I need to decide on new lighting for my grow tent

[Wienerwoods]

A few months back I purchased the 39x39x70 grow tent from Mars Hydro as a way to hopefully significantly improve my yields as when growing in my old 14.5x9.5 DIY cabinet I could only use one 35 watt grow light.

The yields were alright but my flat mate and I would always end up spending a dry month or two between harvests. Now that I have the tent I can use all the lights I have and I'm hoping to double my yields. Here's my current grow right now, they're about two weeks into 12/12 now:

Nothing special; old Ikea boxes, 10 liter buckets with drainage holes and lots of duct tape. In the front is Critical+ 2.0 from Dinafem and the one behind it is Northern Lights x Big Bud from World of Seeds. The black LED unit is the Blackstar 100W from Lighthouse Hydro and the white one is a customized one I ordered on aliexpress way back. Both draw about 35 watts in reality. The 'side lighting' consists of four 10W bulbs drawing about 18 watts. So around 88 watts of power consumption in total. That's every light I've ever used to grow cannabis.

But enough about the context. As is evident from the photo alone, there's a lot of room for improvement.

I've been looking at the Mars II 700 but since its production will apparently be discontinued in January I began to wonder if there either is or is going to be a better choice at around the same price and wattage. I really like reflectors on the Pro II Epistar 160 but the shape of the unit suggests an uneven spread.

Suggestions? Recommendations?

 

[Marshydro]

A few months back I purchased the 39x39x70 grow tent from Mars Hydro as a way to hopefully significantly improve my yields as when growing in my old 14.5x9.5 DIY cabinet I could only use one 35 watt grow light.

The yields were alright but my flat mate and I would always end up spending a dry month or two between harvests. Now that I have the tent I can use all the lights I have and I'm hoping to double my yields. Here's my current grow right now, they're about two weeks into 12/12 now:

Nothing special; old Ikea boxes, 10 liter buckets with drainage holes and lots of duct tape. In the front is Critical+ 2.0 from Dinafem and the one behind it is Northern Lights x Big Bud from World of Seeds. The black LED unit is the Blackstar 100W from Lighthouse Hydro and the white one is a customized one I ordered on aliexpress way back. Both draw about 35 watts in reality. The 'side lighting' consists of four 10W bulbs drawing about 18 watts. So around 88 watts of power consumption in total. That's every light I've ever used to grow cannabis.

But enough about the context. As is evident from the photo alone, there's a lot of room for improvement.

I've been looking at the Mars II 700 but since its production will apparently be discontinued in January I began to wonder if there either is or is going to be a better choice at around the same price and wattage. I really like reflectors on the Pro II Epistar 160 but the shape of the unit suggests an uneven spread.

Suggestions? Recommendations?

Hi @Wienerwoods Yeah, we already stop produced Mars II 700, but we have enough stock, so if you want to buy Mars II 700, don't worry, and we will still offer the warranty. those days we have Black Friday sales for American, UK, and Canadian customers.
25th Nov. we have mars II series on sale, it's 10% off,
26th Nov. we have tent on sale, it's 10% off
27th Nov. we have reflector series on sale, it's 10% off
28th Nov. we have Mars Pro II series on sale, it's 20% off
If you are from EU, you can send email us, and we will check the stock of UK warehouse, if there are stock in UK warehouse, we can arrange the shipment, but you need cover the shipping fee from UK to your home.

 

[Wienerwoods]

Hi @Wienerwoods Yeah, we already stop produced Mars II 700, but we have enough stock, so if you want to buy Mars II 700, don't worry, and we will still offer the warranty. those days we have Black Friday sales for American, UK, and Canadian customers.
25th Nov. we have mars II series on sale, it's 10% off,
26th Nov. we have tent on sale, it's 10% off
27th Nov. we have reflector series on sale, it's 10% off
28th Nov. we have Mars Pro II series on sale, it's 20% off
If you are from EU, you can send email us, and we will check the stock of UK warehouse, if there are stock in UK warehouse, we can arrange the shipment, but you need cover the shipping fee from UK to your home.

Thanks for the reply. Those deals look amazing, especially the Mars Pro II deal. However I forgot one crucial detail.

I'm planning to make the purchase early next year, most probably in January. Do you think you'll still have stock then? And what about when you've sold all of the II 700 units, what's going to replace it?

 

[Marshydro]

Hi Wienerwoods
Because Chinese Spring Festival in January, so we will have days off and we can't ship goods to our international warehouse, this month we will arrange the last shipment to international warehouse this year. If you want one, we can arrange the shipment.
Yes, we are design now models to replace the Mars II 700, we will have Mars Pro II epistar 80, the light you can combine them arbitrarily.
Though we stop producing Mars II 700, we will continue to provide the warranty.

 

[Wienerwoods]

Hi Wienerwoods
Because Chinese Spring Festival in January, so we will have days off and we can't ship goods to our international warehouse, this month we will arrange the last shipment to international warehouse this year. If you want one, we can arrange the shipment.
Yes, we are design now models to replace the Mars II 700, we will have Mars Pro II epistar 80, the light you can combine them arbitrarily.
Though we stop producing Mars II 700, we will continue to provide the warranty.

Can you describe the epistar 80? Sounds like I would have to buy several for my tent.
Reflector 192 is looking good too. Which light do you think I'd be better off with? I'm looking for maximum efficiency (max. gpw yields).

 

[Marshydro]

Can you describe the epistar 80? Sounds like I would have to buy several for my tent.
Reflector 192 is looking good too. Which light do you think I'd be better off with? I'm looking for maximum efficiency (max. gpw yields).

Hi Wienerwoods,
The Mars Pro II epistar 80 is still been developed, those light use the 5w epistar chips, it looks like our Mars Pro II epistar series, the only different is that this light you can combine them arbitrarily: two Mars Pro II epistar 80 can be spliced into 160, four Mars Pro II epistar 80 can be spliced into 320.

For now, Mars Pro II epistar 320 and Mars Pro II cree 256 are the best lights of our company, both of the light can compare 800w hps, their coverage are 4'x4'.but if you tight with your budget, you can check our reflector 192, it also a good light,the coverage is 4'x4', it can compare 450w hps.

 

[Wienerwoods]

Hi Wienerwoods,
The Mars Pro II epistar 80 is still been developed, those light use the 5w epistar chips, it looks like our Mars Pro II epistar series, the only different is that this light you can combine them arbitrarily: two Mars Pro II epistar 80 can be spliced into 160, four Mars Pro II epistar 80 can be spliced into 320.

For now, Mars Pro II epistar 320 and Mars Pro II cree 256 are the best lights of our company, both of the light can compare 800w hps, their coverage are 4'x4'.but if you tight with your budget, you can check our reflector 192, it also a good light,the coverage is 4'x4', it can compare 450w hps.

Thanks for the help! I'm pretty sure that I'll be getting the reflector 192. I just looked at some grows with it and now I'm really stoked!!

 

[Wienerwoods]

Hey @MarshydroTina! The reflector 192 seems to be sold out. I would like to order one now, how long will it take for you to restock?

Here's a pic of my plants now. Not much longer...Been extremely happy with the new tent!!

Happy New Year!