Geyapex High PPFD Full Spectrum 400w Cree COB LED Journal

jonnynobody

Well-Known Member
In this thread I'll be taking the Geyapex Full Spectrum 400W Cree COB LED grow light for a test drive. The company has provided me with a free promotional unit to test the performance, and in exchange I will be providing an honest critique and review of the light. I will provide regular updates with pictures so we can track the progress of the plants as they grow under the new light from veg to bloom. The unit draws 360W with both the VEG and BLOOM switch turned on. It retails for $199.99. I was impressed with the packaging. It was shipped as a box within a box fully encased in a tomb of foam about 6" thick. The light arrived in perfect condition. I immediately mounted it in my 5'x5'x6.5' veg nursery where she's presently hovering over a batch of clones and 1 vegging lady of blue dream. I first tried the VEG switch. It produces a beautiful daylight spectrum that's quite intense.

Here's a picture of the VEG illumination:

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The COB's give off about as much heat as the T5 which is a good thing. The plants need warmth from the light to maintain proper temperatures in the nursery. It actually runs about 2 degrees cooler after swapping the T5 for the Geyapex COB light. I usually run at 79-81 with the T5. Temps were stable at 77 after several hours of the light cranking out juice. Perfect.

Here is what the BLOOM switch looks like by itself:

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And this is with both the VEG and BLOOM switch turned on:

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So far I'm digging the light quite a bit. I've never used COB's before and the intensity is impressive. I'll post pictures today to see how the plants responded to the first day of the new light. Stay tuned.
 

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jonnynobody

Well-Known Member
Nice looking fixture. Nice draw for the buck. Looking forward to what it can do.
This is my first experience with COB's and so far I'm impressed with how much light output there is at such an efficient wattage. I have to do some reading on the specs to see what the actual power draw is for veg and flower separately. Total draw with bloom and veg switches on is 360W. I'd suspect each switch is about 180W. I'll confirm and post when I read the spec sheet. Today is IPM day. All plants treated with 75% strength Bayer Forbid 4F. A word of caution. Never and I mean never spray this product in your 12/12 photoperiod when flowers have set. I treated the nurseries as well as the flower room which just began it's 12/12 cycle yesterday. No flowers yet at all. The product has a 6 week half life before it is fully metabolized by the plants which essentially protects the nurseries and flower room for nearly the entire duration of their 8-9 weeks of veg / bloom cycles. It is systemic. Respirator, long sleeves, gloves, and glasses required for application. Shower immediately after. If somehow bugs make it into the flower room past today organic options are the only safe option. I've had a great experience with Grandevo CG and Venerate CG in a rotation as suggested by the manufacturer.

Update pics day 1)
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HortiBloom

Well-Known Member
This is my first experience with COB's and so far I'm impressed with how much light output there is at such an efficient wattage. I have to do some reading on the specs to see what the actual power draw is for veg and flower separately. Total draw with bloom and veg switches on is 360W. I'd suspect each switch is about 180W. I'll confirm and post when I read the spec sheet. Today is IPM day. All plants treated with 75% strength Bayer Forbid 4F. A word of caution. Never and I mean never spray this product in your 12/12 photoperiod when flowers have set. I treated the nurseries as well as the flower room which just began it's 12/12 cycle yesterday. No flowers yet at all. The product has a 6 week half life before it is fully metabolized by the plants which essentially protects the nurseries and flower room for nearly the entire duration of their 8-9 weeks of veg / bloom cycles. It is systemic. Respirator, long sleeves, gloves, and glasses required for application. Shower immediately after. If somehow bugs make it into the flower room past today organic options are the only safe option. I've had a great experience with Grandevo CG and Venerate CG in a rotation as suggested by the manufacturer.

