Indoor culture lighting
 

Can anyone suggest an inexpensive LED for indoor culture? My terrarium is 16" tall and it looks like some of the orchids mounted near the bottom are not getting enough light (leaves yellowing, no disease though) and I'd like to fix this going forward.

The lighting will need to be full spectrum, as I eventually plan to place a few thumbnail dart frogs in the tank and they need a small amount of UVB.

Are you looking for a better lighting system altogether or just a different bulb brand? I'm newer to orchids and my experience here is related to other plants. When I had planted aquariums, the "aquarium"-specific stuff was always more expensive than similar lighting systems that could be re-purposed. But people are constantly overpaying for aquarium stuff and giving up the hobby so I would try craigslist for old aquarium lights if that is compatible with your terrarium. It's easy to find full spectrum bulbs online, but almost every aquarium uses fluorescent and/or LED. I put the money down on a HID system and the orchids I tried it on during my cloudy winter did great.

I use these guys from home deport. work well and my phals bloom well with them https://www.homedepot.com/p/Feit-Ele...4302/206384735

"LED", "inexpensive", & "UVB" are not all going to happen in one lamp.

Agreed. I have never tried to find an only LED set ups. I understand they make certain colors REALLY pop and certain aquarium hobbyists swear by them, but fluorescent was always the way to go for the price-concerned who still want full spectrum light. This was true for in-door agriculture and aquascaping/terrariums when I was still in the hobby.

If fluorescent is the main source, then supplementing with an LED bulb or incandescent or natural light should be more than enough light for most plants. LED does not emit the same amount of heat that incandescent bulbs do (or sunlight from a window), but if you're going to add frogs to your mix, you'll need heating anyway, right?

UV is substantially filtered out by glass and plastic. If you really want it to reach your frogs you would need to have the fixture inside the cover, or shining through some kind of mesh cover.

With the increased efficiency, LEDs over time are considered to be more cost-effective than other solutions.

LEDs are the standard for aquariums now, and for adding full spectrum lighting, which contains UVB. I was using an inexpensive full-spectrum aquarium light on the tank, it was just not bright enough considering how deep the tank is. (And yes, it is totally reasonable to get a low cost LED with full spectrum lighting, I do it all the time because I have 14 fish tanks)

The mesh on this terrarium is a screen top, so it should allow plenty of UVB for the frogs, but I am also likely to add some strip lighting inside the tank just to create an effect, and can easily make that full spectrum LED lights.

I can't use a fluorescent light. Not only are they hideous, but the fixtures will heat the tank way too much for both the flowers and the frogs. For the time being, I've added a powerful aquarium fixture (LED as well) to the top which has brought my FC at the bottom to ~1000. It will work for now, but will not work long term.

Why will the aquarium fixture not work long term? I am considering a terrarium but only because it isn't very warm where I live.. But either way, I would hypothetically have a fan on them during part of the day/night. So, I never even considered high temps being a problem..

It's a clip on for a specific tank that falls off this one LOL. And the other ones are not bright enough.

I think for the sake of the frogs you will need one of those "pet store" type lamps. I believe they die without the correct light.

Any LED will put out a tiny amount of UVB.

Compact fluorescent lights also emit a small amount of UVB.

There is a YouTube video that demonstrated the above cheaply with a special kind of bead that turns purple in the presence of UVB, (UV light meters not required unless you actually want hard parameters).

I keep dart frogs. Dart frogs do not need high levels of UVB. I have a dart frog kept without any light directly over the tank. The Oophaga vicentei does just fine, is fat, and chirps loudly randomly throughout the day. Kept it for about 1 year so far.

I have another dart frog, (a female Oophaga histrionica 'Bullseye'), that is kept under two high powered LED's designed to be flood lamps for garages and it is fine too. It hides a lot, so the light is not really of much benefit to the frog itself. They are for the orchids I have growing in the tank with it. Kept this for about 1 year so far.

The Ranitomeya ventrimaculata I have also don't seem to need good UVB output as well. Kept these for about 1 year so far.

Unless you are keeping chameleons, other lizards, or chelonians, UVB is not a big concern for keeping dart frogs healthy.

