crimsonecho
Active member
ok here it goes. i got a 4x4 and my diy fixture is getting kinda old now its been 4 years plus and i think its time to upgrade and renew. now my old fixture is 3 bars with 16 cxb1830s driven soft to reach 450w total. this setup has been great to me and it still is pretty good and i’m happy with it. if i had the drive and the time i’d just further this diy project with another bar and dimmable drivers mounted on each bars etc etc. but i cant find the strength to go through a project that size at this point in my life 
so now i got 2 options based on price, efficacy and availability. i’m either gonna buy 4 lumatek attis 200w and hang one over each 20 gallon pots i’m gonna use this upcoming run. this would actually work great as i have a cannalope haze which is just a stretch monster. well into the week 5 it just grows and grows and gets 2 times taller than any other cultivar in the tent so individual adjustability of height from 4 different fixtures is just perfect in this situation. price is also agreable and not much more expensive than the second option. plus i got 2 of these fixtures already and they run cool and seem pretty well built with fully covered diodes which just makes me feel better when handling the fixture or spraying stuff plus dust is everywhere when in soil so all around a great option except the efficacy is a little low compared to the second option at 2.3 umol/j.
now second option is mars hydro fce6500. this fixture is a little bit cheaper but diodes are exposed to elements and from the vids i watched it gets close to 60C when running at full power which is a little bit hot and this is a fixed bar design so i cant lower or raise according to stretch of the plants. now basically the selling point for mars hydro is being a bit cheaper and having a higher efficacy at 2.7 umol/j.
is that .4 umol/j difference a deal breaker for you?
and for reference this was my tent last grow the tallest one are the cannalopes and they are just massive plants
so now i got 2 options based on price, efficacy and availability. i’m either gonna buy 4 lumatek attis 200w and hang one over each 20 gallon pots i’m gonna use this upcoming run. this would actually work great as i have a cannalope haze which is just a stretch monster. well into the week 5 it just grows and grows and gets 2 times taller than any other cultivar in the tent so individual adjustability of height from 4 different fixtures is just perfect in this situation. price is also agreable and not much more expensive than the second option. plus i got 2 of these fixtures already and they run cool and seem pretty well built with fully covered diodes which just makes me feel better when handling the fixture or spraying stuff plus dust is everywhere when in soil so all around a great option except the efficacy is a little low compared to the second option at 2.3 umol/j.
now second option is mars hydro fce6500. this fixture is a little bit cheaper but diodes are exposed to elements and from the vids i watched it gets close to 60C when running at full power which is a little bit hot and this is a fixed bar design so i cant lower or raise according to stretch of the plants. now basically the selling point for mars hydro is being a bit cheaper and having a higher efficacy at 2.7 umol/j.
is that .4 umol/j difference a deal breaker for you?
and for reference this was my tent last grow the tallest one are the cannalopes and they are just massive plants