Update pics day 1)
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The power draw for veg is around 110w, and about 240w for bloom switch, is there any optic glass in the package to replace the optic lens of the cob ?
 

jonnynobody

Well-Known Member
The power draw for veg is around 110w, and about 240w for bloom switch, is there any optic glass in the package to replace the optic lens of the cob ?
Yes, 2 lenses. What effect do the different lenses have? This is interesting. Thank you for clarifying the power draw. That's very efficient for the amount of light output. The plants are responding nicely :)
 

KootenayDIY

Well-Known Member
Nice looking unit. I’m guessing the lenses would offer different beam angles. 120 and 90deg. Nice to have two different lenses that come with at no charge. You should be running the wide lens. I’ll be watching.
 

jonnynobody

Well-Known Member
Nice looking unit. I’m guessing the lenses would offer different beam angles. 120 and 90deg. Nice to have two different lenses that come with at no charge. You should be running the wide lens. I’ll be watching.
The wide lenses is the fat tear drop looking lenses which provides 120 degrees of light spread? The flat lenses concentrates the light to a more narrow 90 degree light foot print? If that's the case would the flat lenses be more appropriate since I'm only concentrating the beam of light over a clone tote and a single 1 gallon plant? I might just swap them around to see what the difference is and post pictures. It's pretty cool you can swap lenses to change the angle of the lighting. Lemme swap them around and get some pictures up here :)
 

jonnynobody

Well-Known Member
Update: I swapped the tear drop lenses for the flat one. I prefer the flat. It spreads the light more versus the tear drop that focuses the light to a smaller footprint. At least for now where I am only illuminating a small space over the clone tote and 1 gallon bucket.

This is with the flat lenses: Beautiful even spread. It looks slightly brighter than my T5 that operates at 192 watts. This light is nearly half the watts on VEG mode at 110W. I like the performance and efficiency of the COB lighting. Very nice!

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This is with the tear drop lenses: Notice the shadow cast on the floor with the change of lenses
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jonnynobody

Well-Known Member
Hey man they just sent me the money on PayPal and it says its on hold until my "customer" confirms they've recieved the product or service...
Follow these directions home-skillet:

1) Fire up Paypal Chat function once you login to your account through the "Help" menu.
2) It will open the "Paypal Chat Assistant". Type "Customer service" in the window. You should be routed to an agent. It may take a moment for an agent to log onto the chat. Be patient. Once an agent comes online supply the agent with your UPS tracking number that shows the Amazon package has been confirmed as delivered. Tell the agent the other party is non responsive, but the item has clearly been delivered. After confirming the item had been delivered more than 3 days ago the agent released my funds immediately.

Paypal's policy is that if you supply the tracking number for the item that was purchased the hold should automatically clear 1 business day after the item has been delivered. This did not happen in my case even though I supplied the tracking information 3 days ago. The agent rectified the issue immediately. My funds were released before I exited the chat log. I am now awaiting the funds deposit to my bank account which takes 1-3 days.

To be fair to Hortibloom the Paypal system is a bit confusing for those who don't regularly use the service. I'm technically proficient and it was a bear for me. I think Hortibloom is genuinely doing their best to resolve the issue and has maintained a continuous open line of communication. If y'all need any further assistance getting the hold cleared let me know, but if you follow the above advice you should have no further issue.
 

jonnynobody

Well-Known Member
Update: The foliage is happy and health under the COB's. Temps are stable in the mid to high 70's. I continue to be impressed by the efficiency and output of the light in VEG mode. Every time I look in there I like the light a little more. I will say without a doubt COB's perform exponentially better than quantum boards for vegetative growth. At this point I plan to outfit all of my nurseries with COB's in the near future. The growth rate, spectrum, and efficiency is impressive. I'm pretty excited to retire my 432W power sucking 4' 8 lamp T5 and replacing it with 200W of COB's which will produce more light output for half the wattage. Plus I don't have to continuously deal with dim / burned lamp replacements that never seem to end. I'm sold on COB's and wish I had gotten into them sooner, but it's never too late to teach an old dog a new trick :)

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What I love most about this light is that even with the high intensity it doesn't bleach or damage the foliage in any way. Quantum boards on the other hand easily bleached, fried, and / or damaged young foliage if the unit's power was not significantly reduced. COB's seem to be much more appropriate for VEG growth. I'm officially sold on a a viable replacement for T5 vegetative lighting; COB's in a daylight spectrum.

