Ordered my first LED: looking for advice

[Aarkem]

With heat being the number one reason I started looking into LED's I was very skeptical. I finally decided to make a serious investment and ordered a Fluence Spydr x Plus as I believe it will give me solid performance for both veg and bloom cycles.

I am looking for advice on starting set up, distance, nute regime, if CO2 is an absolute must(never used before) it does recommend on the website, and any other piece of advice anyone is willing to impart on me. I am looking for the best quality I can get, I don't care as much about the yields. I have grown soil/DWC for a few years under HPS and get approx 19oz/600W HPS and I would like to stay at this or better if possible.

It is back ordered so I probably wont get it for about 30 days, but I want to be ready at the end of my current cycle.

 

[SommerVirelli]

If it’s your first time with this setup, then don’t worry about CO2 until you’ve got your grow and nutes dialed in. Also, it will only benefit if your light is reaching over 1000 PPFD. I hear the Fluence lights are amazing tho. When you’re getting max results with your new setup then you’ll be ready for CO2.

 

[multiVortex]

If it’s your first time with this setup, then don’t worry about CO2 until you’ve got your grow and nutes dialed in. Also, it will only benefit if your light is reaching over 1000 PPFD. I hear the Fluence lights are amazing tho. When you’re getting max results with your new setup then you’ll be ready for CO2.

Agree with this. You may even need to dial it down a tick without CO2. That's not a bad thing though!

 

[RichieRich6988]

What is the wattage? I am a long time advocate of LEDS. The Spider x plus is a very expensive unit running around $1,500. There are lots of others that will do the trick for a fraction of that price. The power is rated at 660 watts but the design of thge unit is bad ass. Are you using this for a commercial grow? Fluence the manufacture is mostly targeting a lot of the new growers in all the states that have changed their laws and they are a high end company. If I was to set it up I would use the hangers that come with the unit, and handing veg about 2 feet above, then when it flowers lower thew lights to about 18 inches above canopy and keep an eye out for the leaves curling on the ends. If you see that then back it off another 6 inches or so. As far as the nutes go, I am a longtime user of Fox farms. I prefer to grow in soil with rthe post filled 1/4 up with 3/4" to 1" PH neutral river rock. Then I mix some Foxfarms Ocean Forrest mixed with Perlite at a 70% potting soil and 30% perlite. The plants absoulty love it. it provides plenty of oxygen to the roots and drains away about 40% of the phed water mixed with Fox farms Grow big for veg and when I kick it over to 12/12 I use Tiger bloom along with Cultivation Nation Bloom. After the 3rd week of flowering I then also add 1 TBSP of unsulphered molasses to the mix. Just make sure you PH the mixture after the molasses because it raises the ph a nice little bit. For Veg my feeding schedule goes like this 1st day PHed water only, second day nothing, third day PHed water plus the Grow big nute, fourth and fifth day nothing, sixth day phed water only and repeat. For Flower, the first week I do as follows. 1st day phed water with half of the grow big nutes as I was using, 2nd day Phed water only 3rd day nothing 4th day a mixture of Half strength Grow Big and Tiger bloom at half strength, 5th day phed water only, 6th day No more Grow big, use Tiger bloom at full strength, 7th day nothing. 2nd through 5thweek into flower 1st day Full strength Tiger bloom and full strength cultivation nation bloom, 2nd day nothing, 3rd day same as first, fourth day nothing, fifth day phed water only, sixth day nothing. At the fifth week is when you will be adding the molasses then the 7th or 8th week depending if you have a 8 or 10 week flower period then stop all nutrients all together. When Flushing try to use double the size of your pot with phed water. Example your plants are in a 2.5 gal pot. You will need to flush with 5 gallons of water every 3rd day.