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Anyone try the Galaxyhydro 300W LED?

BurninBob

BurninBob

Looking to get an LED light to start seedlings until its time to bring them outdoors.  For the past two years, I've used a Sunleaves Pioneer VIII in a 4x4 grow tent and have had outstanding results.  However, I dont want to setup the grow tent this year (takes up too much room), and I also want to reduce the amount of seedlings I germinate, not to mentioned lower my electricity bill.  
 
The Galaxyhydro 300W LED on Amazon looks pretty good, although I am wondering if this is more for fruiting than vegetative growth?  I'm definitely looking for vegetative growth, as I will be putting them outside once it warms up.  Would love to hear some feedback from folks how have used the Galaxyhydro and/or recommendations for another LED light.  Thanks!
 
BB
 
It looks very similar to this one: http://www.ebay.com/itm/300W-IR-Full-Spectrum-LED-Grow-Light-Panel-For-Medical-Indoor-Veg-Flower-Plants-/271564432614?hash=item3f3a8064e6:g:9-0AAOSwQTVV-71c
 
I spent two weeks researching an LED grow light because I'm moving away from my 6x T8's.  Our friends on forums for other grows have done a ton of research as well.  At this point I would get a cheap one and ride it out until the market matures or DIY.  Mars-hydro has a 300w for less.  Advanced LED has some promising mentions but again, once you get to a certain price point you might as well DIY.  Chips are cheap (I've built headlights and tail lights), but there is a huge mark up once a company solders them together.
 
Thanks NeedsWork, I should have mentioned that my Sunleaves Pioneer VIII is T5; like I said, I'm trying to reduce footprint and electricity costs.
 
BurninBob said:
Looking to get an LED light to start seedlings until its time to bring them outdoors.  For the past two years, I've used a Sunleaves Pioneer VIII in a 4x4 grow tent and have had outstanding results.  However, I dont want to setup the grow tent this year (takes up too much room), and I also want to reduce the amount of seedlings I germinate, not to mentioned lower my electricity bill.  
 
The Galaxyhydro 300W LED on Amazon looks pretty good, although I am wondering if this is more for fruiting than vegetative growth?  I'm definitely looking for vegetative growth, as I will be putting them outside once it warms up.  Would love to hear some feedback from folks how have used the Galaxyhydro and/or recommendations for another LED light.  Thanks!
 
BB
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What does it do to the electric bill. Like $10 more a month? I am new to indoor. 
 
+1 for MarsHydro vs GalaxyHydro (based on what I've read on some of the other growing sites).

GhostPepperz said:
What does it do to the electric bill. Like $10 more a month? I am new to indoor.
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Depends on how much current this thing actual draws, what your electricity rates are and how many hours per day you plan to have them turned on. My MarsoHydro 300w unit (actual power draw 180w) costs just under $10 per month (that's Canadian $, which is about $1.50 US these days lol) at 16 hours per day (I have it turned off during peak prices).
 
if I were in your shoes (and i didnt build my own leds)i would probably go for a mars hydro with veg spectrum just because of the cost
 
they used to have the option to chose spectrum but i dont see that now perhaps email them?
 
I am currently using a mars hydro Led with the Veg and bloom option.  Here is the link for it on amazon. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00JUI6ARK?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s00
 
Im logging the results of it growing Carolina Reapers.  If you want to check it out here is my latest entry. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgUtpME59as
 
I have used it for growing lots of other stuff and have been super happy with it for the price.  My friend grows "other" stuff and has used one and been very happy also with his harvests. 
 
I've never heard of galaxy led but I can say this,do your homework. I got my led 5 years ago,its a spectra 290 watt,I paid a little over $700 for it. It works! No issues and should last me another 5 years plus.
I don't know if you can still get Spectras but there a lot of quality LEDs out there .

Pros : I don't even notice the light bill deference when growing and heat is not a issue.

Cons: pricey (but worth it) and finding a quality unit
 
Flaming Youth said:
I've never heard of galaxy led but I can say this,do your homework. I got my led 5 years ago,its a spectra 290 watt,I paid a little over $700 for it. It works! No issues and should last me another 5 years plus.
I don't know if you can still get Spectras but there a lot of quality LEDs out there .

Pros : I don't even notice the light bill deference when growing and heat is not a issue.

