modular overkill led striplight build

if one want he could compare to the usual lee and else filters, what color gives what color shift.

not knowing much about letuce, but isnt it maxed out at 400 ppfd? so any diffusion helps vs the strong sunlight?
its long ago, but i remeber my grandpa where very proud on the diffusion the glass where offering in his greenhouse and praised the obvious benefits after i questioned it asking if its not taking light away.

LOL 400 sounds like a max but I have no way to quantify that or the color shift. Absolutely much less intensity than cannabis. 30% shade cloth is not enough in my locale, where a healthy cannibis plant can take it all.

I guess the question is is it better to reach for the dimmer switch or a diffuser? I've considered mounting the strips at alternating angles to throw might light around the tent.

adding a diffusor will come always with quite some loss for sure, using more lower driven light sources should be the more efficient way.
on the other hand, it would give a freakin soft light, the grid cloth sound quite good.
http://www.leefilters.com/lighting/diffusion-list.html

i also think we dont have much problems saturating our canopys with lots of light, so trying to place the light sources where its needed is the next step to go.

cobshopgrow said:

adding a diffusor will come always with quite some loss for sure, using more lower driven light sources should be the more efficient way.
on the other hand, it would give a freakin soft light, the grid cloth sound quite good.
http://www.leefilters.com/lighting/diffusion-list.html

i also think we dont have much problems saturating our canopys with lots of light, so trying to place the light sources where its needed is the next step to go.

Click to expand...

Cool link! I think I might test something like this out. At the end of the day loss in efficiency for me is just a couple bucks on the electric bill and a little heat in the tent. Seems worth it for better quality light.

cobshopgrow said:

think i stopped it, but am not in recovery mode.
normally green dots appear when they recover.
in the past i tried heavier doses of magnesium to fight the problem, it helps somehow but wasnt the reason.
recovery was always light level related so far for me.


thats AFTER i went down to 175W mainlight and 15W 660nm reds.forgot, 60W buddies of course, 30W from the top, 4000K 95 CRI.

Click to expand...

Right... Cob... I'm not happy to see a grower have issues so take this in the right way, but I must say I am glad to see this is not just me having this problem.

I've transferred my plants from Halide and CMH over to Bridgelux Bxeb 3000k 90cri fittings and since about three days in, there are noticeable issues with general health.

That's the basic outline, and I want to get to the bottom of it, but the more reading I do the more I'm finding people with the same issues.

I wonder, are these lights tried and tested?

I've got some pretty legit calcium and magnesium sources which are used in commercial agriculture and my plants were previously lush and vigorous, healthy thick, green stemmed and vibrant. But they've made no difference to the situation. I've also adjusted the ratios on certain plants and flushed them through with a mix which emphasised the Cal an Mag and balanced out the other nutes, to no avail. Same general dislike of the light it seems.

I can't seem to find the sweet spot with them by simply raising them either, because whilst that solves the issue of droop, I'm not seeing the lush and vigorous growth I did under my CMH or even the Halide.

DukeFluke said:

Right... Cob... I'm not happy to see a grower have issues so take this in the right way, but I must say I am glad to see this is not just me having this problem.

I've transferred my plants from Halide and CMH over to Bridgelux Bxeb 3000k 90cri fittings and since about three days in, there are noticeable issues with general health.

That's the basic outline, and I want to get to the bottom of it, but the more reading I do the more I'm finding people with the same issues.

I wonder, are these lights tried and tested?

I've got some pretty legit calcium and magnesium sources which are used in commercial agriculture and my plants were previously lush and vigorous, healthy thick, green stemmed and vibrant. But they've made no difference to the situation. I've also adjusted the ratios on certain plants and flushed them through with a mix which emphasised the Cal an Mag and balanced out the other nutes, to no avail. Same general dislike of the light it seems.

I can't seem to find the sweet spot with them by simply raising them either, because whilst that solves the issue of droop, I'm not seeing the lush and vigorous growth I did under my CMH or even the Halide.

Click to expand...

What are the temps in your grow space?

DukeFluke said:

Right... Cob... I'm not happy to see a grower have issues so take this in the right way, but I must say I am glad to see this is not just me having this problem.

I've transferred my plants from Halide and CMH over to Bridgelux Bxeb 3000k 90cri fittings and since about three days in, there are noticeable issues with general health.

That's the basic outline, and I want to get to the bottom of it, but the more reading I do the more I'm finding people with the same issues.

I wonder, are these lights tried and tested?

I've got some pretty legit calcium and magnesium sources which are used in commercial agriculture and my plants were previously lush and vigorous, healthy thick, green stemmed and vibrant. But they've made no difference to the situation. I've also adjusted the ratios on certain plants and flushed them through with a mix which emphasised the Cal an Mag and balanced out the other nutes, to no avail. Same general dislike of the light it seems.

I can't seem to find the sweet spot with them by simply raising them either, because whilst that solves the issue of droop, I'm not seeing the lush and vigorous growth I did under my CMH or even the Halide.

Click to expand...

my first thought right of the bat with you being new to led is your probably to bright for veg.
you say you have tried lifting the light and the droop improves but no lush growth, hmmm i know i have 2 strains at the minute that if i give them more than 250 umol in veg they aint happy, not just early end of day droop they dont look happy all day really. if i stick to 250umol and they veg nice.
i use a mix of 3000k + 5000k 80cri 50/50 mix so i have a fair bit more blue in my spectrum than you?.
i have never used 3000k 90 cri for veg but seen people say on here they have with no negative effects?
whats your temps like?.

here are a few pics of mother stock for cuttings on the next run, these are corycut x adub from seed. these have had very little attention, very little feed, very low light levels.
i chopped the tops of about a week ago and pulled of all the fans, these arnt super fast/lush growing at the minute but they seem happy enough. im just keeping them in suspended animation so to speak as cuttings arnt needed for a month or so.

