sizes across the canopy, rather than the giants being focussed nearer the middle.

I also didn't notice any difference at all betweem the side with 3w leds, and the side with 5w leds. Which wasn't a big surprise as they pull a very similar current from the wall.

I weighed it up tonight. Again, properly twig-snapping dry. Done slowly over 2 weeks. They stink before they've been near the curing jars. 9 Oz. So thats 0.46 gm / watt.

Not bad at all. Not far behind my HPS average (0.51 and 0.60 at best) with a very easy to harvest crop (neat compact dense buds), and all running around 2 degrees C lower than my HPS.

I bought a third light for less than £100 too, so I might try flowering with all three next time.

Are they worth the money at full price? Definitely not. Lower yield for a LOT of money of you bought two at RRP you'd be short of £420, whereas an £80 HPS setup would yield more. But as an experiment, I was impressed. If I lived somewhere where the heat was a problem it would be an attractive option, and based on my simple experiment, I can confirm they are not "shit" / "junk" :-)
 

Khyber420

Well-Known Member
Here's my DIY using LH351H and LH351C diodes from digikey. Running 1.05mA on a dimmer through them at full dimming its consuming about 30 watts and is plenty to veg a 2 x 3 tent. Full output undimmed is about 220 watts and would be overkill to flower the 2 x 3. I'm thinking I could flower the small tent with it at 100 watts.

Fixture looks like crap and my diode mix/spacing is sub optimal, but its clean and works. Next step I want to add some far read 730nm diodes to get that emerson effect, maybe in the future. Also have some left over LH351C/H diodes that I'm going to solder onto star PCBs and epoxy onto my other CLU048 COB setup as an augmented flowering light. Will post that sucker up when it's done to.

20191023_181615.jpg
 

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Troggy_420

Well-Known Member
Hey everyone, new to the indoor growing world and new to leds. I currently start my outdoors under a 400w mh factory light that I picked up at a garage sale for 25$ and will be starting my indoors under it as well I till I find what I’m looking for in a led. A Friend pointed me in the direction on this used add on a buy and sell site. 1000$ cad. retails for over 2000$ New so I thought I’d see what you lovely humans recommend I do within that price range. Maybe someone familiar with that brand or has another they would recommend. Thanks
 

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mooray

Well-Known Member
I have to say, for all the Mars Hydro bashing, I've just flowered a 4x4 tent on them and I'm impressed.

I normally grow NFT, 5 plants to a 4x4ft tent, 400w MH veg, 600w HPS flower.

Depending on the strain, I get between 11 and 14 ounces. That's proper dry - self use dry - not "nearly dry" to sell. Mostly around 12 ounces. So we are looking at 0.5 to 0.6 gm per watt (my 600 HPS on digital ballast pulls 640w from the wall). I reitterate, dry - I see buds that get sold (someone else I know) and our idea of dry and cured are different, through different motivation.

The latest crop, I vegged with 400W MH, but then switched to LED for all of the flowering phase. I picked up two Mars Reflector "blurple" 144 LED units - the long ones with three panels in each . One is the older 3w led version, and the other the newer 5w led version. I paid around £100 GBP each. Together they pull 540 watts from the wall in full-on mode (veg & bloom both on).

Flowering was markedly different. The buds started with many more white hairs than I'm used to. Very neat. When the buds actually started getting bigger they were much much denser than I'm used to. Very dense structure, more compact and less airy than I'm used to (Purple bud, growing from cuttings used under HPS previously). Almost "knuckle like" in their density. Strikingly different. Also no signs at all of heat stress or bleaching. I kept the lights about 1ft above the canopy.

Because the two rectangular lights fill the space so well in a 4x4 tent I got very even bud sizes across the canopy, rather than the giants being focussed nearer the middle.

I also didn't notice any difference at all betweem the side with 3w leds, and the side with 5w leds. Which wasn't a big surprise as they pull a very similar current from the wall.

I weighed it up tonight. Again, properly twig-snapping dry. Done slowly over 2 weeks. They stink before they've been near the curing jars. 9 Oz. So thats 0.46 gm / watt.

Not bad at all. Not far behind my HPS average (0.51 and 0.60 at best) with a very easy to harvest crop (neat compact dense buds), and all running around 2 degrees C lower than my HPS.

I bought a third light for less than £100 too, so I might try flowering with all three next time.

