Mars-Hydro LED Grow Light Discussion

[Mars Hydro]

yes, it is.

Thanks again for everyone help. I will be going with the Mars2 400w Promo. is the Ebay account name Marshyrdo(7991) your store Sara

 

[ringusworm]

Hello Sara
i am about to start a small closet grow, after being outdoors for the last 15 years.
The area is a 120cmx50cmx180cm.
Can you recommenced the best light or lights for me ?
I have been looking at the reflector series and the Mars II series.
Temperature can range from 40c in summer to 10c in winter.
I will be running the system a night,night temps can drop to 2c.
Noise is also a factor.
Also how many plants will this area hold.
Regards
Ringus

 

[Mars Hydro]

you hit the point. The final result is influenced by many factors, lights, nutes, strains, growers. When the grow lets us down, we need to dig up the reason, whatever it is. I truly hope that everyone here will have a happy grow.

I have seen posts where the size of buds from LED'S is questioned and while I do not want to get involved with that argument I want to post some pics of what I have experienced in my current grow.


These are photos of a medium bud on one plant there are much larger with photos to come the soda can is a 12oz that had to be tilted so you can see it behind the bud

This is the largest top flower from a different plant the same strain from a top vendor, same pack just a different seed in the same tent, nutes are the same light is the same pot size is the same

So who's fault is it when our grows are not as large as what we expect ?
Seed vendors - they show us what we want to grow not necessarily what we get
Light Vendors - each is the best just ask them
Nutrient manufactures - it will turn a Daisy into a Redwood really it will
The Grower - If 7ml is good than 10ml is better, test equipment is not important, It's a weed stick it in the ground and harvest a Kg, Nutes? MG works on my tomatoes beside those others are too expensive, Let's alter the growth cycle, pull off all the leaves, tie it down, break branches then wonder why it is growing slow.

Bottom line is GENETICS and phenotype are the most important and that can be different from seed to seed then it's up to us to provide the proper environment, nutrients, water and control anything else that pops up

These were grown under both Mars 2 and Reflector series lights

Well said Randy

500gr, 40gr, what a big difference.

wow, I could not say better... genetics! can not be more coincident!!! and YES, it is a weed, that I grow outdoors for almost 15 years, and from exactly the same strain from the same top vendor in one year I harvested 500gr+ from one single plant, then next year I harvested 40grs from one single plant, as to repeat from exactly the same strain from the same top vendor. Again: same vendor same trusted, genetically stable (skunk!) strain in one year yields 500gr, other year yields 40gr... there are a huge amount of shit strains out there: you can get 600gr+ 35% thc, etc, bloody advertisment, but you got a trash plant that is not even able to stand on its roots, so weak and genetically unstable, what do you expect??!
buy quality seeds, bottom line, then find the best single plant from what you got and clone it for life...
(sorry for being off topic and not perfect english)

is there any way to check whether it's bad or good before purchasing it.

You are right on topic and made a important point even with the right equipment and a lot of time a bad plant is still a bad plant

 

[Mars Hydro]

Doozy, just don't give up on the leds, try small grow space and less plants with the leds, maybe you will get better result.

I've tried to find your high yield but thus far can only find a 81g harvest from a 400w M2, so that's under 0.5gpw actual.

I really don't want to come across as harsh here, but are we all somehow now happy with that kind of gpw??! I have friends who are consistently pulling 1.2gpw with HPS, time and time again, and yet somehow 0.5gpw is now being looked at as ok?

I documented my grow from start to finish and was honest throughout, and quite frankly i was hugely dissapointed with the harvest......and the more i read the more i am convinced that 0.5g wasn't actually that bad for these lights.

Sorry guys, but i'm not going though all that effort when my growing buddies are doubling, if not tripling my weight by using HPS.

As i said, the standard spectrum was great in veg and produced some gorgeous stocky plants, but they failed to deliver in flower. If you're happy with 0.5gpw or less, that's fine, but i for one am not.

Just my 2 cents.

the true watt of LED is better to be equal to that of HPS.

simply use more led panels ..... maybe this is not enought for your high rating setting. try to use the same watt as HPS .... or even 10-15% more ...... will still worth it cause leds produce very less heat, and heat is very big problems for all growers.