Cons: pricey (but worth it) and finding a quality unit
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how high above the plants do you keep them ?   do you have veg/bloom option and run on both .  
 
No veg bloom switch just plug in and it works
Here is the specs. On mine. Idont think you get these anymore.

larger image
Spectra LED 290 (New 2011 model)
$749.99
The new website is under construction. The Spectra LED 300w new for 2011. All specs are the same including the use of 12 true wavelengths and 90 degree lens. The new Spectra LED 300w uses 160 high powered 3w chips and draws 290w of power. Ive upgraded the heat sink and drivers. If you have any further questions please e-mail sales@growledhydro.com or use the 'contact us' page.

The Spectra-LED 300 (Actual Power Draw is 305 Watts) Light System emits an unmatched 12+ wavelength illumination, uses true 3 watt LED's at a 90 degree viewing angle unlike any other system on the market today. This powerful system excels in any indoor growing method including, hydroponics, aeroponics, or soil.

At 12 pounds and measuring 19" x 13" x 2.5", this 110 volt dynamo draws a mere 0.65 to 1.25 amps yet delivers 180 watts of light and works in an operating temperature range of -4F +104F -20C~+40C.

The Spectra-LED 300w Light System produces much better results through every stage of plant growth, from vegetative to flowering to harvest. It features an 4' x 4' coverage area, 2.8' x 2.5' core saturation, and delivers over 95% of absorbable light to the plant.

The Spectra-LED Light System has no thermal footprint and, considering 95% of the light emitted from an HID lamp is wasted in the form of non-absorbable light waves and heat energy, is 80% more efficient than Metal Halide or HPS lamps.

Efficiency does not stop here, though. You benefit even further with having no bulbs to replace and no maintenance over its 50,000 hour life cycle. No additional cooling equipment is required as the Spectra-LED Light System boasts built-in cooling fans. With no bulbs to potentially explode or burn plants, this system is safe to operate. Further, it's environmentally safe, containing no hazardous materials, and is CE and ROHS complia

:-)
I keep the panel 18"to 24" above canopy:-)
 
I just recently purchased a Mars Hydro 600w Led, I believe they are kinda similar. This one puts out 270w true but I'm going to experiment with it to see how it does. Wonder if they are strong enough to get pods with.  
 
I think the biggest trick with these budget grow lights is finding out how efficient they really are. My struggle with them is taking the known wattage, and figuring out the par then figuring out the PPFD. As big as my Hab and reaper plants are, I dont see how the Led can support the size of the canopy, and still penetrate down to the roots. If all that is really bs, and all that matters is wattage and lumens, well then they aren't that good lol.
 
Sorry for the double post, but wanted to let you know I wrote Mars Hydro in hopes in getting the actual par numbers or ppfd as I'm not a math expert to figure this stuff out lol. This was the reply:
Hello Brandon,

Thank you so much for contacting us, and I am sorry that we did not test the Par, PPFD number and spectrograh for our Mars600 led light, so I can not provide you with that statistics. Really so sorry for this problem, and we'll try to get the result in future.

Really so sorry for this problem, and wish you have a good day.

Best Regards,
Sophia
MarsHydro www.lgledsolutions.com
 
Wow,that not good. That should have been the 1st thing they should have done before introducing to the public.
Use it and if you have too add CFLs for additional lighting.
 
Yeah its kinda disappointing, Its pretty much the same with the galaxy hydro. No known PPFD values. Not sure what they are basing their testing off of lol. I just did a round about test using the lux meter on my phone. From my 1k HPS I'm getting 211,000 Lux at 1 ft. With the 600W aka 280w led I'm getting 76,000 lux at 1 ft and around 196,000 lux at the surface (of the led). At 25 inches on the seedlings they are receiving around 25,000 lux which by far exceeds my expectations. Mine doesnt have the uv and Ir like the 9 band GalaxyHydros but it "should" be par. 
 
Xpur3log1cX said:
I think the biggest trick with these budget grow lights is finding out how efficient they really are. My struggle with them is taking the known wattage, and figuring out the par then figuring out the PPFD. As big as my Hab and reaper plants are, I dont see how the Led can support the size of the canopy, and still penetrate down to the roots. If all that is really bs, and all that matters is wattage and lumens, well then they aren't that good lol.
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I don't think it is easy (if at all possible) to calculate PPFD of those budget LEDs like MH Or Galaxy. Each of the LEDs, white, reds, blues has slightly different specs. So you would have to add them all together to come to an actual "lumen output" of the entire fixture.
 
