Lighting To Upgrade or To Supplement? (LED Spectrum/Footprint Questions)

[olegren]

Having started out this year, I only know one light: My HLG 260W V1 @ 3000K. She was advertised as seed-to-flower, and to a newbie like me that sounded perfect. There's nothing wrong with the light, but now that I know more about spectrum & light in general, I am concerned that lighting will be a bottleneck for the quality of bud I can produce. A few pain points:

1. Lack of blues
2. Lack of reds
3. Poor footprint fit for my space. HLG sells an XL heatsink configuration that I should've opted into, as it would let me more effectively distribute the light in my 2x4 footprint. As it stands, mine is more suited for a square 3x3 space. Serviceable in current config; but not ideal. (To be fair, I could get their XL heatsink and put my panels on it for $70)

For reference, here's the spectrum info on the unit I'm currently using.

So this started out as me thinking about grabbing supplemental lights for veg & flower. Seems like something I can find for $150-$250 or so depending on how elaborate I want to get. But, in considering the above, I'm wondering if I shouldn't just grab a more well rounded light and consider it a system upgrade.

The Mars Hydro SP3000 looks ideal. It's nearly double my budget for supplemental lighting, but it ticks the boxes for all 3 pain points on my current solution. I've read plenty of rave reviews about the light itself, but I'm more curious to hear what some of you more seasoned LED users think. Has anyone recently made a similar upgrade, and if so how did it pan out for you? Do you think the improved spectrum + footprint coverage is worth a premature upgrade?

Thanks advance for any insights or suggestions!

 

[Death The Cultivator]

What is it that you want your light to do? A lot of options in diodes, efficiency, etc.

Flowering only light?
DIY?
Interest in UV?
EoD treatments?
Strips or boards?
Prefer efficiency?
Waterproofing?

I don't grow autos often so I have separate spaces.

Only upgrade I've made was from a HPS to a DIY LED. My next planned upgrade is to 2x boards over a 3x3 with side and intra canopy lighting. Near UV, 3000k, 94cri, with enough deep/far red to not supplement. Side and intra will be 4000k 95cri.

I haven't settled on veg lights but I'm leaning towards Bridgelux 5000k 90cri.

Plenty of options out there depending on how much you want from your light

 

[olegren]

Thanks. I should've been a little clearer in my ask. To be totally fair: I probably have no business upgrading now. I'm still very new to this, and while my lights aren't perfect they probably aren't limiting me any more than my own technique.

There's a lot I would look for in a light upgrade: Ideally I would stick to one unit. It would be better for veg and flower, it would fit my 2x4 footprint better, it would be efficient, and it would be safe (waterproof). I definitely don't need to upgrade right now; just thinking through my options I guess.

I am very interested in supplementing with UV and IR to enhance the mileage I'm getting from my current fixture in the veg & flowering phases. I could solve my footprint problem with a different heatsink for the QBs I have. I'm reading a lot about the Bridgelux and have seen several other IR solutions out there. You've mentioned several I will look into - Thanks!

 

[Arthur]

3000k is great for flowering, and the V1 is a good light. You might toss in some of growmua5 IR pucks...
I run 3500k seed to cut, but if I was going to not worry about $ I would be buying the new hlg-550 V-2 Rspec. If I was in your position, I would probably try and find the same light in 4000k and swap that in during veg. Then bring back the 3000k and some IR for flower.

3000k will tend to keep your girls smaller with tighter internodal spaces. Other than that, I can't think of anything else that would be detrimental.

 

[Death The Cultivator]

Thanks. I should've been a little clearer in my ask. To be totally fair: I probably have no business upgrading now. I'm still very new to this, and while my lights aren't perfect they probably aren't limiting me any more than my own technique.

There's a lot I would look for in a light upgrade: Ideally I would stick to one unit. It would be better for veg and flower, it would fit my 2x4 footprint better, it would be efficient, and it would be safe (waterproof). I definitely don't need to upgrade right now; just thinking through my options I guess.

I am very interested in supplementing with UV and IR to enhance the mileage I'm getting from my current fixture in the veg & flowering phases. I could solve my footprint problem with a different heatsink for the QBs I have. I'm reading a lot about the Bridgelux and have seen several other IR solutions out there. You've mentioned several I will look into - Thanks!

The Mars SP250 might be a good choice. Otherwise for waterproofing you're going to spend some cash and it sits right in your budget.

