Mars Hydro SP250 - Test Grow

I have always been critical of any @MarsHydrofactory and their “blurple” lights, as well as any company really selling these lights and labeling them full spectrum, so when I seen they had new lights made from epistar’s SMD diodes, I just had to try it myself and see If this light compares at all to a Quantum Board setup, which I use in my main tent. I picked up a 4x2 tent from them as well, I think the combo was about $400. Everything arrived and is all assembled, just waiting for some new Rapid Rooters to arrive and I will be popping in 2 of @Useful Seeds Orange Cookies x Chocolate Diesel fems. Once the seeds are in the plugs, I will start updatin regularly with progress, so anyone that has been curious about this light, feel free to follow my journey! Attached are some shots of the tent assembled!

That's a decent bar style light. I'm not a fan of epitars though. Don't know why they don't just use Samsung's already. LM561's are dirt cheap nowadays.

Airwalker16 said:

That's a decent bar style light. I'm not a fan of epitars though. Don't know why they don't just use Samsung's already. LM561's are dirt cheap nowadays.

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I’m a samsung fan myself as well, i’ve got samsung diodes in my main tent.

iShatterBladderz said:

I’m a samsung fan myself as well, i’ve got samsung diodes in my main tent.

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any pics of your main tent?

kotobide said:

any pics of your main tent?

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here are the ones I have on my phone, taken after hanging up the new carbon filter

iShatterBladderz said:

here are the ones I have on my phone, taken after hanging up the new carbon filter

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Nice tent what lights you running n there?

kotobide said:

Nice tent what lights you running n there?

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Just a 480w I had Kingbrite make me, with the lm301H diodes and Cree 660nm. I’ve been considering adding in some 730nm lighting for 15 minutes before and after the light cycle as well.

iShatterBladderz said:

Just a 480w I had Kingbrite make me, with the lm301H diodes and Cree 660nm. I’ve been considering adding in some 730nm lighting for 15 minutes before and after the light cycle as well.

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You want Far Red 730nm to turn on 2-3mins before your lights go out and then remain on the last 12-13mins after the main lights have turned off.
Having them on before the lights turn on will do nothing for you except maybe confuse your plants.
630-660nm is what you want when lights come on. Most 3000-4000K LEDs have more than enough of it in their basic spectrum already for waking up.

Airwalker16 said:

You want Far Red 730nm to turn on 2-3mins before your lights go out and then remain on the last 12-13mins after the main lights have turned off.
Having them on before the lights turn on will do nothing for you except maybe confuse your plants.
630-660nm is what you want when lights come on. Most 3000-4000K LEDs have more than enough of it in their basic spectrum already for waking up.

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Oh well then perfect, I’ve already got 660nm in my QB.

Just an update, everything is ready to grow, going to pop the seeds into rapid rooters tomorrow! Will update as progress is made!

Seeds are now germinating!

I mixed up 1/8 tsp of recharge into a gallon of RO water and let a couple rapid rooters soak in it for a while. I put the seeds into the plugs and removed a little bit of the bottom of the plug to cover the hole at the top. I filled the bottom part of the tray with 1/4” of water and filled each cell in the top part of the tray with 1/2” of perlite to wick up the water. Now we just play the waiting game until we see some roots and its on to the next step!

You should probably take the piece out of the Hole. The root will go into the cube no problem. Don't make it harder than it needs to be for the foliage to find its way out to the light.

Airwalker16 said:

You should probably take the piece out of the Hole. The root will go into the cube no problem. Don't make it harder than it needs to be for the foliage to find its way out to the light.

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the piece is to block light from coming in while they germinate, as they are in the tent 3 feet under the light. I don’t push it into the hole, just on top. they push it right out of the way when they sprout.

These ladies have popped up to say hello! Dug a little hole in two 1 gals of coco/perlite, sprinkled some recharge power in to help the ol roots, planted them into the hole and gave them a little water. Time to let these ladies do their thing!

