Mars Hydro 400w Mile High Club

420Amard

New Member
FEEL FREE TO SHARE YOU THOUGHTS/PICS/EXPERIENCES
:high-five::high-five::circle-of-love::high-five::high-five:
This thread is for all us Mars series 400w users to show off what these lights can actually do, pictures, experiences, and how well they preform. Personally I've used my 400w for a bit now. This thread is also here to answer any questions you may have about the Mars Hydro products, coverage, and warranty.
mars hydro led grow light-mars II 400
So firstly a little information on the Mars Series 2 400w with a comparison to the big cfls.

Information from my experience this far:
So far with the Mars 400w I've noticed a few things that I would like to share with everyone. With comparisons to the craptastic big cfls:
1> The hanging distance.
With cfl you need to hang the light extremely close to the plants to get proper coverage. While with the 400w I started seedlings at 65cm away from the light and as they've grew I started to lower the light til the stretching and growth matched up during veg I ended up hanging it at around 55cm from canopy level with the big cfl I was a mere 15cm from canopy. During flower the led is sitting at approx. 30cm from canopy, with the cfl it was 10cm.
2> Temp
In my 60cm x 60cm x 140cm (2x2) tent the light it self has a difference with ambient temps of around 3-5c which considering that with a large 300w was 10c this is a huge change. All the while using the same extraction fan.
The mars 400w seem to spread the "hot" (it is not really hot at all I can actually touch the glass if I want with not even being warm) air more evenly throughout the tent due to the 2 fans blowing on the heat sinks.
Now with the cfl I found with the limited area between light and plants became extremely hard to cool and temperatures would fluctuate immensely as the between ballast and actual tubing of the cfl as well as between canopy and ground level, almost a full 20c at one point. This is due to the cfl's heat displacement not being evenly spread and all being focused just on top of the plants. I've even given plants wind burn from trying to cool such a small area.
3> Coverage
The 400w covers my tent with perfection in both veg and now flower. To say the least this light this light is pretty much perfect for this tent. Corner to corner I have a uniformed layer coverage giving me big healthy buds the entire way.
The CFL on the other hand well it covered approximately an area of 40cm long and 30cm wide basically right under the bulb and a little at the bending areas of the end by where the tubes curved. Under the ballast of the cfl was pretty much shadowing the plants and I ended up with one plant that stretched searching for the light.
4> Penetration
The Mars 400w has a penetration on my tight tight canopy of around 40cm while the cfl was a mere 10cm it is like comparing fresh baked blueberry pie with whipped cream and a big old scoop of vanilla ice cream to a can of spam. Really it's that different, my buds are forming much nicer, even the switch to flowering happened in half the time.
5> Price of the unit itself.
This is what people are dreading to hear the difference in prices. My mars hydro 400w I paid approx 190USD$ for brand new with a 2 year warranty sounds like a lot but really the ease of this grow has paid for itself twice over.
My cfls unit cost me 70$ for the big bulb and 20$ for the reflector (might as well not get one cause by the time the light bounces off and back to the plants it's less than nil) so in total 90$.
Yet the bulb only lasted about 6 months before the output seemed to be cut in half and my plants started to stretch hunting for proper lumen output meaning the bulb had to be lowered cause more heat and causing more cooling issues and all around more problems.
So yes the led cost more but in return you get a 2 year warranty and peace of mind.


Pics:
2016-07-05-220.jpg

2012-08-02-194.jpg

2012-08-02-330.jpg

2016-08-10-472.jpg
 
Just reading this has bigged up Mars in my eyes. My only worry is the height i have to work with. How tall is your tent? Mines a steel cupboard 1.30metres high which would limit me to smaller strains . Have you ever burned them and if so was it obvious faulty quickly?

Cfl heat and light is gash, its really starting to annoy me having to fiddle with it all the time
 
Mine is 140cm, I am running cream caramel from sweet seeds. Mine are a tad taller than I like because of the 4.5 week veg time and me putting 4 x 7L pots in there. The plants if i would of topped and trained I could of limited the size and spacing. I think in a smaller height a scrog net or better training with an led would be better. My next run will be one plant Low stressed trained with a longer veg time filling the tent and keeping it short in a 11L pot.

I forgot to mention about shipping. The shipping for me came from the Germany warehouse and arrived in 4 days after talking to Sean (sales rep from Mars). The box itself was pretty much unmarked except for a few customs stickers, the invoice was inside the box and nowhere did it say LED grow light. The only thing that it had on it was the model number of the light. Here's a few more pictures of the light. To be honest with you I don't see myself needing another light and I'm planning on getting another set-up exactly the same. :p
Packaging of the Box
There was another peace of Styrofoam covering the glass panel as well
2012-08-01-026.jpg

Full Spectrum (what I used full cycle)
2012-08-01-029.jpg

Veg Spectrum
2012-08-01-027.jpg

Flower Spectrum
2012-08-01-028.jpg


One little point I would like to make about the light with only the Veg spectrum switch only one of the fans run, with flower spectrum the other fan, with both full spectrum both switches run. I've seen grows where people use just the Veg switch on but I figure heat isn't an issue so run full the whole way. After all the IR diodes when running the full spectrum encourage cell division, meaning thicker leaves and stem development. Tonight when the light comes back on I will post a few pictures of how bit the stems have gotten.

