First grow with led lights, need a third panel for bloom

analog1961

analog1961

Well-Known Member
Hey everyone, I have a 2'x4'x5' tent with 2 viparspectra 300W with true 272W for the 2 combined. I'm looking for a 3rd light for flowering, my budget is low for the grow in this tent so the limit is about $100 for a new light. I have an electrical engineering background so for my second 2x4 (which I will buy the same time as the light) I'll build a cob system. Currently I have 4 critical kush and 4 bruce banner clones. The critical kush will be ready to flower in 2-3 weeks and the bruce banner are younger, I'll move them into the 2nd tent when I start flowering. I'm at 34W/square foot now. A cheap cob ($100) like the roleadro 400W cob draws 200W so that would get me to over 50W/square foot. Is the spectrum of this light better for flowering than another viparspectra?
 
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analog1961

analog1961

Well-Known Member
1.jpg

The center is a stressed critical kush clone just beginning to recover after a week under lights and on the sides 4 bruce banner clones I got for free because the 4 critical kush clones I bought had been stunted and I wasn't happy. The owner of the cloning company gave me 4 bruce banner clones that were in small pots for 2 weeks and they responded immediately to the lights, they've been in the tent for 1 day.
 
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newguy123

newguy123

Well-Known Member
If you have a tight budget then why would you buy a light if you are planning on building a cob later on? That would be a waste of time and money.

You should keep going with what you have and once your grow is finished you should decide if it wise to continue and if so build your cob setup.

My advice would be to have your two 2x4x5' tents. The first tent for veg and your mother plants (so you don't have to buy seeds or clones all the time). That tent would have 2x 50 Watt 6500k LED cob. The second tent would be for flowering, which will run 4x or 6x 50 Watt 3500k LED cob.

For more information about building your cob system, hop into the LED sub-forum in the Indoor grow section. You can also get the best tutorial for LED cob on Youtube, just look for growmau5's channel.
 
analog1961

analog1961

Well-Known Member
I'm disabled and on a fixed income. I'd have to accumulate parts over several months to build a quality cob light. I thought 50W/sq. ft. was the required power density for flowering. That's why I plan to buy a light now. I could however buy inexpensive high output cobs and use pc heat sinks and a pc power supply adapted for a constant voltage system and build a 400W parallel system. Building is not always an option because of a nerve disorder that affects my hands. I've grown before so I'm not concerned about abject failure on this grow and I want to expand to a 2 tent perpetual system with a 3rd veg area. And I plan to use clones as much as possible from mother plants I'll start from the 2 strains I have now. So for $100 if what is a good choice in pre built lights if I want more red and power for flowering? A 200W roleadro, a 250W 2700K cfl or viparspectra again? I can move the plants I'm going to veg out of the tent into the room when I flower. I won't need a second tent until the 4 bruce banner get larger.
 
newguy123

newguy123

Well-Known Member
I did not know.

In your case,for 100$ I would recommend getting another viparspectra. The brand has a good reputation are the competitors are very similar. Also since you already have good results from your 2 units, you know what you'll get.
 
rkymtnman

rkymtnman

Well-Known Member
analog1961 said:
I'm disabled and on a fixed income. I'd have to accumulate parts over several months to build a quality cob light. I thought 50W/sq. ft. was the required power density for flowering. That's why I plan to buy a light now. I could however buy inexpensive high output cobs and use pc heat sinks and a pc power supply adapted for a constant voltage system and build a 400W parallel system. Building is not always an option because of a nerve disorder that affects my hands. I've grown before so I'm not concerned about abject failure on this grow and I want to expand to a 2 tent perpetual system with a 3rd veg area. And I plan to use clones as much as possible from mother plants I'll start from the 2 strains I have now. So for $100 if what is a good choice in pre built lights if I want more red and power for flowering? A 200W roleadro, a 250W 2700K cfl or viparspectra again? I can move the plants I'm going to veg out of the tent into the room when I flower. I won't need a second tent until the 4 bruce banner get larger.
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for a tight budget, try to find a philips 315 w lec ballast, a philips mogul base 315 lec bulb, a cheap reflector and build a LEC light. if you check around on ebay etc, you should be able to find the ballast for a 100, the bulb for a 100 and the reflector you could probably buy for 20 bucks used. you'd need 240 volt outlet or a step up xformer to run at 120v. that would be the best bang for your buck and would do a 3x3 or 2x4 almost perfect.
 
MonkeyPickAss

MonkeyPickAss

Well-Known Member
newguy123 said:
I did not know.

In your case,for 100$ I would recommend getting another viparspectra. The brand has a good reputation are the competitors are very similar. Also since you already have good results from your 2 units, you know what you'll get.
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I would agree.
 
M

Medicine Being

New Member
I personally have had good luck with the Galaxyhydro 300w (the full spectrum one for $89.99 on amazon as oppossed to the 9 band). It has a much more red spectrum designed for bloom than the Viparspectra (Vipars are beasts for veg though) & the Galaxy comes with a two year warranty, so if something happens before you build your cob, you would be covered :bigjoint:
 
analog1961

analog1961

Well-Known Member
Medicine Being said:
I personally have had good luck with the Galaxyhydro 300w (the full spectrum one for $89.99 on amazon as oppossed to the 9 band). It has a much more red spectrum designed for bloom than the Viparspectra (Vipars are beasts for veg though) & the Galaxy comes with a two year warranty, so if something happens before you build your cob, you would be covered :bigjoint:
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I'm thinking of buying a Galaxyhydro 300W and a Viparspectra 300W. I forgot that when I flower 3 critical kush and move 1 and the 4 bruce banner out I'll need a light outside of the tent (duh). The red to blue ratio (# of leds) is pretty high for the Galaxyhydro 300W 7:1. I'm seriously considering adding one to the tent. I can make 1 major purchase a month so I guess it will be 2 lights now and a tent etc. next month.
 
analog1961

analog1961

Well-Known Member
I'm going to convert a roleadro 400W. I'll use it with all original parts except for swapping the two cobs for 1212s and using 2 of 4 drivers available. Later I'll convert a viparspectra and maybe change drivers etc. Seems to be an easy way to get into better lighting.
 
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