USE MORE LIGHTS POWER ... as many panels as you can instead of only 1 big, will be better light distribution

Perhaps you need to look at my journal mate....but thanks for the advice :/

Yes, if you have higher expectation for yield, better to go for more watt.

should be more than enough

Tell me about it.....anyway no point crying over spilt milk.

you will do better for the second.

I can't, since I do not own and run any led lights yet... but very soon... still looking around.

I'm just saying with this set you might have grown decent quantity, at least on the basis of what I see in some other Mars journals. Anyways, I'd be happy with 0.5gr/watt for first grow.

Doozy, if it's due to the light, try to add more watts during flower.

'Tell me about it' is just a saying we use in the UK....it means i agree, basically it's sarcasm.....sorry i forget sometimes that this is an international forum!

I think if i switch things up a bit there is no reason not to hit 1gpw+ with my setup....as i said these lights are great in veg, but i'm aiming for bigger things in flower.

Just my opinion.

yep, didnt look at your journal before sorry ..... this setting seem very good but if you have 5X5 and you have 2300W of panels .... you can add more, even if it "seem" full. 3000W &+ for 25 sqft maybe better for very high rating settings.

yes, I am thinking the same, for the first time led grower, it may let you down, you need some time to adapt to it. For the second grow, you will probably get a good harvest.

I definitely would give a second shot for those leds... I did understand sarcasm in your post, actually I tried to be the same with mine

 

[Mars Hydro]

btw, back to the topic of this thread Randy, were those nice buds grown under Mars lights?

why don't you have journals?

haha, that's unfair, I am so much busy with the forum every day.

They were grown under Mars 2 and reflectors with a 60 X 5 thrown in to fill a low light area. I have not done journals due to lack of time it can be weeks before I even look at this forum

 

[Mars Hydro]

Congrats! New Lights! Sun is coming

Ordered late night Sun, shipped yesterday, arrived today. Xmas in July! Now, to wait until "sunrise" to shift things around a little bit.

 

[Mars Hydro]

I don't believe more grams is in direct proportion to more wall watts, other variables need to be taken into consideration. HPS needs to be equipped with accessories, which will consume power and produce extra heat. Another important advantage of led is effective spectrum for plant photosynthesis.

So basically you're saying forget HPS. Just throw as many wall watts of LED at a grow and you will achieve more grams per wall watt? What utter nonsense. You can't truly think that it's right to recommend 3000w of LED to gain a decent gpw when a lot of people are moving to LED's because of lower power consumption and less heat? I'd recommend that you have a think what you are saying before sliding away down that slippery slope of madness. 3000w LED would have more heat and power consumption than even a 1000 watt HPS. I still don't think that the gpw would improve either.

well said, there must be a reason why grower shifts from HPS to LED.

somes use same power or more power than HPS .... you still save a lot cause of ballast, ventilation, A/C and etc

maybe make no sense for you .... make sense for me

i really beleive he can get more grams per watt with more power everywhere, even if you dont understand the logic behind ...... you need around 1500W and more of HPS for that area, so 1350W and more of leds is almost the same and not overkill .... for very high rating settings

using the same watt as HPS or little more is not stupid too .... cause leds have many more advantages

me too i beleive i need little LESS than HPS .... but somes are using the same .... maybe they are right


never forget that marshydro panels are medium quality products ..... going for the same watts as HPS with medium quality product .... is not stupid .... its reality for somes


no, 1350w true watt of leds will not produce the same heat as 1500W HPS ..... not even the 1/3 .... nothing to compare

 

[Mars Hydro]

thanks, maccamoo, it's very thorough advice. hope to see your next grow journal with the led, if you have time.