On the down side if you can call it that the wires that came with the light itself i found were to long and just weird so I got 2 sets of ratchet hangers from the local shop and connected them directly to the light. Mars does sell sets for about 5-10$ when ordering the light and will ship them free with the light upon request but I forgot to ask.
 
I've had mine for about 6 months now and not a single diode has burnt out. They also have repair videos online if you're not comfortable with shipping it back during the warranty time (they pay for shipping and repairs the first year, second year it's free parts). To be honest the lights have had a pretty good track record with everyone on this forum. If a diode goes out you simply email the support team with a picture of the burnt out diode or if a power supply goes out the picture of the light turned on and they promptly send you a replacement or you have the option of sending it to the repair team in Germany. But changing a diode is a simple job with just a soldering iron, a bit of flux, normal thermal paste and of course solder. But a basic soldering kit can be bought from eBay for around 10$ which is half the price for shipping and you won't be out a light the time for shipping repairs and return shipping.
 
Good to hear I'd be able to fix it myself if needed! The end of the month can't come quick enough, did you start your grow all the way with led or did you have cfl s at any point? On that topic do you reckon it would be OK to switch from cfl to led while a grow was still growing. Sorry for picking your brain man hope that's OK!
 
That's alright sharing information is why we're here.
You should be fine switching to LED you might want to raise the light a bit to get them accustom to the new spectrum and no I ran the entire time with the led.

Started the light at 65cm above the seedlings and lowered it and raised it accordingly you can see how the entire grow has gone so far its the cream caramel run in my signature. I have a few weeks left maybe 4 or 5 the buds are twice as big than with the cfl at this stage my only regret is not buying it before spending all that cash on the cfl setup that now sits collecting dust. For us with smaller spaces training and scrogging are key no matter what so might as get denser buds and higher yield we gotta make the most of what we got.
Bud porn
4.5 weeks into flower
2016-08-10-468.jpg

Canopy at night time last week
2016-08-08-460.jpg
 
I'm sure that you won't mind if my reflectors make an appearance. The left tent (Mars Hydro) is/was for my photoperiods. 27"sq, the 400 covers it perfectly. I've been very happy with its performance throughout the grow process.

20160226_171202.jpg


Good idea for a new mars hydro thread. I'll have more pics and im sure the posts will be coming in steady.

KiG :green_heart:cheers
 
Good to hear I'd be able to fix it myself if needed! The end of the month can't come quick enough, did you start your grow all the way with led or did you have cfl s at any point? On that topic do you reckon it would be OK to switch from cfl to led while a grow was still growing. Sorry for picking your brain man hope that's OK!

You'll see instant benefits from the LEDs over cfls. Check my first journal, the ladies were treated to the LEDs and they responded very quickly.

KiG :green_heart:cheers
 
Just reading this has bigged up Mars in my eyes. My only worry is the height i have to work with. How tall is your tent? Mines a steel cupboard 1.30metres high which would limit me to smaller strains . Have you ever burned them and if so was it obvious faulty quickly?

Cfl heat and light is gash, its really starting to annoy me having to fiddle with it all the time

If you wanna see how these lights work in a small space, check out my journal. I use a Mars 400 in a tiny tiny space. W2xL2xH2.5 feet or W60cm x L60cm x H80cm (all sizes are aproximate) I've had plants grow right into the glass without any burning.
 
All photos are welcome this thread is more for sharing our experiences, photos, even repair techniques with our lights. Also would love to get some life estimations from the people who have been using them for the longer. I've had my 400w for probably 5-6 months now and it's running as good as the day I got it. Hopefully soon I'll get a 90cm x 60cm and a pro160 for a flower tent and use my current one for veg/autos.
 
:rofl: what's low RH? I've had high RH but never low.
Low rh% for me is around 25-40% :goof::goof:
I had a hell of a time trying to get mine to 60% had to put bowls of water make little towel stand with wire plastic covered coat hangers and all that fun stuff. A lot harder when I got smaller pots maybe it's cause I limit the amount of water I give.
 
So I'm thinking of starting a new set up and am torn between doing a exact setup of the one I have or saving up and starting a completely different one with a 90cm x 60cm and a pro160.... or getting a different tent style and getting a few reflectors on the veg side and another 400w... not sure if the extra cash is worth it in the long run...
 
Back
Top Bottom