Does this light look good?

[Stripeyiscool]

Hi again, still working on my 48 inch terrarium (plan on mostly using orchids and bromeliads) . I was looking on amazon for a light and found a couple pretty cool looking LEDs.

This first one is cheaper and has only one row of LEDs
String Lights : Amazon.com: Current USA Satellite Freshwater LED Light for Aquarium, 24 to 36-Inch

This second one is more expensive but alot more elaborate and fancy... Has 2 rows of LEDs and a remote to control the spectrum of the lights (so cool ) its meant for fish and is water resistant but the spectrum might be really great for plants since they grow better under blue and red light.

: Amazon.com: Current USA Satellite Freshwater LED Plus Light for Aquarium, 48 to 60-Inch

Also, just a question, the terrarium (which i got for FREE! ) Came which a handy and rather expensive (or so I believe) flat metal screen cover. Could I just put put the light on top or is that a bad idea since it might block some light.

Thanks!!

[MrHappyRotter]

I'll wait for others to weigh in, but I'm curious to hear what types of plants you're planning to grow and how tall the tank is.

I would think that you will be limited to smaller plants and low to low-medium light plants, unless the terrarium is getting decent light from a window and the LEDs are for supplemental light only.

The aquarium LEDs I've used are decent for low-light aquatic plants, but if you want to grow something more substantial than java moss and crypts, you have to invest in the higher wattage LEDs. In my gecko tank, I used an LED aquarium light for a while, but when the dracena stopped growing, and the impatiens stopped blooming, I realized that the 1 watt LEDs really aren't sufficient for much.

[naoki]

If your goal is to have light which grows plants with small amount of money, this doesn't seem to be a good one. If the efficiency doesn't matter, it will be ok as long as you have enough of them. The first 24" model emits only 450 lumen from 10W (which is amazingly low 45lm/W), the efficacy is worse than T8 fluorescent light. Also, the PAR is 15 micromol/m^2/s at 12" from the light source, and you want to have at least 4-10 times of the value for Phal-Paph level light. This means that you want to place the plants within 6" with one fixture.

If you need something cheap with decent efficacy, your home depot may have 12W Philips InstantFit T8-LED, which gives 1600lm from 12W (133lm/W). They seem to be discontinuing this model, and getting replaced by less efficient model (14.5W), which I don't know why. Or if you really want to get a good LED light, you can check BuildMyLED. Several independent tests back up the claim of their high efficiency.

Yes, I would remove the mesh screen since plants usually don't escape. I would use a glass cover or some cover made from plywood with the window cut out for the light fixture.

[estación seca]

Take thou this bulb:

150 Watt spiral CFL

and plug it into this reflector

Cheap Clamp Light

and attach it to a timer. This solution is much less expensive than what you are looking at. It uses a little bit more electricity than do LEDs but you will be up and running with happy plants much faster this way than trying to figure out LEDs for plants.

[Nexogen]

I agree with naoki; LED Grow Light Systems by BML Horticulture is very good.
No need to reinvent the wheel.

[Stripeyiscool]

Thanks so much everyone! Learned a lot! The build my LED look real cool and all, but a bit intimidating and complex, not to mention a bit too pricey for my amount of experience with terrariums (uhh... zero ) Anyways, Ill probably go with the long bulb naoki recommended, or use clamps like estación seca recommended. The long bulb would be probably easier to position. I need one for my aquarium as well...
Thing is ill need a case (I think its called a ballast) for the bulbs and so Ill need to find one I can position on top of my tank.

Also, Ill be going out eventually to home depot to look for bulbs, Im just worried if I cant find the exact ones you guys recommended I will be lost! Is there something specific I should look for, watts? k's which i think represent color? Ive never really dealt with lights for growing stuff or lights in general... uhhh yeaah...

Btw, my terrarium will be in a place with daylight, in fact, there are some orchids growing in the place I will put the terrarium. (could too much extra light burn them? I am planning on making ledges and shady spots to plant low light plants.)

Ill post a pic of my tank right after this!

Thanks again!

