Finally some Mars Bars and my lights are going up

Finally gotten around to another update.

The girls are doing very nicely and all is going well.

Day 14 since turning to 12/12 - Still haven't done my supplemental mono 450nm - 620nm - 660nm and 730nm add on bars that will run off a coralux controller.
Also planning to add 6-8 or more XPG3 Hard strips Mark from cutter is making up for me.
@ 2A they'll push out 10K lumens but planning to run them @ around 250-400ma.
These will be used inside and around the canopy to increase yield from the lower part of the plant.


They've had a big defoliation since these photo's which took around 12 hours work.

Well been a little while since I shared anything.

The Mars Bars are absolutely doing the job.

Anyway thought I'd share Day 44 since turn we are only running 10hrs on 14 off and as the images show it's going great.

Those pinsinks on the dual cob fixture look huge. Might just be the picture but are they bigger than 140mm?
Killer looking crop!
You ever check to see what kind of heat are you getting from your light setup?

HydroRed said:

Those pinsinks on the dual cob fixture look huge. Might just be the picture but are they bigger than 140mm?
Killer looking crop!
You ever check to see what kind of heat are you getting from your light setup?

Click to expand...

Standard heat sinks from cutters with 72v CXB3590's mounted and 12v fan above heat sink which is probably why it looks so huge...

Drawing 1900w from the wall at the moment and no air con running at all, small 4" intake and exhaust of 6"
Run a dehumidifier 24/7 which adds some heat to the room so far getting canopy temperatures of 30c RH 35-50%

As for actual heat output I'd say it's 1900w in the end, compared to the Mars hydro 2500w, well there is no comparison.

This is first full run with these and seeing morphology in the flowers that simply didn't/can't exist growing under Mars Hydro lights we had running.

More like prior HPS grows only way better.

Quick update

All goes well, incredible, so glad I took the time to learn and grateful to those that blazed the trail.

Zulunature said:

Quick update

All goes well, incredible, so glad I took the time to learn and grateful to those that blazed the trail.

Click to expand...

Hell ya homie, shit's lookin FLY AF!

Damn, I really wish there was a video showing how to build one of the those 4 COB bar lights. My major concern is housing and those look so clean. Major props!

PCXV said:

Damn, I really wish there was a video showing how to build one of the those 4 COB bar lights. My major concern is housing and those look so clean. Major props!

Click to expand...

There's several friend.
Youtube greengenes garden cob build and even more so Growmau5 6 part cob build series.

Zulunature said:

Hi all firstly a big thanks to all that contribute to the RIU forum here without your sharing I'd be still thinking about what to do.

Have done a number of runs under Mars lights, which was a very bad purchase but that's the way it goes, and achieved fair results though we did keep adding more and more lights (watts) to get there in the end.

However the Mars Series 2 lights have a built in design flaw and will eventually fail but along the way the flowering period will increase steadily. We started at 9-10 weeks and on our 6th cycle it was 12-13 weeks to complete same plant (cloned) same everything but each time a little longer.
This occurs due to the lenses on the Mars series 2 going opaque eventually leading the diode to fail due to heat stress taking out the remainder of the string in the series or as in most cases a section of the panel supplied by that driver.

Warranty ?

What warranty they simply fobbed me off like so many others...

Anyway after many hours of drilling, sawing, tapping and a fair amount of swearing I've completed my Mars Bars and what I like to call my Heavies.

Couple of pics to show, sorry no build pics as such, just me doing this and under really difficult circumstances.

I'll try to do get more pics of our setup and show a run with these fantastic cobs.

View attachment 3708902
View attachment 3708903
View attachment 3708904 View attachment 3708905

Feel free to ask any questions ...

Each Mars Bar draws 125W from the wall and the Mars Heavies top out at 225W
There is still one more Mars bar to be hung just waiting on some new BJB holders and the Angelina reflectors to suit as I'm putting CXB3070 BB 4K cobs on that bar (already had them in a Mars Series 2 that I copied Growmau's build on).

Anyway a huge thanks to all.

Click to expand...

A Mars a day helps you work rest and play, I hope they don't end up melting haha... neat setup btw

Airwalker16 said:

There's several friend.
Youtube greengenes garden cob build and even more so Growmau5 6 part cob build series.

