Light upgrade - advice valued

Hi knowledgeable friends,

I am just concluding my first grow with 2 130watt CFL bulbs. Natural selection tool from 3 plants to 1. The grow has been very informative but slow. I have a 1.2 metre x 0.6 metre x 1.2 metre(4x2x4 foot) growtent and I’m looking at a 600w viperspectra.
I want to get more out my grow… any advice well recieved. Thank you in advance

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If you are willing to DIY you could get a 2x QB288 LED setup that is ~300 true watts from the wall for ~$250. It would be similar but DIY to the QB260 XL. You could go cheaper with a strip build. The LED you are looking at would not be intense enough for the space you are looking to light.

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@Ja I just took a quick look at the on Amazon. The charts I saw for the ppfd charts were disappointing. It would work in a 4x2 tent but I still don’t believe you would be happy. I would recommend saving some more money and getting a HLG light. If that is not an option, go for it. It will be a step up from what’re you are now.

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Compare to the 260W

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That’s a short tent, I would think something very diffuse would be a better option so you could run the light closer.

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Hi bro,

I myself started growing with 1 ViparSpectra 600w Reflector Series, then bought another one… they never made me really happy. The plants I grew always made me wonder what I am doing wrong… then I bought an Amare SE300 (about 350w) it is full spectrum white light… and the plants turned awesome. They developed full flavour profiles and big fat buds just as we all want them. It is a very good light but quite expensive. I thought of buying another amare se 300 or maybe even 500 to substitute my second viparspectra but then I decided to go for a cheaper version… because I figured the bloom light of the vipar spectra is quite nice, very red, I just bought 2 x 75w COB DIY sets (the building took 10 minutes and I have no technological knowledge, I just watched a youtube video)… they only cost me 150$ Instead of the 600+200shipping&tax I would have paid for the second Amare light. Amare light and anything equal is perfect but well… maybe too expensive. If you dont want to go with quantum boards (next time I will because the COBs make quite a lot of heat and have to be kept quite far away otherwise you burn the plants) … anyway… I have now running: 1 amare se 300 on 1mx90cm which is about 3x4ft and 1 vipar spectra 600reflector supplemented with 2x75w COB and I find it is the perfect setup. I will buy another 2 of those 75w COBs and supplement the second ViparSpectra600 i still have with it so I will have 3 boxes running at about 300w each yielding between 200-400 every 8 weeks. Its very nice.

PS I only run the vipar spectras on bloom mode instead of both modes like I used to when I had no other light to supplement it. Now the COBs on 70-100% (they are dimmable) and the Vipar only on Bloom.

I hope it maybe helps you

Peace

I defer to @dbrn32 He really knows his lights.

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Going from an Amare light to a vipar is cheaper, but less performance too.

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