Ok so im new and this is a work in progress. Im setting up a large grow room with several grow tents over time. I decided to go with tents instead of building the room out because i rent and making changes to the room might cause me issues with my building owner tents wont.. I have my medical card and my wife has hers so this is a legit grow. We both plan on becoming caregivers as well and we have several patients set up already. Our plan is to supplement our income so production is key and most important to us. Im using all mars led lights as well as all mars tents. Im ordering my first tent and lights to start out with in a few weeks and seeds are already ordered and on there way. I will be very active with this journal and will post pics regularly. Please subscribe and help me grow into a great grower!! Sent from my SM-G530P using Grasscity Forum mobile app
Ok heres what i have coming. This was my first order so i didnt go to crazy but i will be placing another order when this one arrives. I ordered through seedsman. 7 black cream auto fems (sweet seeds) 3 sour crack auto fems (mephisto genetics) 1 auto critical soma fem (advanced seeds) 2 blueberry fem (seedsman ) 1 trainwreck auto fem (sweet seeds) My first tent is going to be the mars 4x4 and im going to do all autos. Im probably going to pack them in pretty tight but not to crazy... im going to germ the 12 autos and what ever pops out of those im going to run in the first tent and if they start to get to cramped i will have my next tent set up and will just move a few over Sent from my SM-G530P using Grasscity Forum mobile app
My firsy tent is going to be the 4x4 mars tent with 1 mars 2 light haven't decided the size light yet mixed with a few small mars reflector series. These are my lighting ideas let me know what you guys think.. Option 1 1 mars 2 1200 2 mars relector 48 Option 2 1 mars 2 900 4 mars reflector 48 Option 3 1 mars 2 700 2 mars reflector 98 My first tent will be a all auto tent. My second tent will be the mars 4x4 tent. This tent will be the mars pro 360 by itself. The second tent will be for 4 mother plants non autos. My plan is to take the best two of them out and keep them for cloning and use the second tent as a main flower tent. I plan on putting the two mother plants for clones into a smaller tent i will keep just for cloning mothers. Thats as far as ive gotten on plans. I want to have 7 tents set up total when all said and done. I will have the one tent with the mars pro the rest will have a mix of the mars 2 and reflector series. I also plan to get mars light bar lights for supplemental lighting around the lower sides of all the tents but that wont be till the hole room is done because there is a min order amount on them and i will want to get the light bars all at once.. Let me know any thoughts or ideas guys.. thanks in advance. I want to do this right and i do a ton of research so any advice will be thoroughly looked into and considered. My budget is going to be between $600 and $1000 a month till complete so i will be adding on a monthly basis. Sent from my SM-G530P using Grasscity Forum mobile app
I would definitely spend some money on HID, the mars are cheap but they arent very efficient, so you think you are really getting the 900W model, and its better than other leds vause it uses more watts, but its not..., the epistar diodes they use in them are cheap, and do not penetrate enough for any lower canopy. so dont put all your eggs in the mars basket without knowing you will need supplemental light, I'd do a 600W HID in with your mars model and hook it up to a cool tube like I did, I bought a pretty pricey led and I get the twice the output on the same model at a little less wattage than mars and my plants still responded to the hid. this combo gets me 45% rh and 73 degrees, I'm using 700 watts from the wall for my 4x4 but my output is 1200W of equivalent HID lighting! if you wanted to go just led to get those results you are spending 1300 dollars at least on a single unit, I bought a pretty pricey led, so I spent 800 on both my lights( 650 for a REAL 800W hid replacement using 3w bridgelux vs mars 5 watt epistar diodes, dont be fooled by mars, their output is about as much as it pulls from the wall) but you dont need a really expensive led if you are supplementing hid, the mars models you are talking about will do just fine, just not all by themselves
Man if you're going big, go big. Don't waste $$ on cheap lights like mars. I did hoping to save $$, just no where near the scale you're looking at I'm very glad I checked them out 1st before investing more. Sent from my XT1028 using Grasscity Forum mobile app
Have you looked at there pro series? I can get cree lights instead of the epi.. Im not going by the advertised watts either. Through my research ive learned that means nothing so i looked up the specs for each light and im going by the actual watts from wall.. im shooting for between 800 and 900w from wall using all leds for a 4x4 tent which is a little low per sq ft but the reason im doing that is i want to add light bars on the low sides of the tents all around plants around 250w from walls after its all set up for better penetration. That will put me at around 1000w from wall per 4x4 of all led.. Also with led because of the better light absorption and light spectrum doesnt that mean i can use less watts per sq ft? Im very new so still learning how the math all works any advice is very welcome. I really want to stay all led no hid.. i would rather spend the extra money now and be more efficient later if you know what im saying. Budget is definitely a issue with leds so im trying to balance between the best of both worlds lol. I don't have the money to buy the top end $4000 lights you know. Im not cheap though either and i understand i need to spend money to make money. Im on the right track i think. Sent from my SM-G530P using Grasscity Forum mobile app