Hi doozy just want over to your journal. I hold my hands up i went strate to the last few pages after the first page. Btw some setup you got there well dialed clean n tidy how it should be. Last page you mentioned your first actual weight and touched on what you expected the second and third stage harvest to be. Question is what was the final dry weight altogether? If it were around 500g as you thought then I get your pist with the result with that many panels although I would be happy I think. I understand also wat your saying with the 0.5gpw it does seem to be the target for most. But again see why your disappointed with it after all your training. I wouldn't give up on the leds. I would give it another bash. And I wouldn't add any more panels. For that space I think it's spot on. Specially as wall wats isn't as big of a thing with led and lumens/lux etc it's hard to find the perfect amount of light but I reakon uv got plenty. U mentioned less topping and bigging colas. Give it a go and il be sure to pull up a seat.
Iv grew for a fair few years now and iv never hit better than 0.7gpw. I recently bought a mars 2 1200. But only put it in the room a couple weeks into flower so can't get a good gauge yet vs hps. Next grows led start to finish. Sorry about the ramble
Peace

Doozy, I can see it, you must spend a lot on the tent and lights, the tent set-up is really awesome. I can feel how disappoint you are. If I decide to invest a lot money, efforts and time on something, it means I expect more from it. However, the thing doesn't go as planned. If I were you, I will be extremely discouraged, but please, just don't give up hope on them. Other growers can grow well, why can't you? If you want to do better, there is always a way for it. You have everything prepared well. Just keep learning, I believe you will have better grow for the second time.

Thanks for the advice friend. I'm certainly not going to throw these panels away as i've invested quite a lot of money in them, but with my type of setup i would expect around 1gpw if i'm dialed in. I really don't think that's too much too ask after all the work that has gone in to making that kind of tent.

In answer to your question, i hit around 440g, which is around 0.4gpw. However, i turn a lot of my trim into BHO so i don't trim the smaller buds at all......so in reality i hit closer to 500.

Putting any more panels in my tent is obviosly a ridiculous suggestion, and as i said before, the Mars 2s really did perform well in veg, the plants seemed to love them and i had very few issues with heat and nute def of any kind, but the plants clearly needed something else in flower. I know this is going to sound pretentious, but i could just tell that they weren't getting what they needed from the lights to start putting real weight on.

In my position i can only do one grow a year.....my setup is taken down each grow and then re-assembled, so i really need to get as much as i can from each grow. I think these lights still have a use in making a great start to a grow (i use them all the way from seed) all the way through veg, and perhaps even throughout the stretch, but when it comes to big fat buds, i'm not convinced these lights are up to it, so i'm revertng back to HPS for that part of the grow.

I'm a big fan of LEDs, my whole house if full of LED tech, but i don't think budget grow light LED technology is quite there yet.

thanks, Icemud, this is a good advice.

Hey Doozy, I just took a look at your grow and see your want for a higher g/watt, have you tried lowering the lights? By the looks of it you have the 400w versions? When I checked the PPFD (PAR measurements) of the 400w panels, the ideal height was around 12-15" from the top of the canopy, anymore may not provide enough photon count to really give you the boost you are looking for. What are your lights at now in distance from the canopy? Seems like you have the right amount of lights in there, but I think if you lowered them you would have much better results. Just a suggestion for you. Hope it helps.

maybe next time, you should try 12"~18" hanging distance during flower. 18"~24" is the recommendated height for veg.

Hi Icemud, always good to hear from you! I hope you're well.

I was keeping the lights at rounghly 18-20inches from the canopy during flower.

In hindsight i should have tried different heights for all the lights and see which height works best. I did post numerous questions about the ideal height above the canopy but at the time no-one seemed to have a definitive answer so i stuck with around 18inches.

It's a good suggestion to lower them a bit so thanks for that.

Cheers.

thank you, you are somebody to me, haha.

I always run my 400's at around 12 inches during flowering. I've never got any bleaching either, but I do always have my plants on a 16 inch turntable and rotate them daily. I did have a Northern Lights that stretched all the way to up about 6 inches to the light, and I couldnt raise the light any higher, and it never got burned or bleached. I had a small fan that blew across between the light and plant so that might've helped some.

Oh and thanks for your hard work on all your videos!

 

[Mars Hydro]

Dennise! Hello, haha, I want to hear what they are wispering.

Good morning Sara... Just a peek inside the tent under the 2 Mars II 400's and the 144x5w reflector.....

I like those little stands you have! Where did you find them at?

thanks.

