led for indoor plant

[Seriak]

Thanks guys I went and bought a couple of these bulbs. Man they are huge. The Chameleons require UVB which is not enough or the right K for the Hibiscus. I have a mistking mister that mists the cages 4 times a day so they should be getting enough water.

[sphelps]

I always thought typical reptile bulbs are full spectrum with quartz glass to allow UVB/A to pass through so I don't really know what you mean by wrong K. I know many plant enthusiasts use reptile type bulbs for their UVB to aid in certain blooming times.

[Seriak]

Originally Posted by sphelps

I always thought typical reptile bulbs are full spectrum with quartz glass to allow UVB/A to pass through so I don't really know what you mean by wrong K. I know many plant enthusiasts use reptile type bulbs for their UVB to aid in certain blooming times.

To obtain proper plant growth you need around 6500 K. I use 5.0 UVB bulbs which are around 21000 K. The plant is just not successful under that range.

[ScubaSteve]

Originally Posted by Seriak

To obtain proper plant growth you need around 6500 K. I use 5.0 UVB bulbs which are around 21000 K. The plant is just not successful under that range.

Ya, with those bulbs there's not much in the wavelengths that the plant can use for synthesis. I've found hibiscus to need a bit more in the red than the blue.

I use sunblasters (26w and 55w) through the winter and I've grown a 4 ft avocado tree, a 3 ft mango tree, limes, plumeria, and started a few grapefruit seedlings in December that are several inches high now. So, they seem to work pretty good.

The artificial lighting has nothing on real sunlight. Sunlight will grow things several fold faster and is magnitudes more intense. I've had plants under 200W CFLs burn after putting them out into sunlight in the spring.

[mike31154]

Originally Posted by Seriak

Thanks guys I went and bought a couple of these bulbs. Man they are huge. The Chameleons require UVB which is not enough or the right K for the Hibiscus. I have a mistking mister that mists the cages 4 times a day so they should be getting enough water.

What bulbs are you referring to? My daughter has a chameleon as well. Not sure if she has an hibiscus in there, but I do know she has a ficus. She's using a fluorescent tube for UV & standard edison filament bulbs for heat & daylight spectrum. Plants seem to be ok, except Spike (the chameleon) is munching on the ficus quite a bit.

I asked her a while back if anyone in the reptile community was switching to UV LEDs for their critters. Having built a LED fixture for my tank using 10 watt multichip LED arrays, I could easily do something for her. Just need to know what UV wavelengths are required. The 10 watt multichip UV LEDs I've seen for sale are much more costly than the blues, whites & reds.

[sphelps]

Reptisun 5.0 is suppose to be 5,500K but you could also always switch to 2.0 as they should be 6500K.