240w Blackstar Led or 400w HPS

I am setting up my grow tent and i have done mad research over the past few months on every aspect of grow room design but i cant decide on which to by for a 60" tall by about 48 inch wide grow tent. I want your opinion of which to use plus the reason you chose it. Here are links to the 2. [URL="http://http://www.gothamhydroponics.com/grow-lights/gotham-hydro-led-grow-lights/blackstar-240w-led-grow-light-3w-cree.html"

[URL="http://http://www.gothamhydroponics.com/grow-light-systems/400w-hps-grow-light-system-cool-tube-deluxe.html"

If you can, both. =p But I would say the blackstar would do better with vegging but the 400w Hps will be better flowering.

I grow purely for the joy of growing and sharing such a great plant. I have previously done a few cfl grows but nothing big. So since im not making a ton of money, im kinda limited in funds. So i have to choose one or the other. I think it is a interchangeable mh/hps ballast.

They are both good. I have the 240w blackstar. It works great. Since you do it for the joy of growing, I would go with the Mh/Hps so you have a vegg light spectrum and then Hps for a flowering light spectrum.

Yes but wouldnt i need an inline fan for the cool tube?

Legalize the Herb said:

I grow purely for the joy of growing and sharing such a great plant. I have previously done a few cfl grows but nothing big. So since im not making a ton of money, im kinda limited in funds. So i have to choose one or the other. I think it is a interchangeable mh/hps ballast.

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A decent 400 watt hps grows gonna cost around 600 bucks to setup. Your fan and ventilation is going to cost you (ducting is expensive and does not grow on trees. Getting a good camfan is expensive, don't cheap out on a camfan b/c the ones without nice ballbarrings cost more to operate (a lot more). Your led can be cooled down super easy. throw up cfls around the sides or better yet mount t5s on the sides. you'll get a nice hall, and you wont worry about the heat come july.

That all said the summer come and past. if u want to make more bud go hps keep it cool and start working on put the rest of the room together before it gets hot again.

good growin hope this helps.

If your gonna go with LEd just go for the best ones cause i kno ppl who really regret getting cheap ones(blackstar). The thing about LED's is that u need to get a really gr8t balance in the color's and the bulbs needs to be able to penetrate the plants enough so u need to be looking for ones with 3w bulbs here's a link of a really good company with proven results. Trust me this led works great http://growledhydro.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=0&products_id=5 10 times better than crappy blackstar leds

I was only going with the blackstar because of its low cost, but the site you recommended looks like a much better light. Do you know someone that grows with it?

yes he grew sum amazing indica's. all of his colas were super dank! im tellin u thats how i found out about them.

first off your growing for joy who is she your wife ) anyways dont get fooled with LED if your goin to grow just splurge and get a 600 watter i am not sure but 400 watters i think dont think you can get a HPS bulb yet ( Don;t quote me on that )
Any grow room you need fresh air in and a exhaust fan if you look at even greenhouses they have them makes sense huh
i just read up on LED and 100 watts of led produce 7250 lumens ) kinda funny ya think where as a 600 HPS would produce 88,000 lumens then you wonder why LED doesn;t produce alot of heat ) so thinking about it 250 watt LED produces 18,125 lumens

400 watter will be like watching plaint dry its so slow growth lol

FlatTopBud said:

A decent 400 watt hps grows gonna cost around 600 bucks to setup. Your fan and ventilation is going to cost you (ducting is expensive and does not grow on trees. Getting a good camfan is expensive, don't cheap out on a camfan b/c the ones without nice ballbarrings cost more to operate (a lot more). Your led can be cooled down super easy. throw up cfls around the sides or better yet mount t5s on the sides. you'll get a nice hall, and you wont worry about the heat come july.

That all said the summer come and past. if u want to make more bud go hps keep it cool and start working on put the rest of the room together before it gets hot again.

good growin hope this helps.

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where the heck do you live, lol, I paid $331 for my switchable 1000 ballast, reflector, and bulb. My 250 CFM fan was $125 and the wind coming out of it is louder than the fan it self.

Go with the HPS, LEDs aren't very good. You just won't get the same amount compared to an HPS.

Alright. Quality over quantity imo. Im pretty fucking confused right now. Everyone is entitled to there own opinion and everyone has made me really start to question which i want to get. I have to be stealthy aboit this, i dont live alone. I need something thats going to fit in a small grow tent and is not going to raise my electric bills alot. I dont own any inline fans because iv only ever grown with cfls so i have pc fans. I would kinda like to stay around 500$ for the whole setup also. So please fire away with the options.

Heat watts are heat watts. But... The same wattage of heat from a 1300 degree temperature arc tube needs to be moved out so very fast. The 150 degree temperature from LED heat sinks can leave by slow motion with a tiny fan.
The temperature differential makes the HPS heat soak in faster, like you house cools faster when it is cold out.
The light per watt is higher with HPS, 140 lumen/watt, but no blue. The SAME lumens (not watts) with LED result in faster maturation over HPS, assuming blue in the LED.
Buckets of money for lumen match, actually takes about as many watts as HPS. The waste light from HPS is balanced by the lower light output per watt of the LED, the bucket of money is for at least 2 blackstars to match a 600w HPS.