I got them at the dollar store for $3... they work great too and fit the 5 gallon smart pots perfectly....

 

[ganjazz]

Started new round with 6 auto's, 3 weeks weeks veg under TL, than place them under 48x3w and two 60x5w

----------------------

Soon now, couple weeks before harvest

 

[CO Finest]

Ok I got to get a post in for US that don't care as much for weight to sale on the street but for the medical side, I double dog dare any of you HPS growers to have a LED and HPS yield tested and compare your results from a real lab which I do all the freaking time and I grow with both and only do until I can afford to replace my two 1k HPS and two 1k Mh with led. Also if doing a grow to compare If it is from seeds it is a junk grow to start with right there. If you know ANYTHING about plants and genetics then you would know EVERY seed is going to grow different no matter what you do and what strain. If it is not two clones took from the same plant from the same part of the healthy mother and root and grow at the same rate with good health then it is a bad test all the way. To many B.S grows out here giving wrong info by doing small things like that to try to prove a point. If you can sit there and know the spectrum a HPS/MH puts out being omni directional with all the light it puts out versus a LED that is directional putting all light in the direction needed and say HPS/MH is better then please please go back to school and learn which might just stop most of the LED hatters that are still trying to come up with ever B.S reason they can think of. I get it you can't afford to switch I understand that I am same boat on one of my grows and I understand you are use to old ways which yes 25+ years I have been growing, I get that to which yes I used a street light or two in CAL back in the day (step father worked for county of SD lol) so easy to get. What I can tell you is yes with less light spectrum you need less growing skills with nutes I will give you that. To have a spectrum that is closer to sun indoors you will need to know your strains and nute control better.If most of the LED growers paid attention you would see plant wants more cal/mag and nutes. I hope I can get away with not getting into that reason why and trust common sense would answer that. Same thing as asking some HPS growers why they like 600 over 1k, it is a personal reason like growing with any light but facts are facts. Sit here and argue all you want but I will say if you just put all that B.S to growing and just show your grows you will get your own personal point and reasons of your choices across much better and not wast everyone's time on he say she say crap. Hey Chevy's are faster then fords but I rented a Honda and past them both when they ran out of gas... Good luck on your fight to go no where. That is my two cents and if you would like to reply please private message and not waste post on other peoples or companies forums.I wish you all the best and what ever way you all grow much respect. Enjoy what you get out of it, for the love of growing..

 

[Mars Hydro]

THANK YOU! CO Finest! Our New Cree light will be released in August.

Well with all the Epistar led talk I have seen here I thought this would be a good time to show you all a look at the new Mars Hydro light that is going to have a option for CREE or Epistar led in it.
Here is the Epistar

And here is the CREE

Mars Hydro is going big... Keep it growing green..

Ha, our new Cree light has two models, one has 126pcs Cree leds and the other 256pcs Cree leds. The same design, we also offer Epistar chips, two models, 160 leds and 320 leds.

Wow I havent seen these! What are the wattage on those? That first one thats flat looks very interesting!

Thanks for posting!

yes, they are CREE XPE series, much brighter and higher quality.

The flat one is 320 3watt Epistar so around 480 wall watts.

The curve one CREE come is 340 and 680 which is around 128 and 256 true watts, Cree needs way less to do more.

 

[flexy123]

I'm a big fan of LEDs, my whole house if full of LED tech, but i don't think budget grow light LED technology is quite there yet.

I tend to agree. Same with LED lights for the home, they also have gotten significantly better in just two or so years.
This is a tech which is progressing VERY fast...and because of this I think it's entirely nonsensical to spend "a fortune" on a LED grow light. This industry is too fast that I would invest lots of money in grow lights. Same as with computer parts. Then rather a little less and then upgrade sooner

That being said, in the pic above..those are some SERIOUS lights...wow...

 

[Mars Hydro]

Hi ringuswor, Ruby has sent you the email

Hello Sara
i am about to start a small closet grow, after being outdoors for the last 15 years.
The area is a 120cmx50cmx180cm.
Can you recommenced the best light or lights for me ?
I have been looking at the reflector series and the Mars II series.
Temperature can range from 40c in summer to 10c in winter.
I will be running the system a night,night temps can drop to 2c.
Noise is also a factor.
Also how many plants will this area hold.
Regards
Ringus

 

[randy355]

Hi Sara, These new lights just scream QUALITY I hope the tests back them up speaking of which when will the specifications be available ?