Are they worth the money at full price? Definitely not. Lower yield for a LOT of money of you bought two at RRP you'd be short of £420, whereas an £80 HPS setup would yield more. But as an experiment, I was impressed. If I lived somewhere where the heat was a problem it would be an attractive option, and based on my simple experiment, I can confirm they are not "shit" / "junk" :-)
This was a great post, thanks a ton for taking the time to lay out the specifics. If you could somehow be my personal guinea pig, I'd ask you to try the same grow with a couple of the Kingbrite 240w panels. :)
 

Isawthelight

Well-Known Member
Hey everyone, new to the indoor growing world and new to leds. I currently start my outdoors under a 400w mh factory light that I picked up at a garage sale for 25$ and will be starting my indoors under it as well I till I find what I’m looking for in a led. A Friend pointed me in the direction on this used add on a buy and sell site. 1000$ cad. retails for over 2000$ New so I thought I’d see what you lovely humans recommend I do within that price range. Maybe someone familiar with that brand or has another they would recommend. Thanks
The HLG 550 is now on sale @ $790 USD.
 

oldtimer54

Well-Known Member
Im a LED grower and have been for about 7or 8 years . I Ihave used the cheap Chinese lights and I have used what I thought to be high quality lights as well .
When I first started it was strictly the Chinese lights .I had grown outdoors for decades but I was new to indoor growing . I was pleased with the final results that the cheap lights produced
After a few grows with the inexpensive Chinese lights I thought I'd step up my game with a more expensive light and was quite impressed with the difference in the quality of the unit and the intensity of the light the warranty and customer service that the manufacturer provided. With that being said you can have success with the Chinese lights but you run the chance of problems that you will have to remedy on your own.
I was lucky the problems I had with the cheap lights were minor and never caused me any significant problems. With my high end lights I've never experienced any problems . As u can see I didn't name any manufacturers . Do a little research and buy what you can afford . Learn from your mistakes and keep plugging away. Make upgrades when you can if you think you need them. I try and keep a spare light just in case and to be honest it's a cheap Chinese light and if all else fails I have a 1000 watt metal halide with ballast that was a gift from a friend.
 

Troggy_420

Well-Known Member
Im a LED grower and have been for about 7or 8 years . I Ihave used the cheap Chinese lights and I have used what I thought to be high quality lights as well .
When I first started it was strictly the Chinese lights .I had grown outdoors for decades but I was new to indoor growing . I was pleased with the final results that the cheap lights produced
After a few grows with the inexpensive Chinese lights I thought I'd step up my game with a more expensive light and was quite impressed with the difference in the quality of the unit and the intensity of the light the warranty and customer service that the manufacturer provided. With that being said you can have success with the Chinese lights but you run the chance of problems that you will have to remedy on your own.
I was lucky the problems I had with the cheap lights were minor and never caused me any significant problems. With my high end lights I've never experienced any problems . As u can see I didn't name any manufacturers . Do a little research and buy what you can afford . Learn from your mistakes and keep plugging away. Make upgrades when you can if you think you need them. I try and keep a spare light just in case and to be honest it's a cheap Chinese light and if all else fails I have a 1000 watt metal halide with ballast that was a gift from a friend.
Thanks for the info, I’m going to go with the light I had posted l. It still has warranty and I’ve had bad experiences cheating out on things with other hobbies so I’m gonna go balls deep and spend the money and if all els fails hopefully I can get close to what I paid for it in resale
 

oldtimer54

Well-Known Member
Thanks for the info, I’m going to go with the light I had posted l. It still has warranty and I’ve had bad experiences cheating out on things with other hobbies so I’m gonna go balls deep and spend the money and if all els fails hopefully I can get close to what I paid for it in resale
I'm a firm believer in the old saying you get what you pay for. Good luck to you my friend !
 

Troggy_420

Well-Known Member
Im a LED grower and have been for about 7or 8 years . I Ihave used the cheap Chinese lights and I have used what I thought to be high quality lights as well .
When I first started it was strictly the Chinese lights .I had grown outdoors for decades but I was new to indoor growing . I was pleased with the final results that the cheap lights produced
After a few grows with the inexpensive Chinese lights I thought I'd step up my game with a more expensive light and was quite impressed with the difference in the quality of the unit and the intensity of the light the warranty and customer service that the manufacturer provided. With that being said you can have success with the Chinese lights but you run the chance of problems that you will have to remedy on your own.
I was lucky the problems I had with the cheap lights were minor and never caused me any significant problems. With my high end lights I've never experienced any problems . As u can see I didn't name any manufacturers . Do a little research and buy what you can afford . Learn from your mistakes and keep plugging away. Make upgrades when you can if you think you need them. I try and keep a spare light just in case and to be honest it's a cheap Chinese light and if all else fails I have a 1000 watt metal halide with ballast that was a gift from a friend.
Thanks for the info, I’m going to go with the light I had posted l. It still has warranty and I’ve had bad experiences cheating out on things with other hobbies so I’m gonna go balls deep and spend the money and if all els fails hopefully I can get close to what I paid for it in resale
 

Troggy_420

Well-Known Member
Thanks! Another question, I have no idea how close to the seedlings/plants I can get with this light. Usually with my mh I’d go with how much heat it would throw off and adjust accordingly but seeing as this light will produce a lot less heat I haven’t got a clue how close I can get.
 

oldtimer54

Well-Known Member
It's better to start out a little high to begin with.
Once the seedings pop thru the ground you should be able to judge if they need the light closer. Your new light should have some info that can give you a starting point
I'm sure you've seen spindly seedings before.
You'll have to judge for yourself. If you're to close you'll just fry them. I checked out the light you were thinking about purchasing and if I remember it was dimmable . Start out on the lowest setting it will allow u to move the light closer. My lights have a veg/bloom setting I germinate my seedlings on the veg setting.
Once again good luck to you !
 

