Which LED's to buy

[guymandude]

OK I am wanting to upgrade my lighting to LED's for flowering. I'll most likely still use my HPS Vertical Cooltube in the winter because it keeps the room warm and heats the basement. But I really want to use the LED's to help cut my electric bill in the Spring through the fall.

I've narrowed the options to these

Fluence SPYDER series
not sure which one though: I'm not running Co2.
Spyder X
Spyder XPlus
Spyder 2p
Spyder 2i

not sure which Spyder at all. The X and the P are much less expensive and looks like the X is for home hobbyists and for veg in commercial ops. It has a price tag of $844. The X plus is for commercial apps and says they recommend CO2 supplementation. But, is any of y'all using this without CO2 and getting good results? The 2P runs around $1200 and states it's for commercial apps and CO2. The 2i seems to be the big boy and runs $1428.

in the running is the Gavita pro 1700e, although i have a seething hatred for anything that comes from Hawthorne group. They have single handed completely screwed every hydro store around here with very poor service and replenishment and they really do not seem to give a shit. I have heard their customer service is total crap and since Hawthorne is Scotts?monsanto, I really do not want to go with this option, unless someone can convince me otherwise.


anyway, if anyone can offer good advice on flowering with LED's I'd appreciate it.

 

[logic]

check out this https://scynceled.com/the-dragon-alpha/

 

[Anthem]

Hello Guymandude
I have both the Fluence 2i and the Gavitas. I just got the fluence up and I have not started running them. They are replacing Growers Choice ROI-680's. Going to start up the fluence this weekend. I would say go with the 2x if you go Fluence.
I believe you need the CO2 with the 2i and the Gavita 1700. I run CO2 at 1500ppms and the plants do chew thru it pretty quick by like week 4 so the added wattage of the 2i may not be completely beneficial. But you can reach out to Fluence customer service and talk to them. I had a question about hooking up the fluence lights to a controller and the rep actually called me in about an hour and was really helpful. In fact I would reach out to Fluence and ask them there opinion. But be prepared with either of these two lights to not get a lot of bells and whistles with the lights. The instruction manual on both is very limited. Only thing I can figure out is that they figure if you are purchasing their lights you know something about growing.

 

[guymandude]

@Anthem, brother that is exactly what i am looking for. thank you so much. I have the abiliuty to run Co2 but my room is not sealed. wouldn't make much sense. SO the Spyder X looks lke it's in the running. My only question is the X is a little more than HALF the umol's of the X plus. That raises the question that am I truly upgrading or am i making a lateral move as far as light intensity and quality. gonna take some thought.......

@logic, that Raging Kush from Scynce is in the running. Thank you for the link. I realy like that light and the price. I'd probably be told i need to run CO2 with it as will since the intensity is a little more than the Spyder Xplus. Any sugestions? I filled out the form and contacted the company. We'll see what i get for a reply. I do like the fact that the exchaneg rate bring the Ragin Kush down under a grand each......

 

[Tlegacy]

What is the lighting spectrum for it? Seems priced high for the output. Does it have any documentation of what it puts out?
Maybe something like this?

 

[guymandude]

What is the lighting spectrum for it? Seems priced high for the output. Does it have any documentation of what it puts out?
Maybe something like this?

To which light are you referring, my friend?

 

[Tlegacy]

Any of them.

To which light are you referring, my friend?

 

[BurnzYzBudZz]

check out this https://scynceled.com/the-dragon-alpha/

I have to say that raging kush is a nice looking light. Stylish. Pretty penny though.

 

[Tlegacy]

Look nice. This only thing that puts this one aside from others is that you can change the range of certain spectrums of light.
Interesting. Why would you need to do that? Make the buds bigger during flower?
Make the veg state grow bigger?

Not sure exactly why you would need that. Isn’t full spectrum best for everything? Veg and flower?

check out this https://scynceled.com/the-dragon-alpha/

 

[Anthem]

Look nice. This only thing that puts this one aside from others is that you can change the range of certain spectrums of light.
Interesting. Why would you need to do that? Make the buds bigger during flower?
Make the veg state grow bigger?