 

[tonydavis]

I wanted to ask the same question. how high were those lights above canopy?

Hey Doozy, I just took a look at your grow and see your want for a higher g/watt, have you tried lowering the lights? By the looks of it you have the 400w versions? When I checked the PPFD (PAR measurements) of the 400w panels, the ideal height was around 12-15" from the top of the canopy, anymore may not provide enough photon count to really give you the boost you are looking for. What are your lights at now in distance from the canopy? Seems like you have the right amount of lights in there, but I think if you lowered them you would have much better results. Just a suggestion for you. Hope it helps.

okay I got the answer 18-20 inches.

 

[Mars Hydro]

I want to kiss the tiny baby...

Started new round with 6 auto's, 3 weeks weeks veg under TL, than place them under 48x3w and two 60x5w

----------------------

Soon now, couple weeks before harvest

 

[Mars Hydro]

thank you, hope you have a good day.

Ok I got to get a post in for US that don't care as much for weight to sale on the street but for the medical side, I double dog dare any of you HPS growers to have a LED and HPS yield tested and compare your results from a real lab which I do all the freaking time and I grow with both and only do until I can afford to replace my two 1k HPS and two 1k Mh with led. Also if doing a grow to compare If it is from seeds it is a junk grow to start with right there. If you know ANYTHING about plants and genetics then you would know EVERY seed is going to grow different no matter what you do and what strain. If it is not two clones took from the same plant from the same part of the healthy mother and root and grow at the same rate with good health then it is a bad test all the way. To many B.S grows out here giving wrong info by doing small things like that to try to prove a point. If you can sit there and know the spectrum a HPS/MH puts out being omni directional with all the light it puts out versus a LED that is directional putting all light in the direction needed and say HPS/MH is better then please please go back to school and learn which might just stop most of the LED hatters that are still trying to come up with ever B.S reason they can think of. I get it you can't afford to switch I understand that I am same boat on one of my grows and I understand you are use to old ways which yes 25+ years I have been growing, I get that to which yes I used a street light or two in CAL back in the day (step father worked for county of SD lol) so easy to get. What I can tell you is yes with less light spectrum you need less growing skills with nutes I will give you that. To have a spectrum that is closer to sun indoors you will need to know your strains and nute control better.If most of the LED growers paid attention you would see plant wants more cal/mag and nutes. I hope I can get away with not getting into that reason why and trust common sense would answer that. Same thing as asking some HPS growers why they like 600 over 1k, it is a personal reason like growing with any light but facts are facts. Sit here and argue all you want but I will say if you just put all that B.S to growing and just show your grows you will get your own personal point and reasons of your choices across much better and not wast everyone's time on he say she say crap. Hey Chevy's are faster then fords but I rented a Honda and past them both when they ran out of gas... Good luck on your fight to go no where. That is my two cents and if you would like to reply please private message and not waste post on other peoples or companies forums.I wish you all the best and what ever way you all grow much respect. Enjoy what you get out of it, for the love of growing..

 

[Mars Hydro]

LED tech is improving very fast, we also need to catch up the pace, 3w, 5w and now Cree. I do think our New Cree light is worth "a fortune".

I tend to agree. Same with LED lights for the home, they also have gotten significantly better in just two or so years.
This is a tech which is progressing VERY fast...and because of this I think it's entirely nonsensical to spend "a fortune" on a LED grow light. This industry is too fast that I would invest lots of money in grow lights. Same as with computer parts. Then rather a little less and then upgrade sooner

That being said, in the pic above..those are some SERIOUS lights...wow...

 

[Mars Hydro]

hi randy, the specification is under preparation, when it's ready, we will show all to you guys once and for all, you will know exactly how GOOD it is.

Hi Sara, These new lights just scream QUALITY I hope the tests back them up speaking of which when will the specifications be available ?