If you are interested in DIY check this out. If you go with the Bridgelux Gen 3 strips in 3000k you don't have to supplement 720nm. You can veg to flower in 3000k or you can mix and match spectrums. You could do majority 3000k with some 4000 or 5000k mixed in on one or two drivers. HLG has inexpressive 660nm(IR) supplement strips but I don't know about their UV.

I'm looking for a good final light to last me several years as most companies are mimicking/using many of the same parts now.

You have a good light right now. You could add 660/720nm strips from HLG and I believe they have blue strips to fill out the spectrum.

QB11 Quantum Board

Ultra High Efficiency LED Boards for DIY.

horticulturelightinggroup.com

Might ask HLG what the best configuration would be from Veg to flower and how much power you are going to need.

 

[olegren]

Thank you both for the wealth of information! This is exactly what I was hoping for.

@Arthur: I totally forgot they had a 4000K V1. Those have vanished from the site, but I reached out to HLG to inquire about them. Love the idea. If I could pick one of those up for a couple hundred -- cheaper if I can just get the boards and swap the driver -- then I would be well on my way. I'm also looking into what else I would need from them if I wanted to pick up an XL sink and adjust my footprint. (This wouldn't be so much of a problem if my tent wasn't jam packed right now)

@FTF_damien50 - Thank you for sharing these resources on DIY. I have written this off previously because I was just starting out, but I am going to start reading about it now. Failing the above, maybe I can come up with my own strip solution to supplement the two ranges I'm missing out on. I have heard a lot about LEDGardener but I didn't realize they had all these resources in a forum.

 

[Simplicio]

The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.

Your light is fine.
What you have is slight overkill for a 2 x 4 ft tent.
30 watts per sq ft is plenty with today's best LEDs.
My plants sometimes squawk at 28 watts per sq ft if they get too close.

 

[WildBill]

The Mars SP250 might be a good choice. Otherwise for waterproofing you're going to spend some cash and it sits right in your budget.

.

The SP250 was replaced with the SP3000.

To the OP: I have the New SP3000 and I'm VERY pleased with the performance in veg so far. Great light figures and you can keep the heat load down in your tent with remote mounting of the driver outside your tent. My girls are just on the verge of flowering with cheap Linda Seeds genetics and they are thriving with the oldest at day 30.

This is what I sent my friend that's having a baby today.

"The girls wanted to say Hi to their Uncle Joey and wish him Good Luck today!"

 

[olegren]

The SP250 was replaced with the SP3000.

To the OP: I have the New SP3000 and I'm VERY pleased with the performance in veg so far. Great light figures and you can keep the heat load down in your tent with remote mounting of the driver outside your tent. My girls are just on the verge of flowering with cheap Linda Seeds genetics and they are thriving with the oldest at day 30.

This is what I sent my friend that's having a baby today.

"The girls wanted to say Hi to their Uncle Joey and wish him Good Luck today!"

View attachment 1226958

@WildBill I've been low-key stalking your grow after seeing your upgrade details. Big part of the reason I started thinking about one. They're looking great! The heat benefits are nice, too. It's not a huge problem for me now (and straight up helps in the winter), but my temps were getting close in the hottest part of July. I was about to try and get my driver outside but finally got the humidity up enough to level it off around 80F.

To @Simplicio 's point, the grass is always greener. (Well said btw :smoking and I have a feeling my lights are just fine. The footprint and lack of blues are affecting me a little, but they probably aren't worthy of flat-out replacing the fixture before it's even a year old when I can supplement.

And congrats to your friend on the new addition!

 

[Death The Cultivator]

Thank you both for the wealth of information! This is exactly what I was hoping for.

@Arthur: I totally forgot they had a 4000K V1. Those have vanished from the site, but I reached out to HLG to inquire about them. Love the idea. If I could pick one of those up for a couple hundred -- cheaper if I can just get the boards and swap the driver -- then I would be well on my way. I'm also looking into what else I would need from them if I wanted to pick up an XL sink and adjust my footprint. (This wouldn't be so much of a problem if my tent wasn't jam packed right now)

@FTF_damien50 - Thank you for sharing these resources on DIY. I have written this off previously because I was just starting out, but I am going to start reading about it now. Failing the above, maybe I can come up with my own strip solution to supplement the two ranges I'm missing out on. I have heard a lot about LEDGardener but I didn't realize they had all these resources in a forum.

That site is amazing when you are interested in top quality DIY or pre assembled fixtures. You have a good light already, some extra stretch at 3000k.