Beginners blues

01001011. led efficacy is not determined by the watts its the amps that are telling how hot they are running. Remember the time when manufacturers were only adding the max wattage of the leds builded into the light selling 300watt leds that were only drawing 90watts from the wall, no clue if they still do it that way, that was the reason i did my own. The higher the amps the more watt is blasted trough one diode the more they do penetrate but also less efficient in heat vs photons

Hey Daveacr first things first great job, especially for the first time. Looking nice and healthy only seeing one leaf with a minor deficiency second pic front row the girl on the left(looks like magnesium but would need a closer picture to be sure). If you have the space in your new tent setup you could raise the stronger mars LED higher till temps are fine. 28C is ok for first 3-4 weeks of flower but keep in mind temperature is only a part of your environment, humidity is just as important. You want to steer your plants transpiration, high temperatures need higher humidity levels, here you can stick to VPD charts to find perfect conditions(google vpd chart LED grow). If raising the light isn’t enough you might want a bigger exhaust fan to keep everything in a good range. If you live in the northern hemisphere winter is your best friend, temperatures become easier to control and indoor radiator air is nice and dry. With the color changing of the leds you can steer the stretch a bit, warm light does make them stretch more colder spectrum does let them grow a bit more compact, but you can definitely go from seed to harvest with just one setting or even mix both, no worrys. When it comes to watering, i always liked to feel the weight of the pots to know if irrigation is needed. Thickness of stalk and branches are mostly determined by genetics, airflow does also play a part here so a fan that blows air around (not onto the plants) is a good investment. There are also fancy additives like silica that are beneficial for stronger stalks and branches btw but not necessary, commercial grows also go mostly without them. I did also go without PH meter my first grows on soil, but need to say they turn out to be handy when you run into issues with deficiencies and lockouts, always good to measure what goes in and what goes out when things go wrong. There are cheap ones on eBay for like 10 bucks that work but you might want to spend a bit more and get one that you can calibrate, its quite some waste to buy every few month a new one to be sure the numbers are right. But in the end looking at your pictures you seem to be doing alright without one for now

well you seem to be comparing a 150w light to a 300w light. Neither of these lights are high efficacy, so they both put out heat. You should expect 2x the heat from 2x the watts. Now, do you need 300w? If 150w was sufficient and now blasting it with 300w, that's going to result in an issue more times than not. based on diode count, i highly doubt their spec sheet umol/s listed and efficacy, so that makes it difficult to assess. Mars has gotten shady again as has spiderfarmer with their spec sheets. 35-40watts per sq ft is probably fine at full power and typical hanging distance 18-20" give or take. Over 12 hours it can probably cover 3x3 well. Over 18h with autoflowers, it can cover 150% of that area - 13-14sq ft with 100% and 18 hours of operation. compare to size of your closet and adjust power approriately. This will not be perfect, but it will reduce the trial and error necessary to dial it in.