Hi guys. My first time here and it seems like there is a wealth of knowledge and experience to be gained.
I am about to press the trigger on a main light for a 120x120 tent and was wondering if any of you knew about the comparison I am up against>
Mars TS3000 (450watts) or Mars FC3000 EVO (300watts).
I have compared these quite thoroughly and feel that the older, less popular TS model might be better. But I would be very interested to know if anyone has experience or at least some ideas about which light would be better.
I have seen some posts about Mars being a bit scammy with regard to reporting numbers, so I checked out Spider farmer website and found that it seems that all the websites are made by the same people!, the websites are literally carbon copies, the tags and marketing bumph is also identical for all brands. So is it another case of all products lead to china? and they are all just mass produced there and just branded differently?
If so, then why would the competing websites be the same? Are we being played?
Anyway, enough of the conspiracy stuff for my first post
So what do you think guys…TS3000 or the FC3000EVO?
Welcome to the forum! Lots of great advice here. What unit of measure for a 120x120 (inches or cm?) How many plants? I run an AC infinity evo3 for 240w for 1 plant in a 2x4 foot tent. Make sure you’re looking for the Samsung 301 diodes. Also, light is probably the most important biggest spend. I’d go more than you need now instead of having a box of underpowered lights later on. Happy growing!
Looks like a beast, but double the price and not double the power!
So far I am more interested in Mars TS3000 vs FC3000. They seem to get the price to power ratio closer to my budget/expectations. Also they have a 40% off deal atm
I have a 4ft x 6ft grow room with 3 spider farm sf2000 lights. I have three because I started with one and then added a second and now just add s a third. This is my third grow and this is all from my experience and advice I got. Don’t hesitate to spend extra on light! It will add much to your harvest.
I had a Mars ts3000 in a 4x4 and it wasn’t a bad light but the se3000 produced way better and run cooler even though it’s a lower wattage
I sold the Marshydro ts3000 to a freind that’s still useing it snd it’s not bad.
Honestly both those lights are better suited for a 3x3 rather then a 4x4.
Not that big a deal but if you could spring for one of the 4800 series for a 4x4 or step the tent down to a 3x3 for either of the 2 you listed would be ideal.
My pick of your 2 choices would be fc3000 with some added IR/UV bars over the ts3000.
Im a big fan of bar style lights over quantum board lights.
They tend to run cooler, allow for better air circulation, have more even light coverage.
And if your handy with electronics, them being modular its easy to repair or replace a single stip if a diode goes out or something rather then replace an entire board.
I’m really just “nit picking” at this point
But either way my friend, you can’t go wrong with either one
I’m have a bias twards bar style and your idea of more power for your pound makes total sense.
Idk how much it would save by getting a 3x3 (91x91 i think ) but in my opinion, the light coverage would be more even and the yeild weight would not be effected.
The space you have to work with would be smaller but power would be the same so yeild potential is the same.
Its just in a 3x3 that power would be better “focused” by being more condensed and eventually spread if that makes sense…
Thanks for the on topic advice Pappy! I thought the thread was going to go way off topic
So the 4800 is a little too expensive (brokie atm), but I think I will later add another light later, as finances allow.
So right now the FC3000 is showing significant lower watts, lower PPFD numbers, and a lower size lamp (crop cover). So for me, the samsung diodes are pointless (perhaps only longevity, which is yet to be proven).
The TS3000 is showing 50% extra power, higher PPFD numbers, larger size, and a cheaper price. So for me it seems like the winner. But it seems others are preferring the samsung diodes over all other stats, or am I mistaken?
The 120x120 tent is already on its way, so I have to make do with this size for now.
I would have to agree the ts does make more since being 150 more watts.
Guess i got hing up on the bar vs board.
Many of us start out with whatever we can afford and next thing ya know you have multiple setups
Samsung has extremely good marketing and while there diodes are considered the best.
The difference dosen’t warrant the hype they carry, fanboy mentality imho
My best light is a Growers Choice Roi-e720 and it has no Samsung diodes and grows fire so I wouldn’t let that be my #1 reason to buy a light.
And don’t let anything i said discourage you, you chose well
Thanks Pappy. I thought there was alot of fanboy business going on
So I will take heed and start off with what I can afford, as you said. Then branch out.
Yes, of the lights you’re mentioning anyway. This is not necessarily good or bad as even the lights built in US are going to use components from China, Korea, etc. But there’s definitely a difference in some to the others.
This is from not understanding the whole story. The Samsung lm301 series of chips has been the most efficient led available for some time. The problem is they are binned by voltage and flux, so not all of them are exactly the same. If you get highest flux bin with lowest voltage bin it may be 10% or so more efficient than the lowest. A 10% efficiency gain represent about 2-3 years of led tech development nowadays. Not to mention several companies have claimed to use lm301b/h but sent products out with counterfeit leds. Even so, there are several other very competent leds available, so you don’t need to have Samsung leds to have a good light.
