Mars-Hydro LED Grow Light Discussion

[flexy123]

Your plants won't care about "wall watts" so much, they care about actual, usable LIGHT that's available. You cannot give general advice on recommended wall watts since lights, in particular grow lights can come with different efficiency.

You also cannot compare LEDs and then what they draw with other types of lights, this is absurd!

For example, my living room lights had been Halogen drawing 45W per pop a couple of years ago. Now I replaced them with LEDs which draw about a 10th or less (the main reason people switch to LED) and the light output is actually higher for each lamp, way higher. According to the logic of "wall watts", the LEDs should be 10x "worse" since they only draw 4W and not 45W.

 

[flexy123]

forget about lux ... if mars hydro panels have more lux maybe this is cause they use a lot of white leds .... lux or lumens mean nothing when talking about leds grow panels

This is correct, but power draw is also relatively meaningless, especially if lamps use reflectors etc.

 

[Dennise]

and how bout' them buds.......

 

[plugged]

How many wall spectrum sqft output watts lumen lux consumption over time to make that beautiful Frosty Bud LoL

so frosty

 

[Robert Celt]

and how bout' them buds.......

Great looking buds Dennise, and your jars look like the same ones I have. Damn cat knocked a one gallon one on the floor and smashed it. Good thing it was empty or the cat might have got fed to the dogs LOL

 

[Dennise]

I will admit I have had to pick glass out of one jar of stash.... but I can't blame it on the cat........

 

[Shaggn]

I've been stalking a bunch of Mars ii threads across many boards. With all the info available and the journals presented, it becomes obvious. I think a purchase is in the near future. I do have one question though. I've always grown sog in a 4x4 tent. Which mars ii would work the best for my set-up. I've never had an led unit but almost bought an expensive apache unit. Kind of glad I didn't pull the trigger. Peace!!

 

[ColoradoGriz]

For sure! And I'm a guy who thinks WAY TOO MUCH about all the small things...!
I think I've got my soil sorted, I got my light, now I'll build the cabinet around the light, not the other way around, and go from there. It seems like some people are getting their cab first, thinking about huge SOG/SCROGS or 8ft plants, then realizing that they need to spend too much on lights or heat control etc. for coverage.....
Get the best light you can afford; HPS, LED, whatever, and go from there. Grow; practice, adjust; save up for more lights while learning to grow.....

One lesson I have learned is it would have been easier to go with 2 4x4's than a 5x5. A 5x5 gives you limited options on lights that will give you full coverage. Better to go in 4 foot increments, 4x4, 4x8, etc. I personally want lights bouncing off the walls not fading out to them.

 

[santb]

One lesson I have learned is it would have been easier to go with 2 4x4's than a 5x5. A 5x5 gives you limited options on lights that will give you full coverage. Better to go in 4 foot increments, 4x4, 4x8, etc. I personally want lights bouncing off the walls not fading out to them.

For what it's worth, I agree... Plus DSOMike also says this.. More smaller lights give you more coverage options...
My cab will be fairly small (but tall) for stealth reasons, like, 2ft by 3.5 ft; so frankly, I never really had to worry about coverage too much... Contrary to my previous post, I knew the max size of my cab, then when I found the 144x3 reflectors I was stoked..
That was luck and circumstances... With more room, I'd go 4 smaller lights, 1 in each corner...
Plus, did forget to add what EvoRat said... I try to take on board what growers such as yourself, ColoradoGriz, say... You can't beat experience for rock solid advice.... Hard to argue with results...
But I still see DSOMikes point... He's just thinking bigger as he has more room, so why not go max if you can?

 

[randy355]

Your plants won't care about "wall watts" so much, they care about actual, usable LIGHT that's available. You cannot give general advice on recommended wall watts since lights, in particular grow lights can come with different efficiency.

You also cannot compare LEDs and then what they draw with other types of lights, this is absurd!

For example, my living room lights had been Halogen drawing 45W per pop a couple of years ago. Now I replaced them with LEDs which draw about a 10th or less (the main reason people switch to LED) and the light output is actually higher for each lamp, way higher. According to the logic of "wall watts", the LEDs should be 10x "worse" since they only draw 4W and not 45W.

If you take the time to find the chart you will see each type has a different watt figure and takes into account the PAR or usable light spectrum for plants and the type source used for example if you take a 1K HID in a 16sqf area its wall watts are near 70psf but some of the spectrum is not used by the plants and the MH are for the most part only .6666 effective so its wall watt figures will be higher than say a LED that the spectrum is adjusted for PAR that is how the information is used and you need to understand before giving a blanket comment.
From what I remember 50 wall watts is the minimum for HPS or MH where 30 is minimum for LED which generally are around .92 effective

 

[ColoradoGriz]

Tomorrow I am ordering 3 Mars Hydro 144x5's that are going to be hanging in my 5x5 for my current grow. I guess I will find out if @ 38w/sqft is enough. Personally I am optimistic because I am going to get good light coverage and I am confident in the product and recommendations. I will further withhold my opinion until I can provide results of my own.

