Overthinker
Member
Right guys and girls I'm running a 400 watt hps with an enforcer reflector, I was thinking of adding some led lights as side lighting. Any one got any experience with this and is it worth adding them.
Adding led to hps? Is it worth it
- Thread starter Overthinker
- Start date
Got 2 ViparSpectra 450w running at the sides of a 400w hps, plants seem to love it. This was week 3 2 days in after the switch (I retrieved the hair in the pic as well 
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Edit, I've got the LEDs at a bit of an angle for more penetration. And I lower or increase the hps depending on temps
)Edit, I've got the LEDs at a bit of an angle for more penetration. And I lower or increase the hps depending on temps
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XipXipXoom
Active Member
If you have room in your temps/VPD, then it may be. But I another option to consider is stepping up to a 600w digi HPS, which are the most efficient at turning watts to lumens/PAR, even more efficient than 1k's and way more efficient than 400's, especially if your 400 is a core and coil ballast.
Overthinker
Member
Yeah I'm running magnetic ballasts, I thought swapping out for digital ones that allow you to change the wattage so I could have a go using a 600w. Then if temperature is a problem switch back to 400w
Roger A. Shrubber
Well-Known Member
i'm considering it myself, i've started building my own QBs to use in my veg tent, flowered a plant under them as an experiment and liked the results. i've been thinking the combination might be good, get the raw power of the hps, with the penetration and quicker growth of the QBs....
cannetix Inc
Well-Known Member
It depends. LEDs are actually "better" than HPS and other HIDs in terms of spectrum, in my personal experience at least. Of course, a high-quality HID is going to perform better than a crappy Chinese LED, but a good quality full spectrum LED with UV and IR diodes might help your plants - that is - IF your current lighting is not enough to "max out" photosynthetic processes in the plant(s). Biological reactions can only occur so quickly. The rate of photosynthesis will not increase infinitely with light intensity, eventually, you will reach a point of equilibrium. It really depends on what the lumen output of your current HPS is and how many plants you have, as well as their size. Any info on this?
cannetix Inc
Well-Known Member
Nope, they won't.
http://www.rsc.org/learn-chemistry/content/filerepository/CMP/00/001/068/Rate of photosynthesis limiting factors.pdf
High light intensity will damage Chlorophyll molecules, which there are only so many of, to begin with. IF you haven't reached your plants limit in terms of photosynthetic rate, yes, any LED will help, but if you have, no extra light will help. Sorry. You're telling me 1 plant under a 1200 watt HID will grow even bigger if I add 60 watts of LED? Get real!
Overthinker
Member
Think it was in relation to my post as I'm running a 400 watt and I wanted to know if adding led would be worth it. If I was running 1200 watts don't think I'd bother
Kerovan
Well-Known Member
Learn the read the question, the op is using 400W hps, adding additional led's will help, even cheap chinese ones. I know, I have a 400W hps that I added 2 chinese UFO's to and it helped.
MichiganMedGrower
Well-Known Member
I know this isn't the answer to the question but adding a 315 cmh to the 400 hps would give a perfect flowering spectrum with uv a and b and ir.
cannetix Inc
Well-Known Member
I read the question, the "1200w" example I gave was just that, an example, and obviously an extreme one.
Just because you have grown with a 400 watt HPS doesn't mean anything. Like I said in my first post, it depends on many factors including both lumen output and the number of plants, as well as their size. Different ballasts/bulbs don't all emit uniform levels of light. Larger plants have larger biomass and can, therefore, support greater levels of photosynthesis, more nutrients, etc. Logically. The link I provided explains the reasons behind this in greater detail. The OP didn't provide any information besides the wattage and brand of his light. 1 plant? 2 Plants? 8 plants? Vertical? SCROG? The answer is, at the end of the day, it depends.
My second comment was mostly in response to yours and not the original post. Maybe I misinterpreted you, but when you said adding LED can "only help" I assumed you meant it will always help regardless of scenario. Correct me if I'm wrong.
Kerovan
Well-Known Member
No, I didn't say it will always help regardless of scenario. But unless the op is growing in a 2x2 tent with that 400W light, it will help. If the op has enough room to add additional lights we can assume that they have a large enough tent to accommodate them, mabye a 4x4, when means with a weak 400W hps the additional light and spectrum will help.