Morning everyone. Here's our side by side, with both lights running full spectrum: Maintaining 21" light distance on PlatinumLED Bulk: Maintaining 21" light distance on Mars-Hydro Bulk: And we've also uppotted today to 1 gal pots. Platinum P300: Mars 100x3:
Looking very close Nice Job is that 88 degs or humidity and is the Mars reading 78 as opposed to the 88 on the Platinum I guess its the humidity seeing its right on top of grow media/
I didn't pay much attention to the temp and RH today as it's been fairly stable for both sides. I'm not sure if it looks like 88/78 due to angles on the LCD, or if it was actually 88/78. But you brought up a valid point, being close to the media could cause higher readings, so I've moved both units on top of the lights for now. I'll throw something together in the next few days, some kind of stand where I can adjust the height of the unit to some degree, to sit level with the canopy. I just spent the last few hours attempting to fix the squeak in the fan, which seemed to disappear when the fan was turned horizontal, instead of vertical, but after building a new mounting bracket, and hanging the fan again, there's still a slight squeak, so I'll be contacting the manufacturer about that issue now.
I'm sorry if I missed it, which light is having a fan squeak issue? Awesome thread, very interesting and even more informative. Keep up the great work.
Neither light has any operating issues. My VenTech ventilation fan is having the squeak. I wanted to mention it as it explains the higher temperatures in the tent. I made contact with the company yesterday, gave order # information, and am waiting on a response now.
Oh ok that makes sense. Looking awesome so far. The plants sure look great and I'm really curious to see if one or the other starts to pull ahead.
You can count me in on that curiosity as well. We have a few pictures this morning. Here's the tent: PlatinumLED Bulk. After the uppot she is sitting at 2.25" or 5.7cm. Mars Hydro Bulk. After the uppot she is sitting at 2.75" or 6.9cm. Angle shot of the full spectrum of the P300 (You'll notice some of the IR and UV diodes are barely noticably lit when compared to the brightness of the other diodes) Angle shot of the full spectrum Mars 100x3 (You'll notice all diodes are lit pretty equally, I don't believe Mars uses UV or IR spectrum, even though the specs claim they use IR. I still have not received an answer on this from Mars-Hydro) And this is a picture of exactly what the plants are seeing at 21" 53.3cm. These pictures were taken right above each plant, with the camera directly facing each light. PlatinumLED Bulk sees this: Mars-Hydro Bulk sees this:
I've been really wondering about using the full spectrum during veg. I have 4 plant under a p450 for 5 days with just the veg spectrum running. 3 soil and 1dwc. The dwc is 1 month old and the rest are only a few weeks and they're loving the light big time. They were under a 2 foot 8 bulb t5 before. The difference in growth that I'm seeing compared to the t5, is amazing and noticeably better.
Fluorescent and CFL lighting are great low cost options for Vegging plants, but I completely agree with you that vegging results are noticeable better under LED. The Mars-Hydro 100x3 did have a little stretch to it, under full spectrum, and still seems to continue that trend. The PlatinumLED P300 had less stretch than the Mars, and much less stretch than when compared to vegging under CFLs. Today marks 24 hours for the Platinum Bulk under full spectrum, and we haven't ran into any problems, so we'll be keeping the full spectrum running for the rest of the grow. Both plants sprouted on July 30, making today day 13 for them both above ground. Mars Bulk was open on July 30, so today is day 13. Platinum Bulk opened on July 31, so today is day 12. In a couple days when they're ready for water, we will start feeding nutrients. They will receive the following in the feed schedule: All measurements are per US Gallon. 1 US Gallon = 3.78L. 1ml Micro 1ml Grow 1ml Bloom 5ml Deep Breath 1ml Snow Storm Ultra 10ml Killer Tea.
Both lights are really bright, but the P300 seems much brighter, and you can just barely make out the outline of the diodes/lenses in the middle. Now for the Ventilation fan. I know we're comparing the two LED panels, and that's where our focus is, but I know how difficult it is choosing products as a new grower, so I thought I'll share the outcome and updates with my Ventech system in case anyone is considering buying one. I bought the unit June 9, Received it on June 11. Purchased from Amazon from a seller named LowBaller (which from the company emails seems to be their Amazon seller name) It's been starting to squeak for about a week now. On and off, slowly driving me insane. Without Cannabis, I'd definitely go nuts from the constant squeaking lol. At 1:29pm August 11, I sent the company an email. The email form on their website didn't work, so I just sent an email directly. They responded in about 6 hours (under the name LowBaller, thus my assumption above), asking for the order number to verify the purchase, and get all the necessary information. I responded 15 minutes later with my order information. I just received an email today at 12:14pm, less than 24 hours from the first email that I sent, informing me that a replacement will be shipped ASAP, and was given an RMA form in the email to fill out, and a return shipping will be included as well. He said they normally don't cover return shipping after 30 days, but this is still fairly new, and made an exception. As for Ventech so far, the filter and fans definitely work. The 6" fan moves a lot of air, so it does produce some noise from air turbulence, but otherwise it controls smell really well, and the customer service is pretty solid.
Hello Antics, I am not sure when you buy your 100x3w, we do not use UV LEDs, because as we know plants need UVB, while we can not get UVB from Epistar. Besides we sell this 100x3w a lot on eBay, and you know the IR is very weak red, usually you can not see they are working with your eyes, so buyers think it is burnt LEDs when they get and leave us negative feedback on eBay,it is very dangerous for our eBay account, so we do not use IR in this light too, but we have IR in our other lights( mars II series and Reflector series) . thank you, Any information I missed, please let me know. Thank you Antics.
Hmm ok. I've sent you a PM to discuss this further, as to not litter the thread with off topic discussions.
Hey Antics!! Just found your journal, you are doing an amazing job with the side by side and tons of good information in your journal! Very nice! Hope you don't mind if I follow along and watch the shootout.
You don't have to ask man, you're always welcome to hang out. Thanks for the compliments, I'm doing the best I can to keep everything 100% equal, except the difference in lighting. Although running a comparison is a lot of work, it's really a lot of fun watching the comparison unfold. And I am seriously looking forward to when I can top and start LST on these girls. They'll both be topped once, and all branches will then be LST'd to keep things under control and give them both a real wide spread. I'd like to test penetration, as well as the intensity of each light in the 2'x2' space, to see if we have consistent intensity within the footprint.
Morning update time. The girls were both fed the following: 1ml Micro 1ml Grow 1ml Bloom 5ml Deep Breath 1ml Snow Storm Ultra 10ml Killer Tea. Light distance holding at 21" 53.3 cm. I might have to decrease the light distance for the Mars Bulk, we're seeing a bit of stretch still, the Platinum Bulk seems to be doing fine so far, with tight node spacing. Both girls in the tent: On the Bulk being grown under the PlatinumLED we're seeing a slight deficiency on the first pair of adult leaves. The nutrients should take care of this without further issues. On the Bulk under the Mars-Hydro we don't have any deficiencies, her uptake also seems slower than the other Bulk: And the P300 Bulk is just shy of 2.75" 6.9cm. In the past two days she has grown .31" .78cm The Mars 100x3 Bulk is sitting right at 3" 7.6cm. In the past two days she has grown just over .25" .63cm.