Sorry its been a while without an update. We’re in the not so exciting stage of growth right now, where they are spending a good portion of their energy establishing their root zones. They do seem to be doing well so far, Have been feeding a light mixture of 1ml/gal Dynagro Foliage-Pro, now that we are at a week since sprouting, I am going to start slowly increasing Foliage-Pro strength, and add in some ProTekt. I have also been treating with recharge every other day by filling up 8oz of water and mixing it with 1/8tsp of recharge, and than pouring 4oz of recharge water directly over the stalk of the plants. I will continue to do this as well, except as the plants get bigger, I will up the dosage a bit as well as the volume of the mix.

Notes about the light: It seems to be doing pretty well in terms of delivering energy to the plants. The one issue I have had so far is the heat the light puts off. I have the driver outside of the tent, and my tent is in a room that stays at 70-71 degrees Fahrenheit, and even with the driver outside of the tent and a fan blowing air over the light itself, it still heats my tent up to 78/79 degrees. Not a big concern really, my leaf surface temps are still only about 76, but I am going to have to brainstorm ways to get the temp down a little bit during flower, as I like to be a little closer to 70 during flower stage. Not nearly as much heat as an HPS would put off, however its a decent amount more than my Quantum Boards I’m comparing this to. With the driver outside of the tent on my quantum board, the temperature increase is very small. I do wonder however, If this doesnt have something to do with the tent the light is in. The only other tents I’ve ever used (not counting homemade setups) have been the heavy duty version of the Gorilla Grow tents, and these are very well insulated. I have the driver for this light, sitting on the window sill about a foot behind the tent. I might try moving the tent further from where I have the driver sets, to see if that makes a difference.

Attached is a picture I took yesterday or the day before after feeding. They’re chugging along!

Very nice.
May I ask you what brand tent you're using there? I'm always so envious of that diamond reflection pattern. Wish I had that goin on.

Also, you can see the reflection in the water of the light. Are those really all just individual Samsung diodes? Looks like randomly scattered 3000K 5000K 660nm reds, and maybe some other random IR or blue?

Airwalker16 said:

Very nice.
May I ask you what brand tent you're using there? I'm always so envious of that diamond reflection pattern. Wish I had that goin on.

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This is just a Mars Hydro tent, I got it whenever I got the light. My main tents are Gorilla Grow, there’s a bit of a price difference between the two though.

Airwalker16 said:

Also, you can see the reflection in the water of the light. Are those really all just individual Samsung diodes? Looks like randomly scattered 3000K 5000K 660nm reds, and maybe some other random IR or blue?

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Yes, you’re correct, they use a multitude of different diodes in these. According to their product page, these are the diodes they use: 410nm, 660nm, 740nm, 3200k, 6500k

Airwalker16 said:

Also, you can see the reflection in the water of the light. Are those really all just individual Samsung diodes? Looks like randomly scattered 3000K 5000K 660nm reds, and maybe some other random IR or blue?

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They are pretty nice for a china light. I bought 2 because I love the color temp. 3.88k and cranked up they put out 290ish watts at the wall. Optimal is 230watts in a 2x4 making 1.9ish umol efficiency. Thats from Shane @ Migrow. Heres MH numbers.

Core Coverage: 2'x4'
Max Coverage: 4'x5'
Par Value:925umol
Spectrum: 380-410nm,650-660nm,730-740nm, 3000K-3200K,6000-6500K
Lumen: 41849LM±5%@AC120V
42886LM±5%@AC 277V
Power Draw: 232W±5%@AC120V
224W±5%@AC277V
Input Voltage: AC100-277V
Amp:1.9A@AC120V 0.84A@AC 277V

iShatterBladderz said:

This is just a Mars Hydro tent, I got it whenever I got the light. My main tents are Gorilla Grow, there’s a bit of a price difference between the two though.



Yes, you’re correct, they use a multitude of different diodes in these. According to their product page, these are the diodes they use: 410nm, 660nm, 740nm, 3200k, 6500k

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Thanks. I'm very aware of the ridiculous prices Gorilla demands for their tents. Definitely worth more than your average tent, but not 3-4X more...