aquarium lighting????
 

Are t8 and t5 lights manufactured for growing planted aquariums suitable for growing orchids?

Anyone tried or have any experience, suggestions or advice for the best kind of lighting to use? I am after getting some lights for my orchids for the first time. I am in the uk and my orchids are in a glass case under a skylight so they need some more lights but im confused as to what lights to use

help please

Aquarium lights are used not only to allow us to see what's inside of it, but also to provide adequate light for aquatic plants growing. Hence, although I no nothing about growing in lights, I think they are ok.
But let's see what the experts have to say.:)

I own an aquarium maintenance company, so used fixtures come my way all the time. I use both T5HO fluorescent and led fixtures with good results.

Plants are plants and chlorophyll is chlorophyll.

I have t5 and t8 for my orchid. They were lights I no longer use for my aquarium. It really depends on how far away the lights are from the plants. My t8 are only a few inches from my phal and they we getting that red tint they get in high lights.

My others we under t5 and are doing well. I have one bulb that is redish and the other daylight. It works well. I grew some amazing plants with this light for my aquarium.

Aquarium lights are great for growing aquarium pants. They we not always the cheapest. But if you have them laying around put some plants under them.

T5 we great but I would look into led lights they have come a long way and will save you money in the long run.

Chlorophyll is chlorophyll, but light passing through water, and light passing through air is not the same.

Aquarium bulbs have a different spectrum. They may work for plants, but as pointed-out, they are more expensive and probably not as good.

I would not say, see this spectrum

Amazon.com : Wavepoint 2-Pack Ultra Growth Wave High Output T-5 Universal Replacement Lamp for Aquarium, 54-watt : Aquarium Lights : Pet Supplies

That's actually pretty good! However, the price is about double that of a good plant bulb.

I have used aquarium lights with good success. Again as mentioned, aquarium plants are still plants and absorb similar wavelengths of lights. Those lights are more expensive as the phosphors are tailored for plants. You can also get amazing results with regular T5 or T8 daylight HO lights. But some of this light (green and some of the yellow) is wasted. So you might need more bulbs to reach the same effective PAR compared to aquarium lights. Whether you will benefit more with the expensive ones is again dependent on whether you are hitting the threshold light wavelengths and intensity. Over that certain threshold (which depends on the number of plants/grow area/distance from lights), you should not find any difference.