So I purchased a Spider Farmer SF2000 Pro for a 3x3 tent. After reading many reviews, I am now wondering if that is enough coverage for a 3x3 tent. Would I be better off returning while I’m still within my window for the G3000? It’s 100w more and seems to have better PPF ratings.
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Welcome to OG @skyeden , you’ll enjoy it here, lots of helpful info/people, etc. !
I would return your light and get a bar-style fixture - 240 ish watts would work fine for your 3 by 3 tent. 
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I’m not sure if SF has any bar style lights but there’s some really good lights that are probably better than the Quantum Board style lights.?!
( Imo.).
Good luck with whatever you choose. 
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Happy growing.
Gaz. 
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I use a sf2000 in a 2x4 with good sucess. I agree getting a bar light would give superior coverage but you will still get great plants in a 3x3 with that fixture.
It’ll really depend on your growing style but look into a free ppfd meter app for your phone so you can see how much the intenisty falls off the edges so you can work on ideal plant placement and training.
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Or you could go to an evo chipset LM301H The ACInifinity Evo 3’s I bought they work excellent you could always grab an Evo 4 for your space.
Plenty of coupon codes out there as well from the YouTube guys like MrGrowit, Mr. Canucks grow… etc. That’ll bring that light down under $300.
Plus their customer service is awesome. Recently had to replace a controller(only issue I’ve had in years) and after a few troubleshooting questions I had a new one in the mail.
Just an option.
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I think you made the right choice with the light that you got, the efficiency will be significantly better with your EVO diodes on the SF2000 Pro vs the Bridgelux-equipped G3000 with minimal coverage loss on the sides and corners, like 100-150 PPF less. There’s a few steps of quality difference between those LEDs, nothing wrong with Bridgelux but the LM301H EVO are the latest in spectrum and efficiency, your light has a system efficiency of 2.7 umol/j (the diodes are higher rated but the system is what matters, look out for that marketing trick) and Spider Farmer tellingly doesn’t give a system efficiency for the G3000…
We can work it back though, from the total lumen numbers:
G3000 = 53,481 lumens @300w 120VAC
178 lumens per watt
SF2000 Pro = 40,415 lumens @200w 120 VAC
202 lumens per watt
So your light is 13% more efficient overall besides whatever benefits improved spectrum gets you. I have used a hot centered R-Spec 550 from HLG for years now and honestly just rotate the plants every few days through the middle, either shuffling them around or just spinning them in place on saucers or lazy susans and don’t SCROG, use stakes and ties and netting attached to the pots or yo-yos from above, which can stand to be rotated back and forth if left a bit slack.
You got this man don’t stress the choices you made! That light will do you well and you can use the space around it to put supplementals if you wanted to, but give this a try for a few rounds first, I’d say.
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They list the efficiency higher up on the page at 2.75 on the G3000. I see what you mean about the lumens though. How can SF claim the G series is more efficient when the lumens per watt are clearly less? I definitely like the idea of better efficiency, I just thought 500 PPF was kinda the min and the SF didn’t seem to hit that on the edges.
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Here is an independent guy’s measurements with the SF on the left and G on the right @ 24" above canopy. Wasn’t initially considered but also kinda cool the driver can be detached on the G and placed outside the tent. I’m fighting cold right now, but may be useful in the summer?
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The G3000 is a bar style. That is the one I was considering retiring my SF2000 Pro for. 100 extra watts, it’s 24x24 vs 16x16 so closer spread to edges. Removable driver. BUT it’s not Samsung diodes.
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Would love to get that light and frankly wished I would have just saved more and gone AC > Vivosun from the get go for most of my hardware. The Evo is unfortunately $140 more than my current light ($184). Spider does have the SE3000, which is basically the same as G3000 but w/ Samsung diodes. It’s $100 more tho vs only $25.
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Thanks. I’ll download the app and try checking my #'s vs what I posted below (#"s I found on another reviewer).
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I’d pay the extra for the 300w strip light.
It’s got dimming et al on it, so yes, it would probably be better for you to return the light and pay the extra for that G3000.
It looks like it would do well in your 3 by 3 tent.
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Good luck, mate.
Gaz
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Oh damn didn’t know the current light had EVO’s. I concur…
I seen the “upgraded” light was running 301b’s
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Ya the 200W light has Samsung 301H Evo. The “upgrade” is 300W but using Bridgelux. Somehow they rate the Samsungs at 2.7 and Bridgelux at 2.75 though? Not sure how that makes sense.
Do you have any idea why they list both 2.7 and 3.14 on the SF2000 Pro?
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That’s not your system efficiency, it’s the Bridgelux diode’s raw efficiency but system efficiency is always lower, that’s the marketing I’m talking about.
Samsung EVO diodes hit 3.14 umol/j, so your system number for the SF2000 Pro is 2.7 after driver loss and other factors. If the Bridgelux on the G3000 start at 2.75 we could reasonably expect the same additional system loss of around 0.4 which means the system efficiency of the G3000 is probably about 2.35 umol/j, which matches the math I did above at rating the SF 13-15% more efficient than the G. Hope that helps!
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I just recently bought a Migro Aray 4 for the 2x4, don’t have a full grow under it yet. So far it feels like a big upgrade from my sf1000s…fwiw
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It does! Thank you so much for the in depth explanation 
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i have always bought lights from alibaba and had great result
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Happy to explain dude, you can look at it this way too, by my rough math you’d save about 60 kWh per veg/flower cycle vs a 200w light using the Bridgelux diodes. Where I am electricity is $0.35/kwh so that would be $20 saved every grow.
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I need some humidity as well, so I bought a warm mist humidifier. Hoping that bumps my temps up enough for now.