I'm a refugee from a forum which had LED grow sticky's. Lots of growers use them with tremendous results. But these results are far from advertiser's claims. Expensive to startup correctly, but the growers say the longer life of LED's makes up for it, and then some.
I personally use 5000 watts of various HID, way too late for me to change over.

Damn. So i would definately need an inline fan, which will require for some ducting. By the way, i plan on growing in a closet underneath a stairway. Noone really even knows its there so i have to be really sneaky about it. The leds sound like the best option for me because i dont really want to setup a cool tube(which i will do if i go hps) and i dont really want to raise my electricity bill by a whole lot. Like i said, i would like to stay under or around 500$. Since leds are so expensive its been very hard to find a decent one for around 3 or 4 hundred. Some like blackstar, others dont. So far blackstar has the lowest price for what seems like the most. If any of you have alternate suggestions please give me a link. Im not completely set with led but until i hear differently i am just going to assume that it is the best option for my setup.

Nusky said:

where the heck do you live, lol, I paid $331 for my switchable 1000 ballast, reflector, and bulb. My 250 CFM fan was $125 and the wind coming out of it is louder than the fan it self.

Go with the HPS, LEDs aren't very good. You just won't get the same amount compared to an HPS.

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Plus a little over a hundred and fifty bucks in ducting, running through the attic and out the chimney; would put you at a bit over 600.

Legalize the Herb said:

Damn. So i would definately need an inline fan, which will require for some ducting. By the way, i plan on growing in a closet underneath a stairway. Noone really even knows its there so i have to be really sneaky about it. The leds sound like the best option for me because i dont really want to setup a cool tube(which i will do if i go hps) and i dont really want to raise my electricity bill by a whole lot. Like i said, i would like to stay under or around 500$. Since leds are so expensive its been very hard to find a decent one for around 3 or 4 hundred. Some like blackstar, others dont. So far blackstar has the lowest price for what seems like the most. If any of you have alternate suggestions please give me a link. Im not completely set with led but until i hear differently i am just going to assume that it is the best option for my setup.

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Under Stairs? dude forget the 400 and go microgrow. or get ur roommates in on it and go big.

DrFever said:

first off your growing for joy who is she your wife ) anyways dont get fooled with LED if your goin to grow just splurge and get a 600 watter i am not sure but 400 watters i think dont think you can get a HPS bulb yet ( Don;t quote me on that )
Any grow room you need fresh air in and a exhaust fan if you look at even greenhouses they have them makes sense huh
i just read up on LED and 100 watts of led produce 7250 lumens ) kinda funny ya think where as a 600 HPS would produce 88,000 lumens then you wonder why LED doesn;t produce alot of heat ) so thinking about it 250 watt LED produces 18,125 lumens

400 watter will be like watching plaint dry its so slow growth lol

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400 watters ive used in the past have made my plants grow quickly.also ofcourse you can get 400 watt hps bulbs(55000),aswell as dual spectrum(58000 lumens).they are good for a 1m square space.they will even work well enough in a 1.2 m square space.

DrFever said:

first off your growing for joy who is she your wife ) anyways dont get fooled with LED if your goin to grow just splurge and get a 600 watter i am not sure but 400 watters i think dont think you can get a HPS bulb yet ( Don;t quote me on that )
Any grow room you need fresh air in and a exhaust fan if you look at even greenhouses they have them makes sense huh
i just read up on LED and 100 watts of led produce 7250 lumens ) kinda funny ya think where as a 600 HPS would produce 88,000 lumens then you wonder why LED doesn;t produce alot of heat ) so thinking about it 250 watt LED produces 18,125 lumens

400 watter will be like watching plaint dry its so slow growth lol

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Where in the world are you that you haven't seen a 400w HPS before? The smallest I've seen is 35w, they come in a much wider variety of wattages than you think. And the reason LEDs have a lower lumen rating is because lumens measure light in the visible spectrum according to what we see (heavier emphasis on green and yellow). The further ends of the spectrum (red and blue) don't measure as high in terms of lumens but are utilized by plants more. The difference in spectrum output between HPS and LED is what accounts for the difference in lumen or lux readings from the lights.

your tent measure 4 foot x 4 x 5 foot high, go with the 600 light over the 400 if you go hps ive grew with both and the difference is huge! also i was able to go from a 400 hps without cooltube to a 600 with cooltube and the temps dropped a good 10 degrees.

Lumens are just a measurement of light visible to humans.

My 180watt Blackstar puts out over 14,000 lumens, and the vast majority of them are usable to the plant. I have it paired with a 100watt that puts out about 8500 lumens. Again, the vast majority of that light is usable to the plant.

I love my Blackstars... lol, probably going to get a 500 or 600 watt here shortly.


And you can get x2 500 Watt Blackstars (330 actual watt draw each) for the price of one GLH or one the Hydro Grow.... $/watt Blackstars are the cheapest, and they use quality CREE LED's...