I have a LED which consists of 4x CREE CXB3590 COBs where the advantage is that the specs, lumens (aka: EMITTED light) is *well* documented based on with how much amps you drive them. It's then easy to calculate PPFD -- even if LUMENS (how much light your fixture emits) is still more or less worthless since it doesn't take into account distance, reflectors, lenses etc. aka how much lights *actually* hits a surface (ie: your plant canopy)
 
With the "cheap" leds you don't usually even know what exact type/brand LEDs they use.
 
This now is my subjective opinion simply because I never actually MEASURED, but hell yeah I have reason to believe that the Galaxy Hydro/Mars Hydro don't penetrate deep whatsoever..another important factor. Mind you, each of those so called "5W LEDs" is normally driven at about 2W.
Of course I could be wrong and GH/MH make great budget lights for peppers...but I wouldn't expect too much. And their life-span....I still have the two MH 300W lights, with one I had one after the other LED burn out after 6 months. I mean I was able to fix them (soldering replacement LEDs)...but not exactly a sign of military quality....
 
flexy123 said:
 
I don't think it is easy (if at all possible) to calculate PPFD of those budget LEDs like MH Or Galaxy. Each of the LEDs, white, reds, blues has slightly different specs. So you would have to add them all together to come to an actual "lumen output" of the entire fixture.
 
I have a LED which consists of 4x CREE CXB3590 COBs where the advantage is that the specs, lumens (aka: EMITTED light) is *well* documented based on with how much amps you drive them. It's then easy to calculate PPFD -- even if LUMENS (how much light your fixture emits) is still more or less worthless since it doesn't take into account distance, reflectors, lenses etc. aka how much lights *actually* hits a surface (ie: your plant canopy)
 
With the "cheap" leds you don't usually even know what exact type/brand LEDs they use.
 
This now is my subjective opinion simply because I never actually MEASURED, but hell yeah I have reason to believe that the Galaxy Hydro/Mars Hydro don't penetrate deep whatsoever..another important factor. Mind you, each of those so called "5W LEDs" is normally driven at about 2W.
Of course I could be wrong and GH/MH make great budget lights for peppers...but I wouldn't expect too much. And their life-span....I still have the two MH 300W lights, with one I had one after the other LED burn out after 6 months. I mean I was able to fix them (soldering replacement LEDs)...but not exactly a sign of military quality....
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One thing I did was shoot a message over to mars hydro in hopes they had some published data. They said they did not at the time, but within a week of asking I saw published results from them so they do help the consumer. Can't say the same for the galaxy hydro. The results from the 600 model mars 1 at 275 watts is 914 ppfd at 18 inches. When you follow inverse square it drops off pretty quick but one thing about it is, I can't get my hps that close so it's good numbers to me. I'm actually about to purchase 3 more panels. Yeah for the price it's a bit more than hps but it'll lower the heat inside my room. Have to run my ac at 70 to get that room to stay at 80 lol. Lumens wise they published it at 9500. Not so strong for such ppfd data but that's the way they work. I'm a believer. Tomorrow I may change my mind lol

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G900A using Tapatalk
 
TBH I strongly think MH, GalaxyH and tons of similar are all essentially the same. There is just two or three LED manufactures for the small (red, blue, white) LEDs, Epiled, Epistar etc...the rest is the board and the drivers, there is really not much difference with those lights.
 
9500 something lumens might be about "right" (at least if those published numbers are accurate) since I remember seeing specs about the 300W lights which was exactly half of this, 4500ish....so this would make sense. But of course this doesn't say anything about spread or penetration.
 
I am NOT saying that MH/GH are "bad" in any way, but to give you an idea about effectiveness. (Of course, here again, lumens is SILLY because white lights (with have naturally more lumens than reds or blues....) my CREE COB, one of them outputs about 10,000 lumens when I drive them at 1750mA, this is about 63W. (Which I don't, this is WAY too much light for my area, driving them at about 37W each right now, I calculated about 600 PPFD with 4x)
 
Of course heat is a big problem, I would never use anything else but LEDs :) So if it saves not just the electricity for the light but also for AC...it's of course a win-win all-around. My bar with the 4 lights right now takes about 155W total which is amazingly little, just a little more than the MH 300W lights.
 
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