What are some of the best brands of LED?
I’m seeing a ton online but I’m not sure how to calculate the actual numbers or which ones are legit.
So if you only had $200 for light what would you get?
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I also have these I occasionally use for mushrooms, are they powerful enough to help anywhere?
Way way back I had surprisingly decent results using a few cfl so I figured these would work but the seedlings seemed to stretch even with the light an inch over them.
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@dbrn32 let me introduce you to the lighting guru…master of lights lol…im sure he can help you out in a jiffy!!
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Fluence, chilled tech, horticulture lighting group are pretty big names in led lighting for horticulture lighting. Not getting into much from them for under $200 though.
What are the measurements of your grow space?
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I can use up to about 6x6x6 but I know that’s a ton of light for that size so I can shrink it down.
I’m just looking to run 2 or 3 small plants at most.
I’m open to other lights beside led but heat is an issue and I’m trying to keep the electric bill reasonable. I’m assuming that leaves cfls.
I’ve got the one cheap 1k watt led, I was considering adding a handful of cfl with it but figured I’d ask first since I know zero about lights.
Long term would you suggest just seeing what happens with what I’ve got right now until I can afford to put more into a decent light?
I’m also able to put them outside I’m just a little worried about once they start stinking. When I was a kid I had one plant maybe 20” tall and it was unbelievable how potent the smell was.
Check out hlg lights watch the flower coverage buy what u can afford and spin the room around the light. If u can afford a wxw flower cover make it a 2x2. Cfls wont produce good dense buds i dont believe without help. Cfls are good for seedlings and start of veg. Hlg 135 rspec has a 2xw flower cover its just under 200 if u can swing a 260 u would be happier in the end and want to go bigger from there.
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If you’re just wanting to run a few small plants, 3x3 with qb 260 kit from horticulture lighting group would be nice setup for leds. It runs about $350.
A 600 watt hps light will flower a 4x4 pretty nicely, that could be in $200 range.
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HLG lights are good. 135 is a good one. I have the 100. Great light For little girls.Just turn on and hang. They are not very strong. But the boards are amazing. One will grow a plant. To me they are best for veg. But I have one under flower with one but it’s feeding off the other lights around it. If your going to spend your money if you could go with HLG and start small.
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600w is a nice light imop. A little heat. To me it is one of the best as far as hps. I know a 1000w is bigger. But over the years I like the 600w. I’m led now. I will crank back with a hps for a minute on this next run. That will be the end of The galaxy. The ballast is 15 years old and is a work horse. Has never blown a bulb. I’ve had to change the cord a few times. That’s it
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I just got some QB132v2 boards on sale at HLG (4 boards @$99) and a Meanwell driver $83 from Digi-Key. This plus misc parts was a total $210. (use DUDE discount code for 10% off HLG)
@dbrn32 not sure you’ll remember but you assisted with my last build with QB120 boards. I asked HLG if I could mix QB120s and QB132s, not recommended I was told due to different voltage requirements. Not a definite NO so what’s your take?
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You can mix them, it’s just that the current rating for 132 boards is lower than the 120 boards, and the voltage for 132 boards higher. So as long as you stay with a current that works for both boards and total circuit voltage fits within driver specs, you will be fine.
What exactly are you trying to do with them?
Thanks guys this is all good information.
On another topic when I planted these I just used a bag of random soil in the garage, which I checked today and it’s the six month feed kind. Is that going to be a big enough issue that I should transfer them to better soil?
Also do males tend to grow faster? The two in the back are 10 days since sprout and the front two are 3 days.
Do they look ok? It seems like the front one is way too tall but that’s how the first two started until I buried them a little bit.
Uploading: F5FEB818-2575-4052-A8F9-C0C1DD1A8A8E.jpeg…
Back two and front right are regular layer cake seeds, front left is triple cheese fem seed.
Ok last thing, I have a ton of coir for mushrooms. I have floranova grow and bloom bottles coming tomorrow, if I start another seed in just coir will I be able to feed it with those?
Okay so, I decided to increase my grow space from 2x4 to 4x4. I want to increase the lighting I currently have [QB120 3000k x 4] to an additional [QB132 3000k x 4]. I have a HLG-320H-C2100A driver for the QB120s and purchased an HLG-320H-C1400A to match the QB132s. What my intentions are to build the frame work to assemble all 8 boards to one fixture.
Now this where I need help. I was thinking I could connect all 8 boards in series, alternating between QB120s and QB132s. Since the QB132s need less voltage I was thinking I could use my C2100A driver (I bought the C1400A as alternate match). Does this sound feasible to do or should get additional QB132s for my build?
Oh and sorry @A.k.a didn’t mean to hijack your thread! 
Technically, 2100ma is more than 132 boards are rated for. The proper driver for four qb 132 would be meanwell hlg-240h-c1750. If you want them all into one fixture, build together and just use both drivers. The hlg-320h-c1400 looks too small to run all 8 boards by a few volts
So I am not opposed to purchasing the correct driver if necessary. My concern of using both drivers is power consumption. Of course if using both drivers would equate to a single compatible driver for all, then both driver usage seem the way to go.
It won’t be a single driver, but that doesn’t mean you can’t build a single fixture that uses multiple drivers. There are several commercially made fixtures that use multiple drivers.
Ok thanks a plan is about to come into fruition!
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I could also use some help I plan getting started with a 4’ x 2.5’ area and a few plants. Was looking at led lights and had seen a few that were reasonably priced and 1000w with dimmer and red and blue lights for veg and flowering. I could use some guidance on what would be enough light and a couple of options to choose from please.
The problem I had is that the advertised wattage isn’t relevant.
I bought a 1000 watt LED thinking it would be plenty but it turns out it’s actually like 110 watt.
The hlg recommended earlier seems to be the best deal from what I’ve been looking at the last couple days.
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