Upgrading LED Lights

medidedicated said:

I have two 2.5x5’s that are 6.5’ tall and a 3x3 all flower tents. My style is 2.5x2.5’ wide plants with 6-6.5’ height and 3x3x6 for the first time.

So nothing bigger than 3x3x6 or the other tents any time soon and thats fine. I love the results of them.

I had evolved a bit growing wise especially doing clone side by sides same plant. Using minimal lighting, knock off brands and now sufficiently with mars hydro.

They work perfect for 2.5x2.5 but dont like the hazard. I see now a viparspectra p1500 is the same footprint. I just read theyre safer, is it?

Im interested in trying them out after my mars lights run their course.

What are key differences between the two? Why do my mars lights produce the best quality and yield and how could it compare to VS P1500?

Using this thread to evolve my knowledge and possession of lights eventually to HLG but why? Ill leave it at that.

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I'm missing a light with a switch, more blue in veg, more red in flower.

But generally, the only reason you'd be getting better results with one brand over the other is spectrum. You're better off getting a light that is geared towards RGB ratios, with higher concentration of red in the spectrum, as plants seem to like that more. The Diablo X is a good example of a spectrum which does away with human centric measures of light and puts them into plant centric measures. In my opinion you are better off getting a light which has a spectrum with a learning curve, because once you dial it I'm your results will also improve a lot. If you look at the commercial Philips High Output lights, they seem blurple, with high red ratio, some white and little blue. That type of lighting is used a lot in commercial applications, and usually requires advanced growing knowledge, but once it's dialled in you get better quality and more yield.

Lets get this party started! Unboxing tha andre 3000.

Im watchin threads learnin about diy but yea Im still in the realm of buying already made. Il some day start to understand how it goes. So far just lots of talk about 3737 or something similar and thermal pads shit I have no idea what it means but Im trying!

Yayaaaw!

Here we go! Love it so far, when I turned it on it was like a flash bang I was blinded for a second and couldnt open my eyes!

Damn I never done a 3/3 before one plant but realizing its only 3” wider all around from my 2.5x2.5 plants not 6”. Thats not much a difference, why so many watts? Just better 900ppfd coverage all around map thats it I guess.

Just weirder now because I already couldnt understand why its almost my entire 2.5x5 in one square but like 3 square foot. Yet my other tents get 150w for just 3” smaller all around.

Kinda a bad thing IMO kinda killed the vibe.

Maybe this a new chapter in growing and looking at things wrong. I never ran it yet but what if I got like 3oz more easily with potential for more if I tweek veg time. I notice the plants just give out in places and have uumph in orhers where theres more hormone naturally.

7wk veg is like 7oz 10wks did 8oz a plant. Im doing a run now that did 8wks veg yield is to be determined. My sweet spot is 8wks veg to just fit snug not smushed against wall in my 2.5x5.

So maybe my 2.5x5 is under lit and my 3/3 addequettely. My mars hydro each light could be 222w instead of 150w and might see more yield? Is this why people are addicts to buying lights? lol.

medidedicated said:

So maybe my 2.5x5 is under lit and my 3/3 addequettely. My mars hydro each light could be 222w instead of 150w and might see more yield? Is this why people are addicts to buying lights? lol.

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Yes and I got it bad. bought my 2nd light before my first seed popped.

Hello my name is Jimski and Im a growahalic.....

Wedge clothes hanger in corner now I got like 3’ width and 5.5’ length of tent instead of 2.5x5 with loss due to negative air pressure sucking in walls. Tent must be baggy though. Like reaal baggy.

Vivosun tents be like that I noticed but my 2.5x5 was the worst. Awesome idea thanks to whoever shared that.

∆∆∆∆∆∆∆
And Jimski shamelessly steals another idea from Rollitup..........

@Rocket Soul Indont want to highjack thread but the taste blind thread, you say a lot of leds today are same spectrum that improvements can be seen adding red and blue violet back to the spectrum..

Is there any easy way to do this just buying supplemental lighting? Is that way people by specific bars to hang beside their lights? I never thought it was noticably different to look into it more.

But your last couple comments there were super interesting Im inspired to give it a try.

Now I see what one meant about looking into hps or cmh but even thinking it through my setup just wouldnt work with them. I need the low heat and electricity costs but hate the idea of less quality. I already went this far its crazy to hear that the market doesnt have the best available.

medidedicated said:

@Rocket Soul Indont want to highjack thread but the taste blind thread, you say a lot of leds today are same spectrum that improvements can be seen adding red and blue violet back to the spectrum..

Is there any easy way to do this just buying supplemental lighting? Is that way people by specific bars to hang beside their lights? I never thought it was noticably different to look into it more.

But your last couple comments there were super interesting Im inspired to give it a try.

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Ive not seen the type of supplementation i use in any bars on the market. Theres some far red bars and uv bars of both mars and spiderfarmer i think but i find them slightly lacking in some ways. And also very expensive.

