LED Grow Light Forum

Hi,
I am looking for a company that delivers good LED products.
Have been reading quite a lot of other post at this site, but it seems like every LED company makes overstatements and are therefore, in my opinion, not thrustworthy.
We are going to do some experiments growing algae using LED instead of a HPS/T5 ligth source and want to try a commercial product before we start design our own LED panel.
So, any recommodations would be highly appreciated.

thanks,

I guess I should qualify the opinion that virtually all manufactures make overstatements.

They do overstate if the goal is top-shelf cannabis.
If you're growing algae or short crops like wheat-grass then perhaps they're not so overstated in terms of area coverage.

Since we don't have any algae journals here yet you probably want to start small and you may want to try more than one manufacturer to compare spectra, etc. You may want to look specifically for "veg" lights or full cycle since I don't think you flower algae so the extra red may not help much..

The trend in LED grow lights seems to be going towards bigger so smaller lights, under 200w, are becoming harder to find.


Based on what I've seen here and in other reviews you might look at:

California Lightworks SolarFlare 100w VegMaster or Full Cycle (if they deliver to your country)
Prosource Illuminator 90w UFO or Mother Keeper 90w UFO (if they still make it)

If you're looking for larger lights let me know a little more about what you're looking for and maybe we can come up with other choices.


Hope that helps...

SME

Hi SME and thanks for your reply/tips.

We are first looking for a replacement of the 600watt HPS lamps, so I guess we would be needing a LED panel of approx same effect to attain simular yields. Pricing each panel <1500usd. There is no flowering of algae (as you mentioned) and we are looking for a lamp with spectra for both for chlorophyll a and b prob. some white/yellow leds.
I did have a look at lumigrow pro series, as they already have sold panels to an algae farm, but after doing some research, it looks like this is a PR stunt and I do not have attained any information if they're solutions it better than others. Also the Hydrogrow panels looks ok, but again, I really do not know.

Delivery from US to Europe is no issue as long as they deliver 220/230V.

Thanks Again.

That makes it harder and easier...

First it rules out CLW since all they have is 110v for now; I heard that they're working on adding 220v support but I don't think they have it yet.

What we do know is that you'll want a LED light with about 600w actual draw in veg mode and preferably only a veg mode.

The "Stealth Grow Veg" is just under 600w actual draw but you don't have a lot of the wasted red spectra that you don't need much of (it does have some white) and SG lights have a decent reputation. They are only 2w diodes but algae shouldn't need a lot of penetration. I think that would be a good fit. I don't know if they ship to your country, you'd have to contact them.

I'd have to do more research to try to find others that fit your needs...

Thanks,
Growing algae and cannabis are probably quite different and a there is a lot of different factor at play.
As I see it we do need quite a lot of red ligth (blur/red - 1/4 or 1/3) so the other stealt model migth be a better solution.
To run a complete test we would be needing approx. 300 PAR evenly distributed at 3,6m2, so i think we actually need 2x600W (hps/LED) to have a good comparison.
We do have a US address as we buy quite a lot of equipment (because of the selection/availability) and have not had any issues with regards to shipping.

Do you know if SG (or other) can custom make led ligth panels?

Thanks,

PAR might be important with algae but not so much with cannabis. If you want a more even PAR spread over larger areas you might consider several smaller panels rather than one larger panel. A single larger panel might have the PAR you want on the outside edges but it would be way higher in the center. I would have thought that algae would grow best with more blue than red but you're the algae expert.

Remember, the SG 602 is really only a 400w panel and the SG1250 is a 600w panel that's very expensive. If you have to stay under 1,500 USD you're more limited.

I don't like some of the deceptive propaganda on their website but my local hydroponics store sells BlackDog lights and they say that the BD700-U is about the same as a 600w HPS when growing cannabis but I have no idea how that would be for growing algae. The CLW SolarStorm 800w would be a good choice if they had 220v support, maybe you could contact them and see when 220v will be available. If they *are* adding 220v support soon you might also consider 4 x SolarFlare 200w (full cycle or bloom boosters) for a more even PAR over a larger area.

I don't know of any company that makes custom panels but any company that does would also charge a LOT of money for each panel.