Lighting Forced to switch to Led need some advice.

[venomous]

Hope this is the right section ( this forum is huge! ).
To make a long story short, I am on my first attempt in growing cannabis ( i need it for me ) and so I've purchased everything.
The problem is that i live in a very hot place (right now 25° and 70° of umidity) so picking up a 150W HPS hasn't been a wise choice.
Let me say that for the past 8 days I haven't slept fighiting with with my setup trying to cool down the temperature, so yesterday I removed the reflector and I'm using some CFL (I'm still at day 5 from sprouting) and I really don't know how i managed to not get my royal cheese and maxi gom burned!
Right now I have no problem managing temperature and so my idea is to pick up a led panel.
I have SJ Dark room 60X60X170 and because my budget is not very high I don't want mistake.
I have seen some vipar led 300W but if I'm not mistaken someone on this forum pointed out the vipar led lacks of red light.
Any suggestion? I would love to have a led that can compare or better outperform a 250W HPS.
Thanks in advance.

 

[thetreeman]

A Mars 2 400 or reflector series would work well.

 

[sniper]

I'd suggest looking into the mars hydro reflector series I have the 192 x 3 reflector in a 3 foot by 3 foot tent and love it only raises the ambient temp by 3 to 5 degrees F

 

[venomous]

Thanks guys!
So looking into this:
http://www.mars-hydro.com/mars-ii-led-grow-light-400w.html
This one uses 5W led, while this uses 3w led http://www.mars-hydro.com/reflector-led-grow-light-96-3w-99.html
Considering the shiiping costs (I live in europe) I can afford it.
Should I get in touch with them and ask for a specific spectrucm or just decide wich pick up? the reflector series allow me to save some money, while the 400W has the 5W led.
Thanks again!

 

[thetreeman]

If it was up to me, Id get the reflector series, actual draw is similar but its a larger light so youll get better coverage and you have the ability to reduce heat and power consumption during half of your grow....

 

[thetreeman]

You can also look at the cidly apollo series lights, they might be a tad more expensive but they will customize your spectrum at no additional charge. I can give you a contact there if you are interested in those. Also I can recommend a spectrum or you can figure one out for yourself.....

 

[venomous]

So guys after looking for two days I'm still undecided.
So in few words, I have the heat problem and looking on another forum one sales employee pointed out to the fact that MARS 2 400W generate more heat than reflector series.
So now I'm looking into reflector series.
I'm stil undecided on two factor.
Considering that my grow tent is 60X60cm 2X2 I must decide if take just one 300W reflector or 2 150W reflector.
The second factor is the led ratio, basically they can change it as reported here:
http://www.mars-hydro.com/led-grow-light/reflector-series

1. LED wavelengths can be specified by the customer, we recommend using the 620-630nm and 640-660nm for red light, 450-460nm and 460-470nm for blue light.
2. The proportion of different lights can be specified by the customer. We recommend the ratio (red: blue) 8:1 or 7:2, or (red, blue, orange) 7:1:1, with mixed light to the plants.

I like the veg/bloom button, but considering my very limited led experience I don't know too much about the color the use this one:

430~440nm, 450~475nm, 620~630nm, 650~670nm, White, Real Infrared spectrum: 730nm

I hate to say this but I did some bad purchase and now I'm in rush to find a good light.
As far as I've read the problem with led happens during flowering due the lack of reds while vegging is awesome.
If the spectrum is good i have only to decide if pick up just one panel or two.
Thanks to everyone for the help!

 

[thetreeman]

The standard light would be fine for your needs, I wouldnt pay extra for a custom spectrum. Most of these lights are designed to grow 'plants' and they know more about spectrum than most of us do. Id get the 96 x 3 for your grow area, its quite small and dealing with 2 lights in that area would be tough

 

[venomous]

The standard light would be fine for your needs, I wouldnt pay extra for a custom spectrum. Most of these lights are designed to grow 'plants' and they know more about spectrum than most of us do. Id get the 96 x 3 for your grow area, its quite small and dealing with 2 lights in that area would be tough

Thanks, but let's say that I'm able to manage the two panels ideally it's better to have just one or two so maybe you can change angle or raise down one panel if you need more light in one spot?

 

[thetreeman]

I like 2 lights for the ability to angle them for better penetration, also there is some redundancy in case one would fail, you wont go lightless for a week waiting for a replacement.... Also during seedling stage, one light will be plenty, for at least the first couple weeks.