So one of our generous forum sponsors @MarsHydro approached me and asked if i would do a grow with one of their lights and even offered up a tent in the process though due to space constraints and my grow style a TS1000 was settled upon as it was really the only light that would fit my grow spaces. Their newer bar style lights would of been nice but im confident this TS1000 will do the job nicely which has been on the market for a few years.
So here we are 
i want to preface that I agreed caused it gave me a chance to personally run one of their lights that i normally wouldn’t acquire just as im a DIY as far as lights go or at least have been up to this point, and also would like to note that in various LED discussions on this forum that when a fellow member has been looking for a Prebuilt Commercial option instead of the going down the DIY route that i pretty frequently recommended MarsHydro as an affordable effective option for those members, now those recommendations were of no gain for myself other than i got to see other members move over into the LED world and cheer on their grows.
Saying that lets get the show on the road.
Here’s the Light, came well packaged with adjustment straps and hangers “not shown” and is an easy plug and play light, the driver and dimmer control can be remote mounted if one wanted thus the extra cable length between the driver and the light, side note in the back of my head i was kinda expecting the hammered mirror like finish to the reflector/panel that they use to run not expecting the white they have now which does make it look cleaner and more to the point.
Light Setup Wise for my space, i was considering remote mounting the driver and dimmer to the back wall to try and squeek out a couple more cm of height and have the driver in a more air friendly location though due to the power cable connection for the panel no extra height could really be gained unless i rewired it without the bulk head fitting which wasn’t something i wanted to do just to keep it simple and in an untouched form, So i just bundled up the driver wires in a way to allow some space and airflow to the driver and used the lights attachment points with some zip ties to attach it to some eyelet screws i had moved closer in on the inside roof of my cabinet with the driver flush against the roof, surprisingly the driver temp was only around 40C when running at around 100w from the wall.
Only things i did was relocate the MarsHydro sticker and make an adapter cord to connect to my timer that went in place of the standard PS cable that you attach on this light to plug it into the wall, simple enough and i just used a spare PS cable i had and no modifications to the lights main wiring was needed which was handy.
Now on to the Grow detail’s …
Were gonna be using my Left Cabinet for the grow and runs down like this.
- 3 Sqft.
- Soil level to light is around 18" or 45cm which is only about 2-3cm less than my diy lights.
- Recycled coco as the grow medium which has sat dry for a cycle.
- Nutrients will be PlantProd’s MJ Bloom and CalKick with a bit of Epsom and CalNit added at times.
- Reservoirs are some ikea bins maid to suit where the pots sit partially through the lid of the bin.
- Automatic watering using a cycle timer and some 12v pumps couple to some basic irrigation parts.
- Pots are from the Dollarstore and hold about 8-900ml of “soil” volume with a little headspace and have drainage holes drilled in the bottom of them.
- Updates with be my standard Mon-Wed-Sat when i can, and discussions and chatting daily of course with the occasional seed give away
As for what were running i started some seeds gifted by a grow bud most all you know on here that being @ReikoX , so i’ve kinda randomly picked out two types out of a bunch he sent me recently just going “sure i like the sound of that one” and using the first two seeds out of each that being.
- Grape Walker Kush x Glo F1
- Forgotten Cookies x Glo F1
Both being Fem Autos for refrence.
I’m gonna also start some of my own seed or some others as backups and for my other cabs but just haven’t got on that yet.
Saying that the four seeds have sprouted tails with 3 a bit quicker than the fourth but all planted as of tonight, so i expect to see seedling popping up come another day or two. Coco has been pre-charged with 1.4 ec feed water and is bottom wicking atm and will for probably the first two weeks as i maintain res levels to allow that before hooking up the autowaters.
to our community. And almost comparable price wise to DIY. You’re doing a good job of proving me wrong. 
maybe i caused it as it needed a little help yesterday to try and shed its seed sac.