why ,do you think my last question was to piss these guys off? its an honest question because im trying to see how big these panels are and what kind of space they cover vs how big there plants are.my plants are almost always 5 x 5 x 5 and the mars 2 i just picked up was 700.00 and from what i see it seems to cover a 5x5 real well.it just looks like some or most of the plants posted so far are about 24 inches tall so i asked lol. but i thought one of the major benefits of led was the wider mixed spectrum to mimic more like a sun spectrum.but i see these guys building single or dual spectrum panels.why not just use a gavita then ?
I was confused, & I realized I replied to the wrong post. You'll see a couple posts up there was someone who was saying they were intentionally being antagonistic to get an answer.
My apologies, what I said was not intended towards you.
I can talk about a couple things, being a Mars 1200 owner in a 4x4 tent.
Did you get the Mars 1600. It will cover a 5x5 but the outsides are not going to do too well. What I notice with the Mars is that in order to get intense growth, it wants to be close to the source. But then, when you do that, you are only hitting like an 18"2 area. The 12o0 is supposed to cover 54"2 area at 24" away. I figure, my tent is only 48"2, so I can lower the light to 18." But no matter how I position it the sides & corners just aren't getting hit with enough light. It may be sending light there, but it's not very strong. For flowering, I supplement light in the corners. It just won't fill out a scrog without it. I don't know the 1600 coverage area (if that is what you got).
I'm not a spectrum expert, but these lights that Toaster, Realstyles, Seaslug, Supra are making are intense. (I'm copying their design and building one) I mean, it's more intense than HID, with several point sources, coverage area, penetration & numbers. It's insanely powerful lighting, that just happens to be very efficient. But it is intense.
The spectrum thing I think is based on the plant achieving maximum photosynthesis at 3k, no matter what stage of life they are in. People often change the spectrums from like 6500 for veg to 2700 for flower, but people who have run single spectrum in the 3k area, are achieving amazing results. But some of the diy ones (toasters iirc) he added blues & reds in whatever spectrum he wanted.
In short, being a Mars 2 user, & having seen some of these new LED lights using the 3590's, which is what I believe is what is in the SK400 (someone will correct me if I'm wrong)
The Mars 1600 (again, an assumption) is just not in the same league. I wish it was brother, I paid quite a bit for it. Once I finish my new light, I will relegate the other one to veg duty. In my opinion it does that just fine.
After talking with a couple of the people who are "in the know," don't buy the SK400. It's impressive, I can tell you that first hand. I've actually never seen plants grow that vigorously. But you could build it for less. Or pay someone else to build it, hell I'm building mine, I could just do two while I'm at it.
