Can anyone recommend a decent LED light setup for a 4x4 tent. I see some of these companies claim to offer veg to flower all with the same unit. I've looked at this model but wonder if I am wasting my time or not http://www.hydrogrowled.com/345W-Penetrator-LED-Grow-Light-P46.aspx
Led Users Unite!
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El Superbeasto
Active Member
BlackMesa
Active Member
Yes the light will veg completely fine though your better off with the Blackstar 500w due to better reviews and the watts aren't that different plus it's cheaper. There are grow journals on here with Blackstars used as veg and I'm personally using duel Blackstar 240's on seedlings and there responding awesome. I would also say that you would at least need 2 of the 500's for that space.
puffenuff
Well-Known Member
I went to order a new led panel from the same place I got my last and noticed prices have dropped some and then I found out that they will be releasing a new line of leds with upgrades all around. They didn't give out too much details only mentioning a few of the upgrades but this news has me super excited because their current generation lights are amazing as is, but these new ones well likely raise and set the bar for standards at a new height. Stay tuned over the next few weeks to a month, hopefully I will be able to find out more about these new lights and you can be sure i'll be picking one up
Tripp10966
Active Member
Well i just ordered a 240 blackstar today. Any advice at all about the light or how to grow with it is greatly appreciated.
BlackMesa
Active Member
Welcome to the Blackstar club! I can tell you that by using a black piece of poster board and a light meter that the light is most effieciant at 5.5 inches above the canopy which gives you a decent intensity before the Lux drops off which gives you a coverage zone of 19.5" x 28.5" and a direct light coverage zone of 12.5" x 20.5". So it appears that the light should jam out 2 square feet but is capable of providing enough light to grow nearly 4 square feet (though not in the shape of a square).
Also these panels give of next to nothing when it comes to heat so use an extremely light potting mix if your growing in soil. In a few journals it seems you can get these panels as close as 4" to the canopy but anything closer and your looking at light bleaching. Hope this helps.
I don't think I've ever actually seen anyone grow with a blackstar 240 closer than over a foot. I wouldn't recommend it, that gives the light no room to blend or to hit much of the canopy before getting all crazy. I'd start at a foot or more, but probably not as high as 2ft for non seedlings
PS: A blackstar 240 uses between 130 and 140w counting the fans, so it will be more like a 250w HPS than a 400w HPS
BlackMesa
Active Member
This guy --> https://www.rollitup.org/indoor-growing/414669-kush-groove-black-star.html grew at 4" from the canopy and as far as seedlings go I am testing the limits of distance and at 8" my seedlings are reacting positively, with no negative effects. Based on how there growing I wouldn't doubt it if I can go 2" closer. My testing was to figure out how far you could get away from the canopy before the Lux dropped off at a steep rate, yes you can go higher but 5.5" had a strong light intensity vs coverage footprint. I'm no where near being done trying to master this panel and will do some experiments when time and resources permits.
Can the same light grow from veg to flower?
wyteberrywidow
Global
Now can someone help me out with the math here a digital 600 cost 200 with cooltube and fan u say 300 a matching led system of 500-600 watts cost 800+. Now with the 600 I know I can pull a pound easy not seen a grow with a 550 led yet that produced a pound. Honestly the only grow I've seen that did good with led is irishboy grow. Now since heat is a problem now I was considering led buy after research I don't think it's such a good idea since the extra weight will make ip for the bill instead of upfront cost of the led
newworldicon
Well-Known Member
Good data you have collected there, it will help further users in the future with Blackstaers and smaller panels.
newworldicon
Well-Known Member
WBW have you grown with a 600 to produce a pound over and over again to make the claim? I only ask that because people wax lyrical about these things like everyone should be doing it yet many many people do not. Both of these lighting options have their pros and cons, there is no necessarily better way to go, your circumstances will dicate which will be the better option for you. I did not do well in my first run but I am about to hook up another trial run, 5 plants trained under the 550W LED. I hope you will follow. Yes it seems that Irishboy has done very well but it was not just one grow that he got lucky, his first grow under the single 600W panel, ( Don't know the real draw as it is unmentioned ) was a pound off of 4 plants, 2 hindu skunk and 2x XJ-13's. His subsequent grows were successful in my eyes even though he had some teething problems with heat etc.
I suppose you have got to the point where you want to try them but are afraid they will not deliver to your expectation and you will have wasted your money but the truth is that seeing other peoples work will not convince you, it is you that will convince you.
I am confused about your weight problem????????????????
BlackMesa
Active Member
Thanks! I am going to start a few more seedlings and veg them at 12" distance on my second panel just to see what the visual size difference is compared to my seedlings that are veging at 8". This way it's a 100% field tested experiment.
I would also like to add that using a matt or flat black poster board under LED lights is a good way to psychically see the primary coverage zone and at that point you know how far out and down from a panel to use a light meter to dial in specs for light intensity vs spread.
