LED + HPS mix for 4x4 grow

Hello yall. First timer here. I am curious if anyone has any experience mixing LED and HPS for indoor tent grow. I currently have a 4 x 4 x 8 grow tent. For lighting I went with 400 watt hps. after researching more and more I realized that I possibly went with to small of a light for the tent size. I know that hps has the best penetration vs led. But I cant sacrifice extra heat by going up to a 600 hps. Figured that with a 450watt LED, I can benefit from only consuming 200 extra watts ( 400 watt hps + 200 watt actuall draw led = 600 vs 600 watt hps) and a much cooler running light system in which I wont need extra ducting and inline fan. On top of that, I figured I get the best of both. Good penetration from the 400 watt hps. And the better full spectrum of colors from the led. I am messing with how the lights hang over the plants. Currently I have the 400 watt on one side of the tent laying horizontal. With the reflector angled at about 45 degrees towards the middle. Led is on the opposite side at 45 degree angle. I ran my 4inch ducting inlet inbetween the two lights to help prevent heat getting to the led. If anyone has any suggestions to better set this up it would be greatly appreciated!

Having both your lights pointing at an angle inwards, hmmmmmmmm.
Does your floor space seem to be pretty evenly lit?

Tell us a little more about your LED and its full spectrum of colors?
That sounds like a blurple with other colored diodes mixed in, because of how you described the actual wall draw so different from the advertised wattage

I did run a 400w HPS and a 200w blurple side by side in my smaller, 2.5 x 2.5 x 6 tent. I had both pointing down, and rotated the big plant in there regularly

View attachment 3985690

GreenLogician said:

Having both your lights pointing at an angle inwards, hmmmmmmmm.
Does your floor space seem to be pretty evenly lit?

Tell us a little more about your LED and its full spectrum of colors?
That sounds like a blurple with other colored diodes mixed in, because of how you described the actual wall draw so different from the advertised wattage

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It's a 450watt viparspectra with individual veg and bloom switches. When both are switched on it says the draw should be 200 watts. And what i mean by better full spectrum is it provides more variety of blue white and red than hps does obviously. I turned my hps off so I could make sure the led has the most concentrated amount of light focused towards dead center of the tent. Currently it sits about 20-24 inches from the top of the plants

I also make sure i rotate my plants every 2 days so they get even amount of time in each section of the tent. I have 4 plants in it currently all at about 12-16 inches in height

Ah they are pointing towards the middle, not the opposite side. Well that makes my diagram and ponderings inaccurate!
I was thinking about how whether angled or level, they are pointed directly at plants and sidelighting others.
Angling them this much would just have the effect of making the lights more distant from the plants, and maybe wasting some photons on the ceiling equipment.



I suppose it could be useful for people with height restrictions that cannot dim their lights

GreenLogician said:

Ah they are pointing towards the middle, not the opposite side. Well that makes my diagram and ponderings inaccurate!
I was thinking about how whether angled or level, they are pointed directly at plants and sidelighting others.
Angling them this much would just have the effect of making the lights more distant from the plants, and maybe wasting some photons on the ceiling equipment.

I suppose it could be useful for people with height restrictions that cannot dim their lights

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So would i be better off just hanging them completely flat and horizontal and jist continue to rotate the plants. ? Or possibly decrease the angle down to 15 or 20 degrees on each light? I figured lowering the lights a bit and angling would make up for lost distance from having them angled

Also i don't know if this makes a difference. But in your diagram you have all 4 plants in a single line and my 4 plants are in a square formation. The light isnt having to reach a distance of 4 plants length wise

growin-Jables said:

View attachment 3985694 View attachment 3985695

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Its pretty obvious your plants love what you got going on in there. Fucking nice work, probably the best looking plants of the month on here!!!!!!! Its a bit of an unorthodox approach with the lamps like that, but who gives a shit, the garden looks epic!!!!! Id be scared to do anything different.

growin-Jables said:

So would i be better off just hanging them completely flat and horizontal and jist continue to rotate the plants. ? Or possibly decrease the angle down to 15 or 20 degrees on each light? I figured lowering the lights a bit and angling would make up for lost distance from having them angled

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I really don't know

T

a mongo frog said:

Its pretty obvious your plants love what you got going on in there. Fucking nice work, probably the best looking plants of the month on here!!!!!!! Its a bit of an unorthodox approach with the lamps like that, but who gives a shit, the garden looks epic!!!!! Id be scared to do anything different.

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Thank you man I really appreciate that. This is my first time growing and I just researched as much as possible. 3 rules to follow. Control enviornment. Dont over water. And keep it as simple as possible. Currently there im 7 gallon pots with fox farms ocean forest mixed with extra perlite and worm castings. No nutes added yet. Have 4 different strains im there. Gorilla glue #4. OG ghost train haze. Quicksand Kush and Grape ape! I have one outdoor plant going at another residence that was the very first cut I received. It's Sunset Sherbet and I can't wait to see how she finishes. I'll keep y'all updated!

GreenLogician said:

I really don't know

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Geuss ill just keep doing what im doing for now and adjust as I go!

GreenLogician said:

Ah they are pointing towards the middle, not the opposite side. Well that makes my diagram and ponderings inaccurate!
I was thinking about how whether angled or level, they are pointed directly at plants and sidelighting others.
Angling them this much would just have the effect of making the lights more distant from the plants, and maybe wasting some photons on the ceiling equipment.

I suppose it could be useful for people with height restrictions that cannot dim their lights

Click to expand...

Did you draw these lines your self on the computer? I was looking at the diagram of the lights being angled inward and the lines aren't projected the same way as the diagram of them laying flat. Having them angled inward actually increases the light coverage since I can't have both lights dead center. If I layed them flat like the first diagram you posted. It looks like I would actually have less light hitting the plants and more goimg into the walls and having to be reflected back

haha yes sorry that was a quick job myself

GreenLogician said:

haha yes sorry that was a quick job myself

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No worries i wasn't sure if it was something you found online or something you had to draw up on the computer. Your lines look perfect on the first one at least! It's the second one that was probably the rushed one lol thanks for all the input dude!

I got the light about 4 days ago and took those pictures the same day. Here's an update and my do they look perky!

I would hang the LED directly behind the HPS. That's the place that the HPS light can't really shine toward, due to the arc tube being long and thin, and also the socket is on the back so may as well hang it there rather than the front which might get a slight amount more light than the back. The sides and middle already get most of the HPS light so why put the LED there?

Could put it in front and move the HPS back some too, just thought of that. Probably more convenient since the wiring of the HPS is on the back and would kind of get in the way of hanging the LED.

Here's an updated pic after just a few more days. It may just be my imagination but these girls have definetly picked up speed since adding the 450watt viparspectra. Despite being on the low end of quality when it comes to performance. But its built like a tank and seems to make quite the difference when added to Hps

Yo I know it’s and old post but how did it turn out and is that a tiny dehumidifier?