[estación seca]

You are unlikely to find these bulbs at the store. The one I recommended is available online only. The clamps are in the store.

If you search the Orchid Board for posts by naoki you will find a link to a blog article on modifying standard 4' fluorescent lights to accept LED lamps.

[Nexogen]

I made my LED light, does not look wonderful though is quite good.
Has 24" and consumes 160W, spectrum (380-720)nm. After this experience I think the better version is Custom LED Strip - BML Custom

[naoki]

Originally Posted by Stripeyiscool

The build my LED look real cool and all, but a bit intimidating and complex, not to mention a bit too pricey for my amount of experience with terrariums (uhh... zero )

Unfortunately, it is somewhat complex, and there are misinformation and misleading claim, too...

The initial cost is an issue, but you can save the long-term cost with more efficient (expensive) units (it's not so difficult to calculate the long-term cost from the price of electricity).

Originally Posted by Stripeyiscool

Thing is ill need a case (I think its called a ballast) for the bulbs and so Ill need to find one I can position on top of my tank.

For the instant-fit type T8 LED, you do need a fixture with ballast. You should be able to get cheap T8 shop light (like $10-15 for 2 bulb unit).

This one can be used with or without ballast. So if you have a broken T8 or T12 fixture, this is a possible choice. You do get a bit better efficiency if you remove the ballast (100lm/W with ballast vs 122lm/W after removing the ballast).
T8/T10/T12 LED 4FT Light Tube, UL & DLC, Hyperikon®, Dual-End Powered, Works with and without T8 ballast, 18W (40W equivalent), 4000K (Daylight Glow), Frosted Cover - (Pack of 4) - - Amazon.com

Originally Posted by Stripeyiscool

Also, Ill be going out eventually to home depot to look for bulbs, Im just worried if I cant find the exact ones you guys recommended I will be lost! Is there something specific I should look for, watts? k's which i think represent color? Ive never really dealt with lights for growing stuff or lights in general... uhhh yeaah...

If you are interested in the efficiency, check the lumen and actual wattage. lumen/wattage is one of the measurements of efficiency. Modern white T8 LEDs should be at least 100lm/W, and the best one is around 150lm/W. A-type (screw in bulb) and PAR38 LED bulbs are generally less efficient.

If the long-term cost is not a big issue (i.e. you don't need lots of light or electricity is cheap), you can check the total output (lumen). lumen could be misleading since it is a measurement relevant to human eye (sensitive to green light) and not for plant photosynthesis. But lumen is usually only published data for the white light source.

K (kelvin) represents the shade of white. lower K has more red, and higher K has more blue in general. It probably doesn't matter too much; 3000-5000K is reasonable for LEDs.

Wattage by itself doesn't tell you much about the output with LEDs since there is a huge variation in efficacy (lumen/W).

Originally Posted by Stripeyiscool

Btw, my terrarium will be in a place with daylight, in fact, there are some orchids growing in the place I will put the terrarium. (could too much extra light burn them? I am planning on making ledges and shady spots to plant low light plants.)

You should make sure that it doesn't overheat if it receive a little bit of direct sun. It sounds like that your case is pretty large, so this might not be an issue.

Originally Posted by estación seca

If you search the Orchid Board for posts by naoki you will find a link to a blog article on modifying standard 4' fluorescent lights to accept LED lamps.

Unfortunately, the common types of T8-LED from the box stores (e.g. Philips Instant Fit) is the kind which doesn't require any modification. I personally prefer the type which doesn't require fluorescent ballast (simple modification is required for this type) for the higher efficiency and less things to break down.

Originally Posted by Nexogen

I made my LED light, does not look wonderful though is quite good.
Has 24" and consumes 160W, spectrum (380-720)nm. After this experience I think the better version is Custom LED Strip - BML Custom

Looks good, Nexogen! I'm not sure which LEDs and drivers you used, but with DIY, you can easily assemble a highly efficient unit with lower price than the pre-made product as you probably know.

[Optimist]

Plants grow better using between yellow and far red on the PAR spectrum, not "blue," FYI.