How is ur heat with this set up? Like what do you have to control it besides the cooled light Sent from my SM-G530P using Grasscity Forum mobile app
Also the new mars lights are not exactly cheap money wise they are comparable to the other mid range led ive looked at. The mars pro 320 which is the cheaper one with the epi instead of the cree runs at almost $900.. it is supposed to replace a 800w hid and it draws around 700w from wall. The big pro series with the cree lights is over $1000 so its kinda pricey for me but im thinking of grabbing the cree one for my second tent and spending the extra money because the first tent is the only one im really rushed on so i can get my girls going well i build out the rest of the room... im doing this in sections so i wont be dumping it all at once gives me time to see how each piece of equipment works before i invest in more. Sent from my SM-G530P using Grasscity Forum mobile app
What kinda issues did you have with your mars lights? Also what model did you get and how long ago? Sent from my SM-G530P using Grasscity Forum mobile app
Same issue lots of people complain about on their thread. Diodes burning out. I haven't even had the light a year. I noticed the first four diodes burned out just under 6 months old. Not positive exactly when they burned out. Mars warrantied the light. 2 choices send it to them and go w/o for a couple weeks or fix it myself. I have plenty of hids so I wasn't worried about going w/o but choose to repair it anyways. They sent 10 diodes for the 4 that burned out. Good thing too because 3 more burned out a few weeks later. I wasn't overly impressed with the light either. 1st of all there's no energy saving. A watt costs a watt no matter what it runs. I had the mars2 400 watt, even Sara the mars rep says its not comparable to a 400 watt light. So the LEDs guys that claim that are just reading boxes. Its only comparable watt for watt. Which the actual watts of a 400 is 177 so its comparable to 177 watts of hid. Therefore no savings. It put off considerably more heat then its lead to seem. I already run cool hoods so heats not an issue and I still would need the same size fans anyways to properly bring in fresh air...no saving there either. So since I didn't have a 177 watt hid the best I could compare it with was a 400. Which of course blew it away. I handicapped it for having less then half the watts but it was far far less then half the yeild. It was demoted to a veg light and I invested my $$ into better hids. Then the diodes thing and I shelved it. I wasn't fixing it a 2nd time. Mars supporters response, well it is a cheaper light....lol no shit. I'm just glad I didn't invest more. That's just me though man. Everyone has different opinions based on their experience. I may go the led route someday but I learned after watching growers on here you get what you pay for when it comes to LEDs. Mars lights are cheap relatively speaking compared to other brand leds, mine performed cheaply. Sent from my XT1028 using Grasscity Forum mobile app
There's the latest 3 burn outs . Black bulbs are burned out. I saw people complaining about this and still bought 1. I'm glad I tried it out. Just isn't for me. Sent from my XT1028 using Grasscity Forum mobile app
Ok my next question for you guys is if i were to get the 4x4 tent as planned and grab a small to medium sized led and used it for the first month of the grow well the autos veg well i put my budget for two months together in order to buy a high end nice led would that hurt the plants? Ive read that seedlings and plants in veg dont needs the same amount of lighting and that bloom is where they really need the power so if i did it this way i could get the best light option and have it set up 1 month into the grow. What do you guys think about that idea? Now remember im running autos and a few of them are fast strains i really dont want to mess them up... Sent from my SM-G530P using Grasscity Forum mobile app
Thank you for the info. I really want to look at everything from every angle. Sent from my SM-G530P using Grasscity Forum mobile app
How come you are so set on LEDs? The most productive gardens I have seen all use a combo of metal halide and high pressure sodium.
That's why I gave my experience. Its good to listen to everything. Especially dropping the cash you're looking at man. I'm not bashing them man. They are a cheaper light. I didn't expect them to out perform some of the better brand LEDs. I'm going to grow the rest of my life. My equipment was getting old. I wasn't looking for a temporary lower end replacement. Sent from my XT1028 using Grasscity Forum mobile app
There are a few reasons i landed on led. Before i get into those reasons please take into account how new i am to this and that my conclusions are from reading and asking questions not from experience yet... 1. Leds use the exact light spectrum plants need hid alot of the light is waisted 2. Low heat 3. The possibility of being more electricity efficient 4. After initial investment cheaper over the long term 5. The science behind the way light spectrum works gives me the idea that leds could be better suited to produce 6. More control over growth cycles Sent from my SM-G530P using Grasscity Forum mobile app