Hello! I come from a background of high-tech aquascaping - where no problem exists that a fancy piece of expensive equipment cannot fix. In aquscaping, use injected CO2 and super high light LEDs to basically stress our plants to achieve bright, vibrant colors and keep the plants low and thickly packed and make them more willing to uptake nutrients through the water column. I can talk to you about LED spectrums, PAR and the important of red vs pink LEDs all day.
I am looking for a new challenge and am converting a 50 gallon bowfront (36L 16D 20H) into an orchidarium and have been basically rocked by how different things are! So much so that I am now afraid I have thrown away knowledge that may be useful to me. So let me ask y'all what your thoughts are about this:
I am very comfortable how to achieve the right light level/LED spectrums for low, med and high light aquatic plants...is there any reason my knowledge doesn't translate to orchids?
The reason I ask is I was told that basically my weakest LED light bar (A Current USA Satellite Plus) would be enough for my orchids, some of which want med-high light. At 18-19" depth, that light bar would be ok for low light aquatic plants only...is it somehow different for orchids? Is there a reason high light in aquatic plants would be too high for terrestrial plants? I think I may be over thinking this a treating the orchids too preciously.
For example: if this was an aquascape, at a 18" depth on this tank once there was substrate in there, if I wasn't injectign CO2 I would probably put 1 Fluval 3.0 on there to start with.
Fluval 3.0 -36"
LEDs 252
Watts 46W
Lumens 3300lm
Color temp 6500k
This would be a safe, low-impact choice. That would give me essentially a medium-high light level. Most things would grow happily, but it wouldn't be enough to achieve really strong reds and things at the bottom wouldn't really be getting anything special.
How does this work in y'alls mind, orchid people? Is this somehow stronger if I take the water out? Do I need to re-orient my brain?
Aquascaper turned Orchid Keeper is overthinking LEDs?
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