Click to expand...

Thanks man I will check it out!

Final data.

Mars Hydro conversion lights worked a treat, heavies worked a treat, Gemini twins worked a treat, cutter side strip worked a treat.

Total wattage from the wall 1900W on a 10/14 (on/off) cycle (63 Days) - cured weight 2000 odd g - consisting of 1000g of prime bud - 1000g consisting of 50% prime to medium - 25%minor buds and larf all to be dry sieved.

Best haul from actual Mars hydro 1700g all up including 900g larf lower quality, but nil medium in that as manicured it as much as possible running 2500W from wall and 12/12. (91 Days flowering)


So used 50% less Kwh in this grow than Mars Hydro grows
@30c a Kwh I can tell you that it amounts to many hundreds of dollars per grow and will now mean an extra flowering a year.
Nil A/C required this grow would normally be needed during whole run.

Veg cycle in main room 15 Days - cloned 10 weeks prior and kept small (well under 3 foot) After being in the room that long one table required utter crushing down to allow for flowering stretch.

Minimum veg cycle under Mars Hydro lights was 21 Days and had gotten worse after 2yrs of using lights and started to head outward of 30 Days.


Then onto flowering

Cobs Cycle completed in 63-68 Days on 10/14
Mars Hydro cycles 84-91 Days on 12/12

Grown in shallow fast water re-circulation system with air bubble stones in each tub containing 2 plants (x4 per tubs per table) and fine sprayers applied once every hour for 20 seconds.
Main reservoir's for each table ran for full duration of flowering without change - maintaining Ph 5.7 - 5.8 EC ranged from 1.3-2.1 then back to 0.6 by end of grow, water temperature maintained @ 16.5c in res. and 18 -18.5c in tubs.

Used approx 1Lt of Canna flores and 700ml of flowering mix - adding 1ml of cal/mag to every litre of solution added to tanks.
250ml of 3% H2O2 every second day to each tank. Final 2 weeks feeding sugar cane/molasses mixture with cal/mag only.

Canopy temperatures maintained @ 30c as much as possible throughout the grow even during the high humidity periods.

During this grow we had the misfortune to be infested with spider mite, due to figuring out whether to simply cut the crop and start again or find a solution during flower it was day 49 of flower before we dealt with the little buggers and deal with them we did. We used 250ml of the mixed up spider mite solution and killed every last one and the eggs and it wasn't pesticide either.
Prior to dealing with them we had kept humidity levels above 50% and for a week or more 70-75%RH - We did worry about bud rot but none appeared.
This little episode had a 10-15% impact due to the loss of chlorophyll these little nasty buggers took without asking.


I can say it's been a huge electrical saving and the quality of the bud has improved dramatically.

I now understand completely the problem with the Mars Hydro series 2, but now all their 5w diode lights will suffer exactly the same flaw.

I wish all well and want to thank the many that have bothered to write on these forums, it's a pity that some have left and others are being pushed out.

This will most likely be my last post as I miss the earlier crew and the intellectual rigger that all this required much of that has gone with the exception of a few.


My recommendation to anyone considering purchasing Mars Hydro, DON'T DO IT. - simple either purchase a prebuilt cob light or DIY one or two or 10...

Anyway got some strip lights and mono's to finish building with coralux controller and using LDD drivers... fun stuff... and a new veg room lighting system as well...



PS. Thanks for all the fish.

Zulunature said:

Standard heat sinks from cutters with 72v CXB3590's mounted and 12v fan above heat sink which is probably why it looks so huge...

Drawing 1900w from the wall at the moment and no air con running at all, small 4" intake and exhaust of 6"
Run a dehumidifier 24/7 which adds some heat to the room so far getting canopy temperatures of 30c RH 35-50%

As for actual heat output I'd say it's 1900w in the end, compared to the Mars hydro 2500w, well there is no comparison.

This is first full run with these and seeing morphology in the flowers that simply didn't/can't exist growing under Mars Hydro lights we had running.

More like prior HPS grows only way better.

Click to expand...

Great Build, Super Clean. I'm curious what drivers you are using for the 72v cobs, and whats your efficiency? I;m thinking of sing the 72v COBS as well since they are cheaper,
Thanks