Another issue is that the effect of the supplemention i use seems to vary depending on what led lighting spectrum it is added to.
Im not the kind of person who wants to give bad advice or sell things that arent usefull for the buyer but i do have some cool things im working on.
If you allow me to highjack your thread ill drop a pic of the strips im looking at doing a production run of:



Also likely to make some uv supplement strips with a really complete and thought out spectrum. Seems like its hard to go wrong with uv; some of our cuts got some unappealing celery smells that i didnt like along with those volatiles.

If youre after info i can give you this: 2:1 uv diodes at 400 and 365nm gave us very consistent results but not all the way info volatiles. Just tastes and smells better to me and anyone ive shown it to. But with too much uv added to an already blue heavy spectrum may run into yield loss.

Unfortunately im away from growing until next year as i help out family in my home country. So i cant really make anymore tests right now. But im at least working on some things in the background and being home means that im saving up some funds for my project.

Awesome! Thanks, yea no problem with sharing any info you have. It seems like something that involves research which Im not keen on so reading what people have to say helps. Like reading subtitles while hearing a language youre trying to learn. With out the marketing.

After xmas im likely to have some things going but since im in testing phase im very keen on keeping all my gear in grows somewhere close by, so that i can get good info and feedback and give proper support. Theres also the issue of shipping strips around worldwide- i have no experience in how to make sure a 3 foot strip wont get bent or destroyed in shipping. I may have to do some boards aswell i guess. But as always finance is an issue, cant do everything at once and its hard to know if this is something that actually would sell. Seems like the whole growlight game is all about cheapest price point per efficiency level and these diodes arent the best for par efficiency.

Rocket Soul said:

Ive not seen the type of supplementation i use in any bars on the market. Theres some far red bars and uv bars of both mars and spiderfarmer i think but i find them slightly lacking in some ways. And also very expensive.

Another issue is that the effect of the supplemention i use seems to vary depending on what led lighting spectrum it is added to.
Im not the kind of person who wants to give bad advice or sell things that arent usefull for the buyer but i do have some cool things im working on.
If you allow me to highjack your thread ill drop a pic of the strips im looking at doing a production run of:

View attachment 5430831

Also likely to make some uv supplement strips with a really complete and thought out spectrum. Seems like its NOT hard to go wrong with uv; some of our cuts got some unappealing celery smells that i didnt like along with those volatiles.

If youre after info i can give you this: 2:1 uv diodes at 400 and 365nm gave us very consistent results but not all the way info volatiles. Just tastes and smells better to me and anyone ive shown it to. But with too much uv added to an already blue heavy spectrum may run into yield loss.

Unfortunately im away from growing until next year as i help out family in my home country. So i cant really make anymore tests right now. But im at least working on some things in the background and being home means that im saving up some funds for my project.

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Sorry that shoulda read NOT hard to go wrong with uv.

Id like parse my words a bit aswell; the things we done with spectrum has sometimes not been very noticeable aswell, especially if drying and cure wasnt done slow and well.

I expected great potency increase from adding uvb on one of my lights but the whole thing didnt quite materialize, making me think that my most heavily built out light was a complete failure: no noticeable movement on yield and potency. But with time i learnt to appreciate the subtle difference in terp profile of this light. But i do admit that im looking for the last little decimals of improvement in crop value and that quality is very subjective. Im sure some would take our most favored bud, squeeze it a bit and notice it somewhat less dense than what you get under standard HE fixtures and discard it as lower quality; never mind the smells. It seems like yield, in your face fragrance and density all have a relationship; you kinda have to choose 2 of them and the only way to get all three is to increase watts and intensity to where its kinda hard to grow, especially if you cannot fully control your grows temps and rh perfectly.

medidedicated said:

Here we go! Love it so far, when I turned it on it was like a flash bang I was blinded for a second and couldnt open my eyes!

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Congratulations the ks is a great light I got my second 1 last week they rock in a 3/3 good for veg and flower. Enjoy your grow!

Its in action. Its drippin its flippin and light timer set. Sucks its on during night off during day but thats the level I took things too, too much amps drawn cant afford anymore. Im barely ok and might even need to run a lead for 400w for tv and console to be safe.

So if this was a grow room id only afford 400w more and I think I cant even do that as explained. Its pushin it without a lead.

Day one sleeping next to the 3x3 with the light on all night and off all day. Not bad but was 78F its still cooling down for the fall/winter. I used to not be able to stand 68F and above idk how I got used to 80-85F temps to sleep and live in.

I guess when you really want something youll change for it lol.

I had my window vent off I didnt want to risk getting too cold but the fact that was off is good. That means I could of made it much cooler last night.

Looks like its already getting burned by the light. Droopy which is unusual. Soon probably will show fish bone pattern. Dimming to 75%.