Your main concern as a dart frog keeper is providing enough of the right kinds of foods in sufficient quantities for the duration of the frog's life and dusting the food with calcium/vitamins. Correct temperature maintenance is also key. Sufficient hiding places are also necessary for the frogs to feel safe.

As far as orchids are concerned, it depends on the type of orchid you are growing. Moderately bright light or bright light orchids can be grown quite "cheaply" with 6,000 Kelvin LED's designed to be flood lamps for garages.

Lights designed for freshwater aquariums are too expensive and may not have very high output, (especially LED's). Specialized LED fixtures for reef aquariums will definitely break someone's bank, but they are the best lighting with the highest level of control anyone can have. These reef tank LED's are not necessary for growing orchids.

The correct light is UVB light. Most full spectrum lights have some UVB which aids in vitamin uptake in some herps. Apparently it's unclear whether it's necessary or not, but better safe than sorry ;)

I just need it in an LED light so it won't heat up the tank, and need something bright enough for the orchids.

I may have a partial solution. Eventually this terrarium will be moved to my fishroom, and it'll be near a window when I move it. So at least then, it'll get some sunlight which will help with the plants.

You can use CFL's or LED's that grows plants and the dart frogs will be fine, they will not die. The lights are for the benefit of the plants, not the frogs. Special UVB bulbs are not required.

I used to keep Ranitomeya reticulata 'Iquitos', Ranitomeya fantastica 'Caynarachi', and Ranitomeya benedicta 'Shucushuyacu' as well. They were never kept using any special bulbs other than the ones I used to grow bromeliads and orchids with.

The reason why the pair of Ranitomeya benedicta 'Shucushuyacu' didn't do well and died was because they were young frogs that didn't adapt well and died from not eating.

The reason why the trio of Ranitomeya reticulata 'Iquitos' didn't make it was because they are high metabolism frogs that must be consistently fed a lot. There were a few times when I ran out of flies and ran out of money before my next paycheck. These frogs lasted for about 10 - 11 months.

The trio of Ranitomeya fantastica 'Caynarachi' had the same fate as the Ranitomeya reticulata 'Iquitos', except the Ranitomeya fantastica 'Caynarachi' didn't have metabolisms as high as those of Ranitomeya reticulata 'Iquitos'. I ran out of flies and I ran out of money before the next pay check, and the frogs starved to death. These frogs lasted about 11 months.

Flies are also not easy to come by locally here were I live. The local PetSmart does not carry Drosophila melanogaster fruit flies. The local Petco does carry Drosophila melanogaster fruit flies, but they do not consistently stock enough fresh batches. Sometimes when I run out of flies and try to buy them locally, I run into the problem of going to multiple Petco's in order to find a branch with fresh flies.

I now just suck it up and buy flies online and ship overnight. Don't ship flies using Priority Mail, most of the flies will die in transit and you will end up with questionable batches.

Ranitomeya fantastica 'Caynarachi', Ranitomeya benedicta 'Shucushuyacu', and Ranitomeya reticulata 'Iquitos' are also territorial, with Ranitomeya reticulata 'Iquitos' being the most territorial, second most territorial are the Ranitomeya benedicta 'Shucushuyacu', and third most territorial are the Ranitomeya fantastica 'Caynarachi'. It is preferred to use good sized enclosures for a group of them.

I'm going to agree whole-heartedly with "King's" posts here.

Looking at it from a physics standpoint, I'm surprised that a frog that lives deep in a tropical forest would have a strong need for UVB, as that part of the spectrum seems unlikely to penetrate the dense canopy that well.

Ray is right. The frogs hide way too much to even benefit much from UVB. Most of the times, you'll be searching for them in the tank.

Of the species of dart frogs I kept, the two species that stayed out the most were Ranitomeya reticulata 'Iquitos' and Ranitomeya ventrimaculata, in that order. The Oophaga vicentei hides so much I almost never see it, I only hear it. The Ranitomeya benedicta 'Shucushuyacu' came out occasionally, but they hid a lot and came out far less than the Ranitomeya fantastica 'Caynarachi' did.

Between Oophaga histrionica 'Bullseye' and Ranitomeya fantastica 'Caynarachi', the Oophaga histrionica 'Bullseye' came out more than the Ranitomeya fantastica 'Caynarachi'.