[jay-toker]

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[conehead]

I would use T5's if I were on a budget. However there are some very good leds on the market, but not all are good.: party:

[jay-toker]

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[PetFlora]

I have an 8 bulb HO T5. I use aquarium bulbs which approximate what leds can do. However, I am also using 1w leds in my other 2 X 4 tent. I would get 3 @ 60 watt, or better still 4 @ 50 watts. Better coverage. Lower per unit replacement cost.

Check out my completed journal or my current thread to see what ~ 50 led watts are doing for me

[BrownThumb]

Using multiple small LED units would work, but I went the bigger unit route for a big footprint. Big being about 384 watts in a unit that covers about 19"x20" straight down, but of course, with a slightly bigger foot print due to the lights being a minimum of 18" over the canopy. This is for a 23"x24" space. One thing is for sure, LED's are usually great for Veg, but not all are great for flowering, but some of that could be from not using enough light, which i think was my issue on some auto-flowers I did recently. Muy potent, but airy buds and very disappointing yield.

[Phychotron]

a 2x4 area is a little odd sized to cover with one fixture, the only single fixture i know that will cover that area is the 400w diamond series from advanced led for $1000. I had a 4x4 tent for flower (now the veg tent) and upgraded to a 4x8 and want to get three in the 4x8 (over 6', with 2' for equipment off to the side) The dimensions of the 400, ~36"x8.5" work well in a 4 foot area. Its core coverage is 4x2.5'.

My only concerns is that 5' tall is kind of short for that light, it needs 20-24" from the canopy (to avoid bleaching), giving you just over 3' for hanging the fixture (minimum 8-12" with hardware) and plants that can be ~20-30" tall with containers.

As for the diamond series, I don't know how two 200w compare to one 400w, but it might help to use multiple small fixtures for more even spacing and possibly less distance between the light and canopy. They start becoming a problem with clutter when you have a shit ton of fixtures though, so if you plan to expand you might want to consider skipping small fixtures. I'm weary of large, densely packed fixtures for possible heat management issues.

If you buy cheap and get disappointed by the performance you'll have pretty much wasted all your money. Advanced offers a 90 day no questions asked return policy so you can try it out and not risk more than the return shipping costs.

People tend to say LED is expensive, but really, $1000 for 3 yrs is $333/yr if it breaks the day after it's warranty expires. Just looking at application, its paying for itself 10 times over, but people tend to compare it directly with the basic start-up costs of an HPS system. There are also a lot of conveniences that come with LED that are often overlooked. Such as being able to just plug it in and start to grow. Its kind of like buying a computer, your waiting for the price/technology to drop/improve, but eventually you know that your going to have to pick a point where you actually buy one.

my blackstar-500 (240w) broke within a year, no heat sink, just a metal sheet. I replaced it with two blackstar-240 (130w) just to lessen the heat dissipation. I suspected that the larger fixture would present a problem of some kind, and the entire strip of lights went out, non-ballast related. Gotham wouldn't send my lights out till I sent it in, then it took them a few days once they got it. My diamond series has been working fine for over a year now. My bro had some issues with his 740 extreme flower, but they were just loose connections between the lights and the ballasts. Advanced sent out the parts quick, before he opened it to test. He also had a fan go out in a new 100w diamond (out of like 10 that he got) and they sent the new one before he sent the broke one back.

You get what you pay for both in quality and customer service.

Ebay is hit or miss, right now i see mostly misses in the "led grow light 3w" section. They all appear to be in the mediocre Chinese bargain class of lights.

[BrownThumb]

On the e-bay thing... I saw these on there just now and one of these would probably fit your area nicely. However, don't waste your time with this ad, just go to LG on Alibaba and get one from them directly and save yourself the $. Here is what I am talking about: https://www.ebay.com/itm/4PCS-450W-Le...item257555dc71

[BrownThumb]

Originally Posted by BrownThumb

On the e-bay thing... I saw these on there just now and one of these would probably fit your area nicely. However, don't waste your time with this ad, just go to LG on Alibaba and get one from them directly and save yourself the $. Here is what I am talking about: https://www.ebay.com/itm/4PCS-450W-Le...item257555dc71

I forgot to mention you should tell them specifically which spectrum's you want and they will build to suit. I also suggest thinking about your lens angle since you can also have 60°, 90° or 120°. I would go with 90 or 60, but I have been told that 60 is too much. Remember, conventional wisdom is just that, conventional.

[BrownThumb]

Wow, two of these would be awesome for your space! https://www.ebay.com/itm/3PCS-600W-LE...item257555e483

[Phychotron]

Originally Posted by BrownThumb

I forgot to mention you should tell them specifically which spectrum's you want and they will build to suit. I also suggest thinking about your lens angle since you can also have 60°, 90° or 120°. I would go with 90 or 60, but I have been told that 60 is too much. Remember, conventional wisdom is just that, conventional.

the engrish on that ad is hilarious... look at the good quality vs bad quality images. my favorite is "Beauty cut fan whole,Long life and safely" on the good, compared to "many crews got easy rust" with the bad.

plenty more good material there.

I wouldn't suggest anyone custom order their first LED unless they've been doing a lot of reading on the subject and hope they don't pull the lost in translation act on you.