Thanks for the replies... temp are roughly 25c give or take.

Does anyone have any links to threads where 3000k bxeb strips are being used alone?

Need to get on top of this

DukeFluke said:

Thanks for the replies... temp are roughly 25c give or take.

Click to expand...

Push them up a bit. And pull back light intensity. You really need to baby them until you see them grow nice and healthy new growth. Less is more.

DukeFluke said:

Thanks for the replies... temp are roughly 25c give or take.

Does anyone have any links to threads where 3000k bxeb strips are being used alone?

Need to get on top of this

Click to expand...

As Rocket said, push the temps up a bit. Around 28c would be good. Peeps who switch to LED often have a hard time believing that a few degrees will make the difference, but it does - big-time. The difference in overall plant health (when you get the temps up) is profound. It's key, for almost everyone (excluding @Moflow, Wizard of the Winter).

DukeFluke said:

Right... Cob... I'm not happy to see a grower have issues so take this in the right way, but I must say I am glad to see this is not just me having this problem.

I've transferred my plants from Halide and CMH over to Bridgelux Bxeb 3000k 90cri fittings and since about three days in, there are noticeable issues with general health.

That's the basic outline, and I want to get to the bottom of it, but the more reading I do the more I'm finding people with the same issues.

I wonder, are these lights tried and tested?

I've got some pretty legit calcium and magnesium sources which are used in commercial agriculture and my plants were previously lush and vigorous, healthy thick, green stemmed and vibrant. But they've made no difference to the situation. I've also adjusted the ratios on certain plants and flushed them through with a mix which emphasised the Cal an Mag and balanced out the other nutes, to no avail. Same general dislike of the light it seems.

I can't seem to find the sweet spot with them by simply raising them either, because whilst that solves the issue of droop, I'm not seeing the lush and vigorous growth I did under my CMH or even the Halide.

Click to expand...

well its good to hear were not alone.
i would call the spectra we use are tried and tested.
me is just using usual 3000k 80cri mainly plus a bit of 660nm red, not trying to overdo it with the 660.

temp do play a role, thats what can really easily lack due to the missing infrared.

while i have to say, i had higher temps this run due to summer, it helps, but its not making click and all is fine.

i think we have some intensity problem and maybe need to relearn the PAR values we can use as max.
sure spectrum, nutrients, temp, are all big factors too, but its mainly that we saturate their PS systems i think.
The 170 ppfd showen above made me smile, as thats what i also take for slow healthy veg.

i guessed at some point PH issues, as i changed my media often, it could be in my case.
while you both share similar observations and i dont think our all PH is off.

i made a new par map in a 3x3 i can show you soon.
its not perfect, but better then the last try.
the spectromaster isnt so good for this task, would need a remote (seems theyre working on it, SDK for remote is released).

Rocket Soul said:

Push them up a bit. And pull back light intensity. You really need to baby them until you see them grow nice and healthy new growth. Less is more.

Click to expand...

Duke, if its hard to raise temps try this, a couple of incandescent lights over the cannopy, they will produce some heat and ir, but maay be a bit stretch inducing. Or: get some more blue over that cannopy, it opens the stomata and make them.drink.more.

am also experimenting with blue.
the 4000k 95cri buddies do veg quite nice.
they maybe help a bit also, but have no definitve result so far.

i wanted to get a little better picture of the intensity.

i have my 3x3 halfway free, so i decided to take some measurements on the grid of the trellis net.
the tent is a 3x3, measuring 86x86cm inside from wall to wall.



its not a 100%, i would need to empty the tent, tape a grid and especially use the spectromaster by a remote so i can close the doors and not have partially parts of my body in the tent.
the values vary for sure a 20ppfd, some got strange reflections or light was lost due to the open door, a very few measurements are worse then the +-20 for whatever reasons.

Overall, it gives a picture of the spread and a good idea of what PPFD are to expect.

the top value is taken at 315W walldraw using only the 3000k 80cri.
value below is taken at 178W walldraw.
Both are taken at 20cm distance to the net.
here is the high tech chart.


thats 3000k 80cri, 315W wall at 40cm to the net,
would say the spread dont gain that much compared to 20cm.

its just to get a idea, there is some error.
But if we compare it to a CMH PAR map.... its quite some more light when using 315W led light.
and thats not even including some of the 660nm red or the other colors.

Humple said:

As Rocket said, push the temps up a bit. Around 28c would be good. Peeps who switch to LED often have a hard time believing that a few degrees will make the difference, but it does - big-time. The difference in overall plant health (when you get the temps up) is profound. It's key, for almost everyone (excluding @Moflow, Wizard of the Winter).

Click to expand...

Profound is the key word. Have noticed marked positive response when ambient temperature rises.

temps are a part, but its not all.
very good temp, quite good RH and not bad at all CO2 in the air where not making 900ppfd possible magically.

cobshopgrow said:

temps are a part, but its not all.
very good temp, quite good RH and not bad at all CO2 in the air where not making 900ppfd possible magically.

Click to expand...

Agreed, but I do find that I have quite a bit more wiggle-room on RH than on temps.

think so too, i got lazy with my humidifier.
its still a factor for sure.
27-28C do them good, leaftemp 1-2C lower and it should fit.

my room is on flower anyway now, so a overall low RH is welcome.