Not sure exactly why you would need that. Isn’t full spectrum best for everything? Veg and flower?

The ability to tweak the spectrum allows you to optimize grow between Veg and Flower. The plant grows faster in veg with a spectrum that has more blue light. During flower the plant produces more flower with additional red spectrum. Kind of like the time of year when the plant is growing and flowering.
HPS is more red spectrum and Metal Halide is more blue spectrum. HPS guys will usually change bulbs when they switch to flower.
Full spectrum is consider to offer both of these spectrums but there is not standard for full spectrum so the term gets thrown out and depending on the light it may or may not contain all required.

 

[BurnzYzBudZz]

The ability to tweak the spectrum allows you to optimize grow between Veg and Flower. The plant grows faster in veg with a spectrum that has more blue light. During flower the plant produces more flower with additional red spectrum. Kind of like the time of year when the plant is growing and flowering.
HPS is more red spectrum and Metal Halide is more blue spectrum. HPS guys will usually change bulbs when they switch to flower.
Full spectrum is consider to offer both of these spectrums but there is not standard for full spectrum so the term gets thrown out and depending on the light it may or may not contain all required.

great info.

 

[Aqua Man]

And the lens used make for very even light spread.

 

[Anthem]

What is the lighting spectrum for it? Seems priced high for the output. Does it have any documentation of what it puts out?
Maybe something like this?

where did that chart come from?

 

[Tlegacy]

It’s part of the brochure for the spider farmer

where did that chart come from?

 

[Anthem]

It’s part of the brochure for the spider farmer

I went on their official website and I looked up the SF-1000. It had an advertised PPFD of 863 at 12". When I took all 25 readings and averaged them I came up with 495.84 PPFD. I also tried just using the readings from the orange square and I got 737. If you really look at their test report you will see they do not actual test the very corner of the test area. They pull the reading from the inside corner of the grid. I am not sure how they are reaching the PPFD's they are stating.

 

[Tlegacy]

Did you try testing at 110v or 220v?

I went on their official website and I looked up the SF-1000. It had an advertised PPFD of 863 at 12". When I took all 25 readings and averaged them I came up with 495.84 PPFD. I also tried just using the readings from the orange square and I got 737. If you really look at their test report you will see they do not actual test the very corner of the test area. They pull the reading from the inside corner of the grid. I am not sure how they are reaching the PPFD's they are stating.

 

[Anthem]

Did you try testing at 110v or 220v?

I simple used the numbers provided by spider farmer. The voltage into the fixture does not change the PPFD coming out. The reason why you would run 240 or 120 is because the amperage required to run the fixture is slightly more economical with 240 volts.

 

[Cubbies69]

Does anyone use g8 series led grow lights????

 

[Tlegacy]

It is economical. But when the voltage is reduced in the form of a power supply or resistor it is hindering the potential output of the product. When you use 220v instead of 110v it becomes more efficient requiring less energy and resistance to fully function. It’s probably just you are getting half the results?

I simple used the numbers provided by spider farmer. The voltage into the fixture does not change the PPFD coming out. The reason why you would run 240 or 120 is because the amperage required to run the fixture is slightly more economical with 240 volts.

 

[Anthem]

It is economical. But when the voltage is reduced in the form of a power supply or resistor it is hindering the potential output of the product. When you use 220v instead of 110v it becomes more efficient requiring less energy and resistance to fully function. It’s probably just you are getting half the results?

This is 100 percent incorrect. The driver drops the voltage to begin with. Secondly, take a look at the official spider farmer wedsite, specifically the SF1000. If you go towards the bottom of the page you will see their lumen chart and the highest lumens is actually created at 120 volts. Just another LED Light Manufacturer miss representing their product. Sorry man but the numbers do not lie. The SP1000 only pulls 100 watts so it is good for 4 square feet.