A question from a fellow grower:
I have been surfing the net and have come across an interested lighting system called Spectrum King 400+ LED lighting. I was wondering if you know anything about it and of anyone who uses it please. It looks very interesting.
Nothing at all. If you posted a link; We could take a look at it. Perhaps MacGyver_Stoner will pop in and give you some feedback. He uses LED lighting.
ian_888
I have recently purchased 4 of these lights. I am currently doing a side by side comparison using one Spectrum King 400+ in a 10 X 5 X 6 grow tent and a 600 watt HPS in a similar 10 X 5 X 6 grow tent. I am running 12 plants in each tent, using a single light and a Jupiter 2 light mover. Each tent has plants grown from seed, with plants placed in the grow tents at the same time, and running the same nutrients, feeding cycle, temps and pH. (100 litre nutrient reservoir feeds both grow tents) In this manner, anything that happens in one tent will naturally happen in the other tent. In each grow tent, I have three different strains, so each grow tent is identical in every way, right down to the positioning of the individual plants.
Each tent has a charcoal filter, and a 10 inch extraction fan removing stale and hot air, and a 10 inch fan introducing fresh air into the grow tent. These fans run through a controller that controls the speed of each fan, maintaining temperature and negative pressure in each grow tent.
Growing from seed, I allowed each seedling the same amount of time under the propagating lights before moving to the grow tents under the 400+ Spectrum King and the 600 watt HPS. All plants were well rooted in rockwool 1 inch cubes, then these were set into 3 inch cubes. When roots were through the 3 inch cubes, all plants were transferred into 23 litre pots, with expanded clay as the growing medium. Initially I was hand watering, while I waited for a new pump for the automated feeding system. Each pot received 2 litres of full strength nutrients every three hours while lights are on… Light cycle is 18/6.
At week 4 in the veg cycle, both rooms are virtually identical in height and width of plant. The difference is that under the Spectrum King 400+.LED, the lower areas of the plant are much more advanced that the lower levels of the plants under the HPS. My thinking is that there is better penetration from the LEDs.
So far I am pretty satisfied with the performance of the LED compared to the HPS. The heat from the HPS is at times a problem in one of the tents. The LED has no heat issues. In fact, low temperatures may be a problem as we head into the cooler months.
I will be going into flower soon, and will be interested to see what results I get from the LED. I will add to this post as time goes on, and in the end, compare results of dried product when the cycle has finished.
Just as a side note- I purchased these lights after reading up on their website, then talking to the people who make these lights. I also got onto YouTube and looked through all the videos there relating to these lights. I made my decision based on my own research. Quite a few Canadian growers are using these lights, and provide good information on the performance. When I purchased these lights, after I had allowed for the exchange rate from US $ to AU $, the cost for 4 was almost $8000 AU. Then the import duty bill came in - another $2000 AU. SO I am pretty much committed to these lights until they pay for themselves.
I can get the DIMLUX EXTREME SERIES 630W PHILIPS CDM Ceramic Metal Halide CMH DIMMABLE BALLAST for $1700 AU but they still have the heat issues, and the power usage issues. If the Spectrum King 400+_ lights don’t do well, I will look at these as an alternative. However, if I can get a good harvest weight using LEDs, then I am happy to stick with them. Time will tell.
Until next post, stay safe.
Just tried to put up a link for these lights, but as a new user, NOT ALLOWED. Simple way is to get onto Google, and search for SPECTRUM KING. This will bring up several pages, and some videos as well.
Cheers.
Please keep us posted.
I’m thinking of dropping some cash on LEDs for flowering in summer months. I saw a video of someone flowering with an LED or 2. I think it was pulling 180w each and his harvest looked only slighy under what a 400w HPS could pull off…BUT, when I saw the price per LED, I totally stopped doing any research…can’t remember what the price was but it was an extremely ridiculous amount.
Hey Lyla. From personal experience with disco type LEDs, the bud size is OK, but they are not packed tight like under a HPS or MH. This is why I am running the above side by side run to see what sort of results these lights produce. The LEDs from Spectrum King are not the red, blue and white so often found in the current LED lights. They provide full spectrum, and as near as possible to normal sunlight. I will keep posting here as my test goes on, but so far, I am more than happy with the Spectrum King 400+ LED lights.
Check out their site at spectrumkingled dot com/our-grow-lights/
Just be aware that when I ordered my lights, it took almost 6 weeks to get them into OZ, through Customs and delivered to an address far away from where I am using them. And the Import duty I had to pay as well. I don’t know what country you are in, but these lights are certainly expensive, so I really hope they do the job. In US dollars they are reasonably priced. But when that is converted to my currency, ouch.
Happy growing
Yes, you need to compare actual watts to actual watts.So that would make sense that a light, or two using just under 400 watts of light would produce just less than a 400 watt light.
Time and time again it has been proven, that over all, intensity of PAR (photosynthetic active radiation, in other words the colors plants can use as opposed to the colors they can’t) is more important to development of hard dense buds than the “perfect” spectrum. This is why HPS does so well, it is far from being a perfect representation of what a plant actually ideally needs (a little too much red and green, and not enough blue), and certainly is not very close to the spectra of the sun and yet it continuously get some of the best results. This is because the intensity of the light from the amount of electricity it uses is almost the most efficient of all available grow lights to turn that electricity into usable light, the only others as efficient are LED and plasma.
So the number one thing to look for in a good but affordable LED light, is the ratings of the manufacturer over a long time, as well as making sure you know the actual watts the light uses, as well as making sure both peak reds and both peak blues are included in the LEDs spectra. Most new LEDs do use some white lights as well, as there is a little bit of the orange or yellow frequencies of light that can enhance the growing and flowering.
Glad to see you all have a great topic going here. I love to learn new stuff 