Troggy_420

Well-Known Member
It's better to start out a little high to begin with.
Once the seedings pop thru the ground you should be able to judge if they need the light closer. Your new light should have some info that can give you a starting point
I'm sure you've seen spindly seedings before.
You'll have to judge for yourself. If you're to close you'll just fry them. I checked out the light you were thinking about purchasing and if I remember it was dimmable . Start out on the lowest setting it will allow u to move the light closer. My lights have a veg/bloom setting I germinate my seedlings on the veg setting.
Once again good luck to you !
Got her home! And yea there is a dimmer option available but doesn’t come with it l, if have to order and install myself. Thanks for sending luck imma need it haha
 

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Bean 01

Active Member
I'm new to using led grow lights I have always grown in small spaces I have used cfls and hps before and have ran into temperature issues with those so this time round cheap Chinese led ufo lights in a 60x60 tent so far buds look good flowering for 9wks now with some Amber trichomes appearing on the buds
 

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SubOne

Active Member
I purchased the Phlizon Cree COB 2000w LED because after some research I thought it was the best for my grow environment.

Coming from CFL's I am super pleased with how this handled 5 plants and this is only my 2nd grow. I didn't maximize coverage on my tent, but I am learning.

This light has 4 built in IR sensors and I feel like they have helped with creating resinous plants. It's a full spectrum light with 450 something watts to draw. Two plants (Thor's Hammer) started blooming late as hell so they set my time back several weeks but that's what the close up is of, as of today.

This light is just what I need for my setup and I can't wait to see what happens with 2 plants in 5 gallon pots scrogged.

20190908_221435.jpg20191102_230822.jpg20191102_230729.jpg20191124_202811.jpg20191115_005722.jpg20191115_005410.jpg20191115_005136.jpg
 

GreeneryBob

Well-Known Member
I have to say, for all the Mars Hydro bashing, I've just flowered a 4x4 tent on them and I'm impressed.

I normally grow NFT, 5 plants to a 4x4ft tent, 400w MH veg, 600w HPS flower.

Depending on the strain, I get between 11 and 14 ounces. That's proper dry - self use dry - not "nearly dry" to sell. Mostly around 12 ounces. So we are looking at 0.5 to 0.6 gm per watt (my 600 HPS on digital ballast pulls 640w from the wall). I reitterate, dry - I see buds that get sold (someone else I know) and our idea of dry and cured are different, through different motivation.

The latest crop, I vegged with 400W MH, but then switched to LED for all of the flowering phase. I picked up two Mars Reflector "blurple" 144 LED units - the long ones with three panels in each . One is the older 3w led version, and the other the newer 5w led version. I paid around £100 GBP each. Together they pull 540 watts from the wall in full-on mode (veg & bloom both on).

Flowering was markedly different. The buds started with many more white hairs than I'm used to. Very neat. When the buds actually started getting bigger they were much much denser than I'm used to. Very dense structure, more compact and less airy than I'm used to (Purple bud, growing from cuttings used under HPS previously). Almost "knuckle like" in their density. Strikingly different. Also no signs at all of heat stress or bleaching. I kept the lights about 1ft above the canopy.

Because the two rectangular lights fill the space so well in a 4x4 tent I got very even bud sizes across the canopy, rather than the giants being focussed nearer the middle.

I also didn't notice any difference at all betweem the side with 3w leds, and the side with 5w leds. Which wasn't a big surprise as they pull a very similar current from the wall.

I weighed it up tonight. Again, properly twig-snapping dry. Done slowly over 2 weeks. They stink before they've been near the curing jars. 9 Oz. So thats 0.46 gm / watt.

Not bad at all. Not far behind my HPS average (0.51 and 0.60 at best) with a very easy to harvest crop (neat compact dense buds), and all running around 2 degrees C lower than my HPS.

I bought a third light for less than £100 too, so I might try flowering with all three next time.

Are they worth the money at full price? Definitely not. Lower yield for a LOT of money of you bought two at RRP you'd be short of £420, whereas an £80 HPS setup would yield more. But as an experiment, I was impressed. If I lived somewhere where the heat was a problem it would be an attractive option, and based on my simple experiment, I can confirm they are not "shit" / "junk" :-)
The problem with those lights isn't that they don't work, photons are photons. The problem is the efficiency and efficacy. You can get similar or better efficiency from some HIDs than from most blurply LEDs and low grade white diode arrays.

So in the end, whether or not mars are shit depends on your goals.
For me, they are shit.
For someone with one small light in a closet, they might be worthwhile.
Check out the migro videos on youtube for light to light comparisons.
 

Bean 01

Active Member
Just a top bud pic of my bag seed 9 weeks flowering under a 360w ufo led 85 true watts in a 60x60x140 tent this bud survived being 5 inches away from it the leaves got a bit heat stressed towards the end but a thumbs up from me for LEDs and small spaces obviously large grows in big spaces is a different ball game all together
 

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