 

[maccamoo]

So going off the wall wats above you guys think 105 wall watts per Sq foot is way overkill? Having to downsize room from 5x4sqft to 3x3sqft with a mars 1200 & 700 running roughly 950wall watts. I'm thinking if I can keep temps under control results could be killer the tent is almost as bright as being stood on the surface of the sun lol

 

[randy355]

Tomorrow I am ordering 3 Mars Hydro 144x5's that are going to be hanging in my 5x5 for my current grow. I guess I will find out if @ 38w/sqft is enough. Personally I am optimistic because I am going to get good light coverage and I am confident in the product and recommendations. I will further withhold my opinion until I can provide results of my own.

You will be vary happy with both the lights and results

 

[Gnarl E Green]

I'm thinking about buying 4 Mars II 1600's to put into my 5x5. The 1200 I have in there now does a great job and only adds about 12 dollars a month to the electric bill and raises the temperature of the tent about 15 degrees when it's on.

The 1200 coverage is awesome with no dead or weak spots and my plants love it, but hey, think how cool it would look with wall to wall fixtures blazing away. I can barely see in there now it's so bright, but I guess I could wear a welding helmet to keep from frying my brain. And popping the electric bill up another 50 a month probably wouldn't get the electric company's attention, I hope!

Then for my next project I think I'll replace my 3 horse power motor on my 20" lawn mower with a tricked out dual quad carb 351 Cleveland with a NO2 set up.. The lawn probably won't care one way or another, but how rad will it sound?

Wait a minute! When does enough become too much?

If it does the job why fix it?

My 5x5 works great as it is , but adding a 4x8 to the mix would increase yield which would offset costs. That might be a better investment.

A seed will sprout just fine under a 100 watt equivalent daylight CFL, but I could get a couple 1600's to make sure that seed has enough kilowatts per square centimeter. What's another couple thousand bucks anyway?

 

[Robert Celt]

Perfect Gnarl

 

[Calidabs]

Hi ive been researching LED lights really hard and am very interested in the marshydro 144 x 5w ive read through the fourms and it seems you are related to the company and i just had a few questions. so would this light be enough for a
3ft x 2ft x 5ft closet grow?
i also want to upgrade to a 5ft x 5ft tent soon would this light be too weak for this large of a space? would i need 2 144 x 5w? or would a mars II be a better fit?

Thank you so much,
Leon
made this acct to contact you!

 

[ganjazz]

How many wall spectrum sqft output watts lumen lux consumption over time to make that beautiful Frosty Bud LoL

Mars2 700w, 10weeks bloom

--------------------------

Found(unknown,test) seeds , same time germinated under TCL, short veg- early bloom under reflector 150W.

Another frosty

Had 1 herm from 3 and saw this one is also a she
Alot behind the other one though.

Under the sun together.

 

[Mars Hydro]

hello Mike, how are you these days? yes, MarsII1200w will draw about 600w.

to replace a 600W HPS you need a mars2 1200W.

mars2 900W will be nice, but not full power for 3.2 X 3.2 .... and mars2 700W is clearly not enought.

 

[Mars Hydro]

thank you, super~~

I use a Mars 900 in the same size space. My tent is at 82-84 degrees and I have 45w/sqft. My last harvest gave me 15oz from 4 plants. Feel free to check out my journals.

 

[Mars Hydro]

Welcome CMDBaked! Thanks for the kind words and congrats on the move!
The coverage of MarsII700w is 3.5'x3.5'@24", while 2pcs Reflector48 and Mars Pro Epistar160LED and CREE128LED will cover 2'x4'.
In regards to 3.2'x3.2' square grow space, MarsII700w will be better.

Hi All,

I have been growing for a few years now, but the fear of coming home to a burnt down house, the insane cost of my 600w hps and the fact i want to grow greener has made me want to make the plunge on LEDs. I have been researching the Mars Hydro lights for the past few days and have read a good hundred pages of this thread.

Very impressed with all of the great CS that Sara and the guys continue to exhibit even a year or so down the line!

I am curious which panel would be best for me.

I have a 3.2'x3.2' space usually covered by a 600w, the heat is a problem in summer though. Would i be best with a 700w Mars Hydro II, 2 x 48x3w Mars Reflectors or the new Sun Series coming out?

I truely hope you can help me, as i think im sold on Mars Hydro lights, have seen some very good results!

Regards,

CMDR Baked