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I just changed up my terrarium setup by adding another tank and some new light bulbs/tubes. Here's how my setup goes:
The new terrarium I got is a 10 gallon. I also got a new reptile light hood that holds two incandescent bulbs and one flourescent tube. So I got new bulbs to go with this new hood: Two 23 watt (equivalent to 100 watts each) Energy Saving Warm White Light Compact Flourescent bulbs and one 15 watt 24 inch cool white flourescent tube.

The plants that will be grown in the 10 gallon are basically all my sundews (Lance Leaf, Dewthread, Roundleaf, Spoonleaf, Cape, Pygmy) and several plants I rescued from Home Depot (several Venus Flytraps and a Butterwort).

My second terrarium (the old 5 gallon terrarium that I used to have all my plants in) is now being lit by two 19 watt (equivalent to 75 watts each) Daylight compact flourescent bulbs. This tank will now be the home of all my Nepenthes (several that I rescued from Home Depot and some others).

Now my question is: Will this all this work? Should I mix and match the Daylight and Warm White Light compact bulbs to get balance, or just keep it all the way it is? I know on the Cobraplants website they state that you should either grow plants under 40 watts of tubing or 100 watts (equivalent) of compact flourescents, so I'm not sure if they mean cool white light, warm white light, or daylight. Is this enough light for my plants? Thanks for everyone's help in advance.
 
[b said:
Quote[/b] (LLeopardGGecko @ July 03 2005,6:14)]I just changed up my terrarium setup by adding another tank and some new light bulbs/tubes. Here's how my setup goes:
The new terrarium I got is a 10 gallon. I also got a new reptile light hood that holds two incandescent bulbs and one flourescent tube.
Where did you get the reptile light hood for your 10 gallon terrarium as I would like to get one for my 10 galon terrarium. To answer your question, you can mix and match the daylight with the warm white to add balance. Just my 2 cents.

dewy
 
I got it at Petsmart. It was $60, kinda pricey, but very worth it in my opinion.
 
That sounds like a quite good lighting setup.  61W of fluorescent on a 10 gallon should provide plenty of light for most plants.  You shouldn't need to change anything, but you can experiment.

Quantity is more important than quality from what I've read and heard from others on this forum.  If you can replace those 23W bulbs with 42 watt ones (also available at Home Depot) you would probably get even better light; although more cooling may be required.  I know some people can use the 65W Fluorex with one fan or less, but I think the 42W standard CFs might run hotter.

It is possible that your 19W daylight fluorescents may provide more usable light for your plants than the 23W warm white ones, since there is such a small difference in output power.  If anyone has more info on this, I would like to know as well.  Having the balance of colors provided by multiple types may have some benefits as well, but I have not seen any info on this in regard to CPs and I have not tried it.

Edit: I just noticed that your fixture cost $60, and I may have already mentioned this before, so sorry if you already know about it, but you can get a Fluorex fixture at Home Depot for $40. It will most likely provide better output than all three of those bulbs combined, at 6500K color temp, which is very good for plants. Also, the replacement bulbs for Fluorex only cost $10 at Lowes, whereas each one of the smaller bulbs probably cost about that price. You can mount the fixture either on glass or wood, and it needs to be wired. If you are interested in this option, I can give you more info.

-Ben
 
Wow, those reptile hoods here are at the cheapest $90.
 
Thanks for the reply Sharp.

These 42 watt bulbs you speak of at Home Depot; what is they're incandescent equivalent? I know I saw 150 equivalent compact flourescents at Home Depot when I bought the 23 watt warm white ones, perhaps that's the bulbs you speak of. If you really think that getting the 42 watt bulbs would be of great benefit for my plants, I'll drop by Home Depot tomorrow and see if I can snag a couple.

Tink: I guess I lucked out then! And here I thought 60 bucks was too much
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Oh, and by the way Sharp, as far as that Flourex fixture, I appreciate you offering your advice on that but I think I'll have to stick with my reptile hood. I'm horrible at wiring stuff and I'd probably end up killing myself!
 
I think the 42W ones have a 150W equivalent rating, as you mentioned. The main question is whether your fixture is large enough to hold them, and if you have enough ventilation to run them. The extra light is probably not necessary, and your plants should grow well under the lights you mentioned. I just suggested it in the event that you want/need more light.

BTW, I am not a Lights of America/Fluorex salesperson
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I have just had very good results with this bulb. They do sell a version that does not require wiring, but I have only heard of Walmart selling it, and I don't know if they still do. If you are willing to buy stuff online, there are bulbs like this

http://www.abcbulbs.com/Item.as....6&afid=

that have a lot of output for about $25, and fit in a normal socket. It may be too large for your fixture though, as these things are huge.

-Ben
 
Those high power daylight CF bulbs are nice. Just screw them into a normal reflector unit.

Incandescent equivalents don't mean much since you shouldn't be using incandescent bulbs anyway. It's just a measure for every day folks when trying to replace their incandescent bulbs in their room fixtures. Plants don't see what we see anyway. A 45w warm white/softwhite bulb looks dimmer to a plant than a 45w daylight because one produces more light useable by the plant.

Many people just use plain ole 2 tube shoplight fixtures with coolwhite bulbs. They work fine but because the light is fairly diffuse from a 4 foot long 40w tube, they need to be quite close to the plants. CF bulbs are nice because you can pack more light in the same area, achieving higher light levels and allowing more space between the lights and the plants.

As for your current setup. Probably have enough light. Time will tell! Personally I would try and replace the warmwhite eventually with coolwhite/daylight/full spectrum. Some plants it would be hard to provide too much lighting from fluorescent bulbs.
Tony
 
  • #10
Well after reading your post Sharp I decided to go out to Home Depot and get two of the 42 watt (150 watt equivalent) warm white light bulbs. So far they seem to be working great and are definitely giving my plants more light. We'll see how the temps do tomorrow. Right now I'm using two small fans on my fixture that seem to keep things cool.

I definitely prefer the look of the warm light to the daylight. My tanks are in my room, so I like to keep the majority of the light a tone that won't drive me crazy ;) Hopefully the warm light will suffice for my plants' growth.
 
  • #11
With those 3 bulbs equal to 99W of power, I think you should get excellent results in a 10G terrarium, regardless of color spectrum. I only have a 65W in mine and all the plants are very colorful.

I personally like the daylight color temps, but I know what you mean because my mom hates them
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-Ben
 
  • #12
Ah, so I'm not alone with the daylight hate!

By the way sharp, I just want to thank you (again) for always helping me out with stuff. You've been such a great help since I started posting here. You rock
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  • #13
Thanks, glad to help. It's nice to be able to give something back for all the help I have received here...

-Ben
 
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