Im offically a LED grower. Spectra Im here.

DAY 6
Plants are still growing good, I upped the nutes to 470ppm. I bought some walmart denture cleaner today, to clean out my air stones. That should give those roots in the tote alot more bubbles. One of my 70gph air pump is getting louder then usual, hopefully that doesnt mean its going out. I got more, but the thought of it going out after only about 3 years, wold make me kind of sad. Would feel like I wasted money, here crossng my fingers. My baby looking lovely, moving on to day 6, their second set of leaves are coming in looking good.




Here are some of them grouped together.




These are my seedlings growing in the dome, they are getting kind of big, they probably can be in there for another 1 or 2 weeks. Then off to the bubble bucket.





Well Mike should be dropping off my lights 2morow. Thats when Im going to throw up a picture gallery. Cant wait to get these leds. See how fast my plants grow under some 560w led full spectrum lights. Should be interesting.

karr said:

Sounds like a plan.

I have read that there are perhaps 3 generations of the 2011 model, and the gen 1 was the most problematic, while 3 was better. Gen 2 was apparently a sweet spot that used 3diode chips as opposed to the gen 3 1 diode chips. I am not sure if there is a gen 4 yet.

All the above is just second hand, and I might be fuzzy. But it would be worth an email or call to mike to see just what he's sending you. He usually is good at getting back to you. Let us know what he says, im curious about the newest generation and how things are acting these days.


Soon we will see how the lower branches fill out to kinda see what the penetration is like.

Tomorrow when the light goes on I'm going to close my cabinet with the video camera below the canopy to see how much light is passing through.

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Indeed, find out which version they are as well as the power consumption. I have the V1's and they are HOT in red light. He's made changes from V1-V2-V3 which are the following. This came from a friend on RIU that has used all three models.

V1 - red/blue 90* lens. new spectrums from the proved 2010 models. made in 100,180,290,500 Watts
V2 - red/blue/white/orange 90* lens. added the white and orange, heavier on the orange side. almost an HPS look to the leaves... made in the same wattages as V1's
V3 - red/blue/orange 90* lens, white is 120* lens. this one heavier on the white side. lower wattages. the glass is removed from the case. there is a protective coating on the connections. CAREFUL... you can get shocked!!! i was told they were made 100,150,250,450 with the new power supplies.

Good luck with the grow.

Have you uncovered what the consensus is on removing the glass? I know it could increase light, and I even feel my glass is smudged on the inside.

My only reservation is I don't want to seriously alter airflow direction. I should shoot mike an email, but have you heard much?

Shwagbag said:

Indeed, find out which version they are as well as the power consumption. I have the V1's and they are HOT in red light. He's made changes from V1-V2-V3 which are the following. This came from a friend on RIU that has used all three models.

V1 - red/blue 90* lens. new spectrums from the proved 2010 models. made in 100,180,290,500 Watts
V2 - red/blue/white/orange 90* lens. added the white and orange, heavier on the orange side. almost an HPS look to the leaves... made in the same wattages as V1's
V3 - red/blue/orange 90* lens, white is 120* lens. this one heavier on the white side. lower wattages. the glass is removed from the case. there is a protective coating on the connections. CAREFUL... you can get shocked!!! i was told they were made 100,150,250,450 with the new power supplies.

Good luck with the grow.

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Yeah, it sounds like my lights are V3. There are no glass in the led. hopefully these are the problem-free ones.

karr said:

Have you uncovered what the consensus is on removing the glass? I know it could increase light, and I even feel my glass is smudged on the inside.

My only reservation is I don't want to seriously alter airflow direction. I should shoot mike an email, but have you heard much?

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I have not removed the lenses in my V1's but I did switch out the power supplies. Looks like it would be relatively simple, not much to the light assembly but I didn't go any deeper than the panel and the power supplies. Looked like just a few nuts holding the next level of components i.e. heat sinks and light housing panel. I would say go ahead and tinker with it if you really want to go after it. Might void any warranty you have if you have one though lol.

If the glass was removed for a particular reason I would guess it would be to increase the angle of intensity around the perimeter but that's just a guess.

Are the spectra 100's any better than the advanced diamond one?

Good god I can't stop staring at schwagbag's ASS....................

Lets see those bad bois!

Well I met with Mike, cool ass dude. Got these bad bois hand delivered. Right now Im unboxing them and each one I open I get a big grin on my face. Even when mike was showing me one of them I was getting anxious I couldn't wait to set these up at home. These are built with quality. They feel solid. Put together perfectly.



Kind of ripped the first box open. HAHA



You really have to see this in person. build quality is beyond nice.



ALl of them together in all their glory.





Alrite so IM going to hook them all up and get some pictures of them before I put them in my grow room. Might do a video of them all on. THen get some more pictures of them in the grow room. This is when my grow gets good.

Its about time he put a sticker on them, I was just talking with a friend about that a few days ago. They look great, put them to work

These things are sooo bright. I put 4 of these in my grow cab. I know my plants are liking them.





We will see by 2morow how much my babys progressed. Hopfully its a big improvement over my mh.

Ha ha.....................great pictures man, must have been fucking blinding in your living room..

DAY 8

Yep it was super bright, could be seen way outside in the backyard.

Well here is the cab set-up. I am able to fit 4 led spectras like I thought. What do you veteran LED growers think about the height. Give me your opinion on it.



My plants have been under the light for about 12 hours now. They are liking it alot. I got the nutes at 500ppm. Temps in my room have dropped to a steady 79. Humidity is at about 25. Im loving the pink, takes a while for your eyes to get use to it.



