Not at all, Google Mars hydro led, before you drop boat loads on cfl bulbs, I am now part of a group of people who now build Cree cobs diy led her e on riu, but several of us started and still use our mars hydro light, I have build on here, where I use a mixture of mars and cobs now, and there are whole threads on nothing but the Mars lights, I like the 300 because it's price point o is low, makes it easy for cfl guys to make the jump to led for cheap