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Here's some root action from the clone tote. Most have roots now. A few stragglers have little nubs that haven't quite grown to a swath of roots yet. I don't rush my clones at all. I will wait another 7 days until each clone has a large swath of roots before they go into 1 gallon dutch buckets.

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Rocket Soul

Well-Known Member
Update: The foliage is happy and health under the COB's. Temps are stable in the mid to high 70's. I continue to be impressed by the efficiency and output of the light in VEG mode. Every time I look in there I like the light a little more. I will say without a doubt COB's perform exponentially better than quantum boards for vegetative growth. At this point I plan to outfit all of my nurseries with COB's in the near future. The growth rate, spectrum, and efficiency is impressive. I'm pretty excited to retire my 432W power sucking 4' 8 lamp T5 and replacing it with 200W of COB's which will produce more light output for half the wattage. Plus I don't have to continuously deal with dim / burned lamp replacements that never seem to end. I'm sold on COB's and wish I had gotten into them sooner, but it's never too late to teach an old dog a new trick :)

View attachment 4726487

What I love most about this light is that even with the high intensity it doesn't bleach or damage the foliage in any way. Quantum boards on the other hand easily bleached, fried, and / or damaged young foliage if the unit's power was not significantly reduced. COB's seem to be much more appropriate for VEG growth. I'm officially sold on a a viable replacement for T5 vegetative lighting; COB's in a daylight spectrum.

View attachment 4726488
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Here's some root action from the clone tote. Most have roots now. A few stragglers have little nubs that haven't quite grown to a swath of roots yet. I don't rush my clones at all. I will wait another 7 days until each clone has a large swath of roots before they go into 1 gallon dutch buckets.

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Id love to see those small size dutch buckets. How do you work them? Top watered or flooded?
 

jonnynobody

Well-Known Member
Id love to see those small size dutch buckets. How do you work them? Top watered or flooded?
$1.00 1 gallon trash cans from dollar tree. I have 30 or so of them. I drill a drain hole 2" up from the bottom of the container which creates a 2" reservoir / water table in the base of the container. I take a rooted clone from my clone tote and place it in the container. The stem structure and swath of roots usually go all the way to the bottom of the container due to the size of the clones I take and the amount of time I allow them to root in the clone tote. Start with strong well rooted clones and you will be pleased with your results. With the stem of the clone at or nearly at the bottom of the container I then fill around the roots with #4 chunky perlite all the way to the top just as would be done with soil. Water with any hydroponic grade balanced fertilizer every 2-3 days at a PH of 5.8 and an EC of 1.6-1.8. They usually stay in the 1 gallon containers for 2 weeks as the root system grows. Just before they make their final transplant into 5 gallon buckets the plants should be drinking down the reservoir almost entirely in a single day. That's how you know the roots are firmly established and ready for their new home. If you rush this step and transplant before adequate root development you will significantly stagnate growth. Do not rush the transplant. I can't emphasize this enough.

Once they're in their 5 gallon homes they drink a hand watered hydroponic solution every 2 days through harvest. Very rarely you'll have a monster of a plant that wants to drink daily. I presently have a Jager plant that's taking up nearly 1/4 of my 12'x16' flower room. That monster of a bitch is drinking every day now. That's a good thing. She's going to produce a massive yield.

The reason I adopted this system versus flood tables or flood and drain buckets is the simplicity. I can move my plants as needed around the room or room to room without issue. Unless they're too big to fit through the fucking door that is :) There are no air stones. No feed lines. No drain lines. It is the simplest form of hydroponics in existence and any container can be turned into a dutch / hempy bucket. Some people use 2 liter soda bottles and do a sea of green with 40 2 liter soda bottles in a grow tent. People get pretty creative with these things :) I've seen people with dutch / hempy buckets on their front lawns or back yards with monster tomato and cannabis plants growing like trees. The system is versatile, cheap, and highly effective.

