Mixing LED and MH

Hi,

I was wondering what your thoughts are on mixing LED and MH. I have two 300W LED and one 175W MH that I used for a reef tank. I ordered a new bulb in a different spectrum because the tank used 12K.

The LED are Mars Hydro.

I was thinking of using all 3 lights in a 24x48x60 grow tent.

I am not worried about heat, it will be in a basement that's around 45.

Do you think it will be too much light?

Some of these photos have appeared before.
One end of the room is a pair of 400 w CMH with a siamesed reflector and a third bulb with a whole 23" reflector making an 'L'. The forth corner is a 400 w Black Dog LED.
Then it is three lights across, 230 w Dwarf Star, 400 w Black Dog, and another 230 w Dwarf Star.
Another row of the same three, followed by a 35" P600 across the end.

The surround is set at 9' x 7' and is 250 w Far Red, 40 w UVB and 1500 w full spectrum.
The total for 63 square feet is 5600 watts, almost 90 watts/square foot.
Four bud rooms ago it was all HID and the average for many years was 110 watts/square foot. This is my fifth bud room configuration, my second with LED.

Bucking the trend set by perishable items, the quality of light from the LEDs has gone up while the price per umol has gone down.

8,500 watts CMH replaced 10,000 watts HID. 7000 watts LED replaced 8,500 watts CMH, 5600 watts hybrid combo lights replaced 7,000 watts LED.
Yields still holding even with the original 10,000 watts HID used back in 2003.

This is about all the light my plants can take without adverse VPD in my very dry ambient humidity.

These are actual measured watts, rated watts on quality units runs a third more than actual. A 300 w rated Mars unit would be closer to 200 watts output and the three of them are about right on for an 2' x 4' area.
If those units are putting out the full 300 w then raise them 8" higher than the MH and use them anyway. I use a light meter and hang markers under my lights indicating the closest usable distance. Without a light meter the owners manual is pretty good information source.

Wow...great post and pictures, thanks for the detailed explanation.

I am not expecting the Mars to be exactly 300W, they probably put out a little less, if they used CREE LEDs then I would expect it to be 300w.
The actual consumption is around 140-160W per the owners manual, so you were very close.