This is my bubble bucket area, 5 plants to each bucket single cola also. Put my seedlings in here and at first they were leaning over, but they got use to the light. Running 2 air stones each bucket. Using commercial 70gph air pump. Nutes are at 200ppm.



Close up of my babys grouped up. They are starting to add size. Still green as day one.



Here is one of my babys with a close up shot.



Initial impression of LED is its the greatest thing that Ive experienced in my growing years. The heat does not exist. I can keep my cab closed all the way now since there is no heat. No need to run my inline fan. All those cooling issues you experienced as a hps multi light grower are out the windows. No need to run my ac, all you need is a fan, and a small one at that. Only problem I see is the room getting to cold during winter. But then you just throw in some cfls. Lets see what this week brings in growth under 560w of led power.

Based on my experience with Spectra V1's I don't think you'll have to worry too much about height in veg. The plants are a bit small right now so i wouldn't push it too much, you don't want to rape the humidity by dropping them too low. I've seen Spectra V1's ran at 6-8" during aggressive veg though. The key is when you change the photoperiod. With the V1's I wouldn't start 4 lights any lower than 36", and I wouldn't try to lower them until after the 4 week mark, then slowly drop them until you see some stress. I hope these versions work better for you than the V1's work for me.

Did he tell you what version these are? V3's at least it sounds like, perhaps a V4 I hope? I'm very interested to see how these lights perform with hydro

I'm interested in what version these lights are as well. Was in the market a year ago and Spectra was the only proven LED. Now it looks like Advanced has a good diamond series light and Spectra been having troubles. Interested in the current state of Spectra.. users of versions 2 and 3 have conflicting results. Would be nice to see some results from a current Spectra and Mike's input on version issues.

I'd like to see a diamond series VS current version Spectra (3?4?). These are the only 2 LED companies that are worth mentioning in my book, and I've researched them all. This comparison has never been done and should be!

PlutonicChronic said:

I'm interested in what version these lights are as well. Was in the market a year ago and Spectra was the only proven LED. Now it looks like Advanced has a good diamond series light and Spectra been having troubles. Interested in the current state of Spectra.. users of versions 2 and 3 have conflicting results. Would be nice to see some results from a current Spectra and Mike's input on version issues.

I'd like to see a diamond series VS current version Spectra (3?4?). These are the only 2 LED companies that are worth mentioning in my book, and I've researched them all. This comparison has never been done and should be!

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Yes, that would answer my question a page ago. I didn't know the comparisons haven't been done yet. I guess I was looking for an opinion anyway.

These are the v4. They are basically the Spectra 180. Just lowered the wattage output of each bulb. So instead of the light power draw being 180w, its down to 140w. His naming scheme changed, instead of naming his LED by wattage he is naming them by the number of bulbs. So the spectra 180 has 100 3w bulbs, just like the spectra 100 has 100 3w bulbs. Jus with the v4 the watts are down to 140. SO now the v4 are fixed with the lower output.

Well the advanced lighting diamond series has it so you can switch color output, so full veg, or full flower, or both together. I mean I dont see any use in that feature, but to each their own. I would check out the pro gro. Those are proven lights that work great. Seems like GLH fixed the spectra lights, so you would be good going with them. But, I would go with who gives you the best deal for the wattage.

But no one yet has done a test to throw these companys vs each other in a grow off. Would be a nice journal to follow.

Swiftowl11 said:

Seems like GLH fixed the spectra lights, so you would be good going with them. But, I would go with who gives you the best deal for the wattage.

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That remains to be seen I hope you're right on! Wattage is not nearly as important as wavelength though, as GLH learned at the expense of many. LED's are becoming almost mind numbing efficient, and its far more complex than just vague references like red or blue unfortunately... And if I knew then what I know now, I wouldn't buy anything until I saw a spectral analysis.

I'm curious to see how these perform, especially with hydro. I've been trying to deduce whether or not my issues might be related to expedited micronutrient depletion causing deficiency but I've only just begun.

I think you've got enough light, that's for sure. That's a hefty amount of footprint overlap for a small space like that.

Shwagbag said:

That remains to be seen I hope you're right on! Wattage is not nearly as important as wavelength though, as GLH learned at the expense of many. LED's are becoming almost mind numbing efficient, and its far more complex than just vague references like red or blue unfortunately... And if I knew then what I know now, I wouldn't buy anything until I saw a spectral analysis.

I'm curious to see how these perform, especially with hydro. I've been trying to deduce whether or not my issues might be related to expedited micronutrient depletion causing deficiency but I've only just begun.

I think you've got enough light, that's for sure. That's a hefty amount of footprint overlap for a small space like that.

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HAHA, so true, I jumped the gun a little bit. HOPEFULLY lower wattage fixed the issue. Only time will tell. But, I think mike learned from his mistakes, ( through other people expenses ) and made these lights work plug and play almost like the 1st gen. I mean he tried to make right on v2 & v3 with the power supply. But, I know I would probably think the same way as him, throw more wattage at it, and it will produce more bud. Crazy how it doesn't work like that for LED. Yeah I got caught with the red and blue 14 watt chinese led. I mean they work to veg my mother plants without using any power. They are like 1 inch away from the mother top though. But other then that they are useless.
Yeah the cab probably only needs like 2 LEDs in it. But, I wanted to get as close to 600w, like all my other hps 600w grows, so I have something to compare the led grow too.