That's a step down from the A51. Diamond's are better regarded and the DS-100 would fit that space better for $300. I'd do the A51 and supplement.
rw150, xgs190, or sgs160 would be perfect in there if you ask me
Not sure if those are two unrelated thoughts or you're saying TopLED doesn't have IR. Their product description says it does.[1]
You're the best! Thank you!!!!!!!!
Az, not that I have anything against the company, but I tried and documented the results of flowering with those Top LED reflector panels. Summary is at the top of the page, even if you don't read the whole thread, read this page. They're good for vegging, not for flowering, you'd probably flower as well or better with CFL's...
There are people using those lights and getting at least good results. I don't see why your experience outweighs theirs. But, your experience definitely outweighs my non-experience opinion.
I can only go by what I saw/experienced, and I'm not new to growing, with almost 30 years of growing MJ I know what to expect from a plant. They flowered my plants but there was no density/weight, 2 times in a row. I then switched lights to CMH, grew out a clone from the same plant I flowered under the Topled panels, used the same methods/medium/nutes/environment and produced 3 times the weight from the same plant/strain. It was imo a fair comparison in a controlled test. So they can produce flowers, if you're ok with say 1/2 to 1/3rd of what you could potentially get using the same amount of power/costs and better technology. As far as recommendations go on the low end LED's I would only comment on them if I'd seen them or experienced them first-hand, so no recommendations there. I'd recommend the CMH lights but they're too big for your space and require about 33" to the top of the canopy (13" to hang + 20" above the canopy) so you'd need say 60" height minimum. I'm sure they've been mentioned already, for your space, the A51's, Hans, Onyx, DIY 3070 COB's have been documented by many experienced growers here, I'd trust their capabilities/recommendations based on following many grows that were well documented by long term/respected members here.There are people using those lights and getting at least good results. I don't see why your experience outweighs theirs. But, your experience definitely outweighs my non-experience opinion.
Is there anything you would recommend in that cheap import category? And, did you use it?
I just ordered my two RW-75's my 36"x20" tent. In order to plan ahead of time, would you guys suggest the light be supplemented with something? I started thinking about it and 155W sounds pretty weak. Getting cold feet
Around 23w sq./ft seems to be what the RW's listed coverage comes out to. That's about what's often recommended here for higher-efficiency lights like A51. Your space comes out to 30w sq./ft. That extra might be unnecessary, but you shouldn't have to worry if you have enough.I just ordered my two RW-75's my 36"x20" tent. In order to plan ahead of time, would you guys suggest the light be supplemented with something? I started thinking about it and 155W sounds pretty weak. Getting cold feet
That's fair. I'm assuming from grower photos that TopLED is as good as a typical Chinese import. I.e., what I see from TopLED users is similar to photos posted by common/generic import grows. Maybe they ran more power than you did. It's common for TopLED users to throw 40w sq.ft at their grow.
yum how much space did you have there?
On second thought I'll be fine. If I would like more wattage I can always get another RW75 in there
2.5 x 3 . When they bud flopped it was a 3x3 for a week til I staked them.
Actually, second round which I documented here, I thought the same thing, not enough light/power first round. So when I went into flowering I threw 100W per plant, 300W in a 2x4', or 37.5W/sq. ft., got same results as the first run. After my experience and reading hundreds of forums/tech articles, I finally came to the conclusion it's not about raw watts, it's about efficiency and spectrum. That's what the higher end panels offer, why they cost more, and why they produce more, better quality/more efficient components. If you're on a tight budget, and you don't mind lower yields until you can afford something higher end, they're not expensive, try it and either build one or buy a higher end panel later? Not from experience, but from reading and watching some grows here, you may want to consider Vipar's if you're going to the low end. They seem at least a little better than the LG reflectors from Topled, although one I followed where he posted the actual/final yield, found the same thing, he wasn't happy with the final weight, a lot of fluff. He ended up using the Vipar for side lighting and threw a small hps in there for flowering, got much better results with that setup, you could consider that but it may be too hot for your space/overhead room. You'd have to run that by the hps folks as I don't know enough about operating hps in a small cabinet. Here's a link to his results with the Vipar, a good summary of the results/grow are on page 6/7 not the greatest, same thing I found, although he was running less wattage than I did.
