Power compact lighting

[HereticHammer]

Originally Posted by Corwin

I think that post answers your question. It looks you need a 2.7K rather than a 5K, together with a 6.7k

Unfortunately, that is not much use for my set up. That person is using 3 different temperature lamps and mixing T12s with regular compact fluorecents.

Power compacts are VERY different from compact fluorescent. Sadly, many dealers list PCs as just compacts which confuses people. PCs are like VHO is to regular fluorescents.

I have not found anything on line mentioning the use of 2700k lamps. Most everything I find for plants (which is usually for freshwater aquarium planted tanks) recommends 6500k.

I am getting so confused.

Edit: I have now found info on the lower kelvin lamps. They do state that 3000k is used for budding and flowering unfortunately. I say unfortunately because I can't stand the look of light in that range (sickly yellowish) but the orchids needs come first. I hope that mixing 6500k and 3000k (as suggested on some hydroponics sites) will make the light more eye pleasing.

[Corwin]

Hum... perhaps there

Looks like only 5.5k ones would do the trick, but you have to chose those with full spectrum (If I remember well - I'm new here )

[HereticHammer]

Originally Posted by Corwin

Hum... perhaps there

Looks like only 5.5k ones would do the trick, but you have to chose those with full spectrum (If I remember well - I'm new here )

Yeah, nothing there about kelvin temps. As to "full spectrum" or "daylight" many bulbs of varying spectrum and types use these terms so I no longer trust them.

Just today I have found sites saying that 6700k, 6500k, and 5500k are all full spectrum like a midday sun. lol They can't all be can they?

Ugh, so confusing still.

[HereticHammer]

UGHHHH! I can not find anything lower than 5200k in power compacts.

If anyone reads this and knows of a supplier for something around the 3000k range, PLEASE let me know. I really don't want to have to buy another fixture.

[Tim C.]

Jonny - I was the poster someone on here referred you to, so I'll give my input if it's worth anything.

You're right about the setup I referenced in the linked post - I'm using several different color temps on my bulbs, and I'm using CFLs, not PCs. However, I do grow in an orchidarium I built myself, and use lights from Compact Fluorescent Lighting Kits to light the unit. I currently run 2 x 55 watt PC (yes, the ones you're referring to) with 6700 K temps. I have grown and flowered many, many different plants in this setup. I didn't notice what wattage lights you're using, mostly because I skimmed over the posts here, but you might want to check the link above for lamps if you're still looking for them.

As far as the whole degrees K thing goes, think of it this way:

Orchids need different wavelengths of light to grow and to flower. They need a certain amount of the red spectrum (found best in 3000 K or lower bulbs) in order to flower well. Most people will mix higher K with lower K bulbs to give these needs to their orchids. However, ALL lights (with the exceptions of blacklights, and other specialty lights) produce some light in the red spectrum - including the 6700 K bulbs I use. The point I'm making is that if the light you supply at 6700 K is strong enough, you'll be giving your plants plenty of light in the red spectrum to flower.

As I mentioned, I grow plants in my case using ONLY 6700 K bulbs. I've flowered Sophronitis, Cattleyas, Leptotes, Phalaenopsis, Dendrobiums, Schoenorchis, even some Neofenitias and Ascocentrums. If the wattage on your lights is high enough, and your plants are close enough to the lights, have no worries. You'll be giving your plants all the light they need to grow and to flower.

-Tim C.

PS - I have NEVER seen PC bulbs lower than 5000 K. And I've looked all over the internet. Sometimes you have to work with what you've got.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

Alrighty, here's my two cents...

I had a reef tank before, so I kinda know how this works. Here it goes...

There ARE power compacts (PC's or CFL's) rated at 5,500 K (the K refers to Kelvin, a unit of measurement for plasma). You just have to keep looking (you're competing with us crazed reef hobbyists for the same thing). Lights rated at 5,500 K are the closest to artificial daylight we can get. Here's the thing that you may or may not know...

Kelvin (K) like I said before, does not refer to the wavelength of light. It is a unit of measurement for the heat that radiates from plasma.

Light is broken down into different spectra:

1. color (what we humans can perceive)
2. infrared
3. UV

etc...

Now dealing solely with the color spectrum, light within a certain color spectrum (red, yellow, orange, green, blue, purple) has different wavelengths. Depending on what the light has to travel through, there will be different measures of wavelengths within the color spectrum associated with this occurrence

Eventhough the lights are rated at 5,500 K or 10,000 K, they aren't actually those numbers. They're pretty close to them, but not exactly.

5,500 K's put out wavelengths of light within the color spectrum that's closest to the sunlight that non-aquatic plants experience (it's all relative as you will start to see).

10,000 K's put out wavelengths of light within the color spectrum that's closest to the sunlight that a photosynthetic coral at a depth of roughly 40m to 60m would experience. Here, the highest wavelength of light in the color spectrum is blue. The next highest is purple. With red having the shortest wavelength, (because red gets filtered out by water at relatively shallow depths).

Now...this is the opinion of many tropical reef hobbyists on the CoralLife brand of lighting (including mine), ...we don't really like it. It is not a top notch brand. When we're talking about reef lighting we're looking at brands from the likes of Hamilton's reef lighting and such. I recommend picking up a tropical fish magazine and check out the ads if you're not already into the hobby.

The quality of the light is important in reef growing. This is because we can't have the Kelvin rating degrade too rapidly, too soon. A degradation in the Kelvin rating means a decline in the quality of the wavelengths of light the bulb will produce. This can severly damage a lot of sensitive reef building corals such as those from the Staghorn coral complex.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

Light degradation is noticeable BTW.

In the reef hobby we normally change out the bulbs every 10 months to a year.

I forgot to mention...5,500 K's are not as commonly made as 6,500 K's in the aquarium hobby because the light has to travel through water. The higher the Kelvin rating the higher the wavelength of blue produced.

5,500 K's and 6,500 K's are similar enough that it won't matter much.

But...if you have a good refractometer (roughly $120) it'll let you determine all this for yourself, (which means you don't have to take my word or anybody's word for it).

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

Oh, and the unit of measurement for the wavelength of light in the color spectrum is in nanometers (nm).

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

I just thought about this...

The Kelvin temperatures on power compacts, halides, etc., are standardized. There's nothing available that's below a 5,500 K (I forgot, but there could be a 5,200 K?). There's nothing available above a 20,000 K (I'm certain of this). Anything between is usually 6,500 K, 6,700 K, 7,200 K, 7,500 K, 10,000 K, 12,000 K, or 14,000 K.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

Okay I swear this is the last thing I add on out of absent-mindedness...

When considereing light, the intensity of the light is taken into account as well as the wavelength of the color spectrum in accordance to the Kelvin temperature. The intensity is usually taken into account using the bulb's wattage (W).

This is a complicated subject to understand because light behaves as a wave and a particle.