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bihai

Coral reef tank lights for terrarium???

bihai
19 years ago

My husband had a 55 gal reef tank that we recently broke down. The light hood, he had made specifically for him at a **considerable** cost. After spending all that money he remembers surprisingly little about its specifics (you maybe can see why we no longer have the tank set up?)

Anyway we still have the tank and the light hood and I am playing with the idea of setting up a terrarium with perhaps plants only, as our local reptile store guru believes the lights we have would most likely be way too hot for live animals. When it was a reef tank, we had both hard and soft corals, fish, starfish, anemones, and snails andhad the fixture elevated about 6 inches off the water surface. The evaporative loss was enormous. We ran the lights VHO's 8 hours a day, halides 4-6 hours a day.

This is a description of the light set up. Do any of you have anything similar, and if so, what have YOU been able to grow as far as plants and/or animals?

The hood takes two 4 ft VHO-1 super actinic bulbs.

It also takes two metal halide bulbs that are labeled: Blue Line 175 10K plus

I am assuming that this means 175 watts 10,000K and K means heat? Or not?

The inside of the hood is reflective, and it has a large ballast that runs everything.

I want to possibly do miniature bromeliads, orchids, of course moss, I will have to look at terrarium plants that are suitable. I already grow over 400 orchids, several tropical carnivorous plants, hundreds of bromeliads, and other tropical rainforest plants in a 1728 Sq Ft greenhouse. In this terrarium I would want "different" plants than what I have in the rainforest.

(see website: bihaisrainforest.4t.com0

I would appreciate suggestions and advice. I know I can look at old threads also, and get a book on terrariums, etc but its always nice to have the expertise of someone with hands on experience.

Comments (6)

  • gawdly
    19 years ago

    Bihai,

    Actinic bulbs won't do well with plants I don't think. Too blue in the light spectrum. The K, or ºK is color temperature in degrees Kelvin. This is an ultra-scientific way of relaying the type or spectrum of color that a light outputs.

    Daylight is around 6000-6500ºK. Suitable lights for plants are in the 4100-6500 ºK.

    I think the Metal Halide bulbs will probably turn out to be too bright and too hot for your terrarium setup. You might be able to rig up a fan to cool the air between the lights and the top glass of the aquarium, though.

    Of course, the most suitable plants for your mini terrarium are probably just like the plants you already grow-just mini versions. CPs, orchids, bromeliads and mosses are what most people opt to grow.

    Sam

  • bihai
    Original Author
    19 years ago

    Okay, so since these bulbs are already 1 year old anyway and would have been replaced, I could ditch them, and get new VHO bulbs in a better plant spectrum? And ditch the halides altogether?

  • mrbreeze
    19 years ago

    If you haven't already, you should post this on the "growing under lights" forum. some of those guys are pretty amazing w/ what they know about different bulbs... not so much plants...but they could tell you what kinds of bulbs might be usable in your fixtures. What kind are they anyway? Screw-in incandescent type? Flourescent type connections? Both? Seems like all you really need to do is get some different bulbs if they will fit in your hood.

  • garyfla_gw
    19 years ago

    Hi
    Have always wanted to experiment with these type bulbs in terraria but was never willing to shell out the bucks lol My guess would be it's way to powerful for what you have in mind. The actinics are designed to simulate light at 20 feet in the ocean so would be useless in terraria.
    One group of plants that this might be ideal for would be desert type cactus.Say lithops or Atacama specie?? It would provide not only intense light but the heat could be used to lower humidity. Definitely plants that can't be grown in Florida. Another choice might be aquatics maybe even some of those fantastic marine plants. All that light and heat
    would sure allow you to branch into the exotic.
    As to the plants you mention it's been my experience that I can grow them as well if not better in the shadehouse.
    Have you ever attempted to measure footcandles without the water?? Would bet at least 90,000 in a 55!!
    If I had that type of light system I'd sure look into
    growing something that couldn't be grown any other way!!
    Gary

  • garyfla_gw
    19 years ago

    Hi
    Forgot to add to plese keep us advised on what you decide. When putting together light systems for theoretical terraia I drool over the possibilities.The advances in lights is incredible.Then I get to the part about how much it's going to cost lol
    Since you already have them you have a tremendous opportunity!!
    Gary

  • sahoyaref
    19 years ago

    Totally keep the halides! Most of us only dream about that kind of lighting! =) Of course you will need fans to take the heat away from those babies, and don't bother replacing the actinic (as already mentionned), or even the VHOs, since the halides will be plenty. If possible, you could run only one halide. This would enable you to put extremely high light plants on the side with the halide, and normal high light plants on the other side. You could also try raising the light hood above the tank several inches (this would also help keep the heat down). The spectrum is just about perfect (10,000 K). If you find it to be too white of a light for your tastes, you could try adding a normal 'warm white' fluo (the really cheap ones at Home Depot and similar stores) to balance the colour out a bit, but that would only be for aesthetics, not valuable to the plants at all. And of course you can't put a normal fluo. in a VHO fixture, as you'd blow the bulb. =)

    For plants, forget moss. I think that is way too strong of lighing for moss. You could try 'spanish moss', which is actually a tillandsia, and being one of the silvery ones, it would probably like the higher light. Think full, blazing sun plants. If your tank was big enough, you could grow vanda orchids! Speaking of that, you may think of getting a bigger tank eventually. You could have a very tall tank, and you'd be all set with the lighting. If you build the tank yourself from plywood and scrap glass, it becomes even cheaper! =) But anyways, back to plants. . . you could try cacti and succulents, as gary said. You'd need some really good fans going to keep the humidity down though, especially in Florida. Perhaps alpines? Or tomatoes, so you can have them year-round? The possiblities are nearly endless! But you really would burn broms, most orchids, and mosses to a crisp unless you hang the fixture from the ceiling, about 3 feet above the tank. That, of course, may be a possibility, but then you may as well just not use the tank and set up a growing area for more plants! I think you need a bigger tank. . . =)

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