lighting

[mrcarabao]

ok..so my first viv has been awesome for..almost a week? haha

i ordered the exo terra lights from black jungle..

but my question in..

is there certain lights that any of you recommend? a brand? where to get it?
thanks!

[repman01]

i know a few people get there lights from walmart because they are a lot cheaper and do the same thing as name brand

[Gold3nku5h]

You just need to watch what color spectrum you use, 6000K to 6500K is good for vegitative growth, and 2700K to 3000K is good for flowering plants. Keeping it in the blue and red spectrums would be good enough, cause its not like we are trying to grow any dense buds are we?

Optimal colors would be 6500K and 2700K.. 3000K is also good, as thats the norm

[beckdg]

kush for growing, i'm pretty sure you can go as far as 5000k-6500. many sources say that 5000-6000 is optimal, but 6500 does fine!

as far as flowering/budding you can go as far as 3100k... this should help also as many bulbs come in that spectrum.

night lights: 4125k is the color of moon light (thanks kush)... reptiles can't see red... green does not promote photosynthesis... normal lumens are out of the question regardless... keep it dim... blue is a popular choice.

uva is only necessary in small amounts for your plants and any full spectrum bulb should have plenty... no need to supplement... uvb is harmful when done wrong... it is only needed for diurnal species, not at all for plants... make sure you read directions on box and follow specifically... uvb should be concentrated for basking spot only in most cases and needs to be supplemented with full spectrum also concentrated at basking area... remember suggested distance for uvb refers to head/back height at closest perch available whether it be a leaf, decoration, whatever... uvc just kills... it is used as and commonly called a sterilizer... it is also quickly and severely blinding!


many people use 2-3 growing bulbs (5000-6500) for every flowering bulb (2900) for nice growth and flowering... i am currently using 1 5000k, 1 6500 k and 1 3000 k on my planted tank... been doing a lot of experimenting so killed some of my plants due mostly to inconsistencies... but since running this setup (all t-12s btw) the plants start showing signs of bouncing back in 3 days... and algae is almost gone in about 2 weeks... i'll be switching to dry ferts and using tom barrs estimative index soon, so that will be nice... i almost have to try to kill my plants as it is now... and i commonly do try... i have made all the mistakes possible and am recreating them 1 by 1 at this point... i will be switching soon though!

[mrcarabao]

wooooow

thanks you guys...
so the name brand dont count just look at the spectrum and kelvin?
and i can get it anywhere..
walmart..lowes..home depot?

hah

[Gold3nku5h]

yeah, go mainly by color spectrum, then after that i would look at lumens, because thats basically how bright they are, get the ones with highest lumens in your color spectrum, also, if you have a choice of type of bulbs to use, i'd go with T5's as those are pretty much cream of the crop right now for grow lights, besides high intensity discharge (HID) those are metal halide and high pressure sodium.

Man, i wish i would have seen somewhere that you guys use a 2:1 or 3:1 ration on grow to bloom bulbs. I bought 12 and 12 bloom and grow bulbs from my friends at the hydroponic shop. I got them for about 4 25 a piece, so no worries, i might just go get another 24 of grow sometime in the near future. im getting alot of stuff in bulk, because i know im getting very heavily into building paludariums. Im planning on doing a fully seasoned one, where it comes complete with snow fall

[Waterkeeper]

Originally Posted by mrcarabao

i ordered the exo terra lights from black jungle..

i suppose you meant you ordered the exo-terra fixture. T5 bulbs will not fire on this lighting fixture.

This is all really good advice as long as your intentions is to GROW plants.

I run exoterra 2x 24watt uvb 2.0 bulbs over my 44. my plants grow great and it supplements my uvb.