Power “watts” is only a clear indication of how much power a light consumes and with the differences in led tech there is no direct correlation to more watts being equal to more light. And there is no standard for which these provided par maps are published. One could be taken in open air and another in a reflective tent, or at different heights, or using uncalibrated tools. When you see something like this that isn’t coming from a third party without all of the qualifying information it should be treated suspiciously.
I don’t have any personal preference for which of these lights you buy, but I wanted to provide you with real world information on your questions. Someone above pointed out that both of these lights are designed for 3x3, and will only provide mediocre results in a 4x4. As long as you’re expectations reflect this there’s nothing wrong with upgrading later, but it will make a difference to replace this with a properly sized light.
Thanks for your real world view on the matter. This is what I need to hear and what I kinda suspected also. It seems that all the info, PPFD maps, data, and the frequent spelling errors, are generic, across all of the LED sellers, so we cannot take any of them as gospel as they are all coming from the same manufacturer/s. So impartial 3rd party testing is necessary to find any kind of base line imo. But this applies to all the brands mentioned as suggestions! So how does one recommend a XZF5000 ultra LED light for example (fictional), when in fact the data is all sourced from the manufacturer claims similarly.
Considering this, then power/watts seems to be the only solid measure we can rely on, but based upon what you said…it still does not mean more light necessarily.
dayum, this LED biz goes deep!
I use the Viparspectra ks5000 it’s a little expensive at $470 but it’ll flower anything you can put in that 4x4 or 5x5 tent to perfection. It’s one bad A$$ light
To be fair, you’re limiting your search by budget and accessibility. It’s not all grow light manufacturers. But if you’re looking soley at places like Amazon, Alibaba, etc and in a relatively low price then you’re going to see the products available in those places that fit your search criteria. There’s nothing wrong with having a budget to work in either, most of us do. But that kind of separates “all led sellers” from the couple you are considering. And I misspell words all the time, but I’m not trying to sell you anything either. The truth is I have huge hands, access the forum from my phone 99% of the time, and almost always knee deep in something else trying to stay caught up with responses here. That alone shouldn’t discount the information I have to share, but is entirely up to the individual reading.
The one way we’ve already established is to find lights that third party test data is available. There’s quite a few. Another would be to find people who document their grows well using said equipment and follow their results, ask for their feedback. Some is posted here for you.
This is absolutely wrong. All you need to find is however many people it takes to convince you that were growing with 5-10 year old led tech and have upgraded to new led tech. Some of them are 3x better at converting a watt into light. The industry leading led lights run around 3 umol/joule. That’s 3 umol per watt per second. A 400 watt hps light runs about 1 umol/joule. Therefore it takes about 130 watts of top end led tech to match 400 watts of hps. The cheap leds in circulation are significantly better than hps but they’re definitely not all similar enough that 100 watts from one is equal to 100 watts from all.
I am going to the home websites for Mars, spider farmer, etc to search data and compare. I do not use amazon or aliexpress. But yea, my budget seems to be limiting the possibility for success right now and later I probably will regret not holding on a few months and getting a higher priced bar style light with better feedback here.
Regarding spelling, I was referring to the generic marketing material on the sites with regular mistakes, PPFD maps, etc. Seems that Chinese > English translations are used in the literature, even with the recommended brands. I am not moaning about spelling errors in general, just it is another observation which confirms my thoughts on them all deriving from the same source. But nice to know you have big hands
I have smallish hands, but regardless I could not use smartphones keypad, so I use an old Nokia flip phone and use PC for my interwebz typing!
I agree and just started following the documented grows with said lights. One recent documented grow on this forum was the “hoppibunny” ts3000 grow, which I was reading and observing last night till the early hours! Then found that soon after flowering she turned over to a different light! So not a good sign :o(
So yea, kinda bummed a bit as I already bought the light!
The thing is that when someone suggests a better light, it also carries a larger price tag around double than the budget. In Hindsight, I would have waited some more months and got something around 600 eur, but hey, we live and learn. In the good ol days I used a HPS600watt for 4 ladies in a similar sized box. But its been a while and tech has moved soooo fast (imo often not always in a good way). So I have been very dubious and skeptical until now regarding LED, but yea, it’s time to jump in and listen to the youngens
Welcome aboard. The folks have you. @dbrn32 is 1 of our light gurus. He will have all the knowledge for lights you need. Even if he does seem grumpy at times. Just busting your balls man
) but in my opinion, the light coverage would be more even and the yeild weight would not be effected.