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Rocket Soul

Well-Known Member
ok, i thought you found something like this, only smaller:
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they have a nifty drainage system from the bottom, so theres more circulation in the bottom res.
 

jonnynobody

Well-Known Member
ok, i thought you found something like this, only smaller:
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they have a nifty drainage system from the bottom, so theres more circulation in the bottom res.
I feel that overly complicates the simplicity of the system. They're all connected together. Congratulations! You have just lost the ability to move your plants around within the room. I move and adjust the position of several plants each day. I can't imagine not being able to move them. That system becomes seriously complicated when you move it into a grow room indoors with limited space. What if you develop a leak in the plumbing in a very difficult to access location 6 weeks into flower? Congratulations. Now you can't water your plants and you're doing damage control at the most crucial time of your flower cycle, because you over complicated your life. That's how I view that system when taken from the outdoors with copious amounts of space and natural lighting to indoors in a cramped flower room with artificial lighting that dictates where you place your buckets.

Now if you look at .Smoke's grow journal he is growing in tents. Quite nicely I might add. He plumbs his drain holes with grommets and tubing into a drain location. He automates his watering. And he did a fine job of setting it all up. It looks great and judging by his results it is highly functional. His system would be incredibly difficult to replicate in my room. He has great access growing in a tent. Zippers on the sides and front so everything is essentially accessible for the duration of his flower cycle. If an issue arises in his situation he has full access to repair the problem whereas my access is very limited making repairs much more complicated. Can it be done? Of course. However it adds a layer of complication to the system. Depending on the grower's space it will either be a viable system or it will not. For me it is not.
 

jonnynobody

Well-Known Member
Update:
Things are progressing so nicely under the COB lighting that if Hortibloom had gotten this light to me about 2 weeks sooner I would have bought another one of these exact same fixtures instead of the 2 110W quantum boards I purchased from 'baba. I really can not emphasize enough how wonderful this spectrum is for vegetative growth. The foliage is lush and exploding every day. I did not get this kind of response under T5 lighting. If Hortibloom made a veg fixture with just these COB's for vegetative growth I would outfit all 3 nurseries with them. If you haven't tried COB lighting you're missing out. Plain and simple. They're the real deal.

Top down pic:

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Notice the incredible lushness of the foliage: Also, do you see the shadow cast on the leaf from another leaf above it? That's some intense lighting. And unlike quantum boards that intensity is of the right spectrum and power that it doesn't damage / bleach the foliage. This is A true horticultural grow light.

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Up close: Didn't focus the way I thought it would. I'll snap a better pic later.

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Clones are loving it!:

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Isn't that just effing gorgeous? What I'd like to see is another 2 of those COB's on a board. That would take care of a 5'x5' nursery nicely.

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jonnynobody

Well-Known Member
Today I am changing the water in my clone tote and rebuilding the manifold to address a minor and very common lid leak. The problem isn't with the tote. The problem is the way the engineer (that's me) mounted the nozzles on the manifold. There is no need to mount nozzles on the top of the manifold. Almost everybody does it, and it is the reason so many people develop leaks and give up on their clone tote. Or they (like me) tried all sorts of stupid ideas to address the problem. Line the edges with gorilla tape? Did it. Still leaked. Reduce power on the pump? Did it. Still leaked. And then I saw a video on youtube of a fella doing it the right way. Point your nozzles down or even at a 45 degree angle pointing towards the bottom of the tote. Do not point any nozzles facing up. With those pointers in mind I will be redesigning the manifold over the next hour or so, and reinstalling it to finally and properly address the leak issue. It's all about the correct position of your nozzles. It's no more complicated than that, but gosh we do our best at complicating this don't we? :)


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