Achieving Catteya light in the tank

[Aleksa91]

Hey folks,

I have a question about the light in my newly built terrarium. I got a bunch of high light loving Catts and Dens which I would like to bloom here, but I am not sure if my LED lights will be sufficient for that.

Dimensions of the tank are 90x90x45 cm (3x3x1.5 ft), so it is rather tall. I have one 45 cm long, dimmable aquarium LED light (Chihiros WRGB II, 49 W, 3600 lm, adjustable warmth, I keep it at 6500 K) and one Skylight MID-30 (9.6 W, 800 lm, 7000K, 70 CRI). Lights are positioned on top of the the 6 mm acrylic lid.

Do you think this is sufficient for the tank this size? I am struggling to find really strong terrarium lights; most are built for medium to low-light plants. I am pretty sure that standard Spider Farmer hydroponic lights would do the job, but the issue is that most of them are square-shaped and intended for grow tents so they don’t really fit on top of my tank.
I was thinking about getting an additional Skylight Midspot V55 light (14 W, 1400 lm) which is intended for tall, planted tanks, but I am having second thoughts...

Any advice would be highly appreciated!

[Waterdog111]

Thats a great tank, and you really have it full. When I kept aquariums Mine was that same dimention all except it was 8’ long, it was 350 gals. I do love your tank.Good luck with it!

[Aleksa91]

Thanks a lot! It has been just set up some weeks ago. I anticipate more space issues once everything start growing, but I guess I will just graduate to growth tent then.

I have realized that hydroponics/'medicinal plant' community is more reliable when it comes to scrutinizing the quality of grow lamps than aquarium folks. Chihiros WRGB II series of lights falls on the pricier side, but they do not even report PPF values in their specifications.

I will probably get a 125 W Migro Aray 2 and place them side to side on top of the tank. The price is reasonable, it is dimmable, design is compact and suitable for my tank and the strength should be sufficient for Cattleyas.