Half the reason I choose to go LED was the thrill of trying to figure it all out due to it being nothing like HID, I guess the challenge of new growing technology is exciting for me.
wyteberrywidow
Global
Thanks for that newworld
I only grew with my 400 and I got 7 oz at most and that's using soil. I know a couple who grow a pound easily with the 600 watt tho that's why I put that there but you are right heat is the killer right mow in summer I'm just trying to get the best deal for my buck
I only grew with my 400 and I got 7 oz at most and that's using soil. I know a couple who grow a pound easily with the 600 watt tho that's why I put that there but you are right heat is the killer right mow in summer I'm just trying to get the best deal for my buck
ColoradoLove
Well-Known Member
Don't go Blackstar then. If you want yield like irish you gotta use the lights irish was using, aka GLH. I've seen a couple journals using ISIS/Magnum LEds too that yielded well. I think you'd be better suited checking out the Bubbleponics forum. Mike from GLH is over there regularly (GrowLEDHydro is his tag) and there's like 15 different journals running different sizes of GLH panels. ledbudguy has his own forum running the ISIS brand, you can Google that one as well. RIU ain't that pro-LED so you don't see as much about them over here. just this thread, whatever it's worth....
Kaptain Kron
Well-Known Member
a blackstar easily can pull over a gram per watt, my kessil grow was just ridonculous on 3 of em spread over a 2x3ft table blackstar was also grown over a 2x3 ebb and flow table, with the many mistakes that my partner made such as not raping the bugs he got, and packing the table too full of plants so i didnt get big enough root systems to pump out the yeild i wanted and i still avereaged between 5-7 zips on every run and i ran each way 3 times for a total of six runs. The reason i keep going back and forth between kessil and blackstar is price and modularity. being able to properly spread your light out will give you way more nug than getting a bigger light that puts out more light. Reflective material and proper light placement is the most important thing with an LED. If you take care of those two things i can easily see a 240w blackstar pumping out 8 zips of some good, you would have to scrog a single plant but its doable on a everyday basis. Mind you my partner was a complete idiot and i only came by 3 times the entire cycle of each crop beginning middle and end. So i barely did shit but provide equipment and advice that i learned here and from my older friends that have been doing hydro for 20 years. If he had followed what was layed out on the forum and by my friends he woulda pulled way more for us, he used too much nutrients, didnt kill off the fungus gnat larvae in the roots or the spider mites. I still got more than a gram a watt with those shit conditions.
Believe me, dont believe me say im full of shit it doesnt bother me any more i've grown tired of the constant debate between led and HID lighting when its so obvious that when grown scrog style an led will always beat out an hps if its a quality unit. If your growing hydro inside you shouldnt be doing anything but scrog, any other way i see as hurting yeild. Theres more than one way to skin a cat and thats just my opinion that scrog is a better method but its the only way to grow with LED's.
To those who say a 240w blackstar is not equal to a 400w hps ur right in the amount of watts used its no where close, however plant growth says that its a much better light than any 400w hps will ever be. My plants grow more stacked, faster, denser nug, more trich's, better definition in the shape of the nug everything is better with my LED than my 400w hps was except yield it stayed the same sort of give or take a few grams on the high and low side from small environmental factors. When you factor in the amount of ventilation you need to run a proper hps setup you will start to realize that 250 bucks for a 240w panel is not shit sure you may get a pos 600w hps for same price but what happens now you need a 200$ can fan to evac the light fixture and another slightly cheaper fan to evac ur room, i could have 2 panels that would be pumpin out more buds than a 600w would for less $ initially spent because of all the venting the hps takes to run. It cost me 40 bucks to ventilate my cab and i evac the whole cab of all air in less than 30 seconds.
The kessils are a bit hotter than the blackstar but that is not a real big deal not hot enough to worry about.
Ive been forever converted to LED's i still use my hps's just very rarely and when i need to expand and cant afford a new panel right this second because i still have all the venting equipment from before converting over. Wish i had never spent that money i would have way more led's than i have now and be spending so much less to get what im gettin now.
Believe me, dont believe me say im full of shit it doesnt bother me any more i've grown tired of the constant debate between led and HID lighting when its so obvious that when grown scrog style an led will always beat out an hps if its a quality unit. If your growing hydro inside you shouldnt be doing anything but scrog, any other way i see as hurting yeild. Theres more than one way to skin a cat and thats just my opinion that scrog is a better method but its the only way to grow with LED's.
To those who say a 240w blackstar is not equal to a 400w hps ur right in the amount of watts used its no where close, however plant growth says that its a much better light than any 400w hps will ever be. My plants grow more stacked, faster, denser nug, more trich's, better definition in the shape of the nug everything is better with my LED than my 400w hps was except yield it stayed the same sort of give or take a few grams on the high and low side from small environmental factors. When you factor in the amount of ventilation you need to run a proper hps setup you will start to realize that 250 bucks for a 240w panel is not shit sure you may get a pos 600w hps for same price but what happens now you need a 200$ can fan to evac the light fixture and another slightly cheaper fan to evac ur room, i could have 2 panels that would be pumpin out more buds than a 600w would for less $ initially spent because of all the venting the hps takes to run. It cost me 40 bucks to ventilate my cab and i evac the whole cab of all air in less than 30 seconds.
The kessils are a bit hotter than the blackstar but that is not a real big deal not hot enough to worry about.
Ive been forever converted to LED's i still use my hps's just very rarely and when i need to expand and cant afford a new panel right this second because i still have all the venting equipment from before converting over. Wish i had never spent that money i would have way more led's than i have now and be spending so much less to get what im gettin now.