FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Godly wrote:Hey guys Ive been looking/searching/researching quite a bit about LED's and have yet still come to a conclusion about them.

With LED growlights the wattage will indicate the relative power in comparison with other LED lights, regardless of what marketing text you read. I've used LED Grow-Master, Sunshine Systems GlowPanel 45, Sunblaster T5 4-foot fluorescents (from webhydro.com), and HydroGrowLED arrays.

My favorite so far are the HydroGrowLED growlights. The T5 fluorescent growlights are also good, but produce quite a lot of heat, much more than the LED lights. However, some LED light arrays require a higher distance from the plants to gain coverage area or not to overpower the plants with too much light.

One LED unit I plan to try is the new fanless (quiet) LED growlight from HydroGrowLED, the ECO or ECO+ models, here--

http://www.hydrogrowled.com/126X-ECO-LE ... -P106.aspx

I plan to use 3 of them for a 2-foot by 4-foot rack shelf. Pretty expensive, however, especially in comparison with fluorescent lights.

Interesting I highly wanted to try one of their LED since they seem to be pretty well...awesome! I just wanted some more information on other types of LED's that other people have used but seems like the majority of people are using the same ones described on this forum. Not saying its bad but just wanted more variety hehe and its looking like more and more Im going to be investing in this blackstar model and I will write up a review on my VFT's compared to sunblazer t5 system I have currently. Just going to be awhile before that happens.

Also can anyone tell me what type spectrum of light carnivorous plant absorb mainly? Like what chlorophyll a or b mainly or both? Or what would promote the most growth in the plants to make them strong and look marvelous like red spectrum light? or or is just a combination of both to make the healthiest looking plant?

I just purchased a Glow Panel, and the thing that stands out the most to me is how dim the lights appear to be compared to my flourescents. I have the panel about 9 or 10 inches from the plants, and they just don't exactly appear to be basking in the glow of $125 worth of light. I can't imagine that they would still be effective at 20 inches, or cover the 5 square feet they claim to cover. Should I be concerned about the dimness? Maybe mine is defective? Or is it the norm for these to be noticeably dimmer, but have more "usable" light? In short, someone please convince me that I didn't just get hosed.

sbrooks wrote:I just purchased a Glow Panel, and the thing that stands out the most to me is how dim the lights appear to be compared to my flourescents. I have the panel about 9 or 10 inches from the plants, and they just don't exactly appear to be basking in the glow of $125 worth of light. I can't imagine that they would still be effective at 20 inches, or cover the 5 square feet they claim to cover. Should I be concerned about the dimness? Maybe mine is defective? Or is it the norm for these to be noticeably dimmer, but have more "usable" light? In short, someone please convince me that I didn't just get hosed.

5 square feet is only approximately 2.25' x 2.25' , slightly smaller but only just.

Now, I can't say for sure.... but the dimness may just be your perception of the light. LED typically is much more focused (less diffusion), as a result you may perceive the light as dimmer. Also, due to the focused nature of LED lighting... They perform better than other lighting over larger distances. I've read in cases ~80% better.

Godly wrote:Also can anyone tell me what type spectrum of light carnivorous plant absorb mainly? Like what chlorophyll a or b mainly or both? Or what would promote the most growth in the plants to make them strong and look marvelous like red spectrum light? or or is just a combination of both to make the healthiest looking plant?

Well, based on your wavelength images:

Off the cuff, if I'm remembering my wavelengths correctly, I'd say the UV one would be used to promote flower/fruiting in plants. The HO would be used to promote vegetative growth. Now, I could have that backwards. That being said, I typically use a combination of both.

Hi all,

New member here, and had a few questions.

The first is has anyone used only white LED's something 6500k or higher, or has everyone stuck to using the multi colored ones.

The second is: is the lighting like coral fish tanks, and a higher k bulb is better? 10000k > 6500k

and the last: does anyone know how many lumens is required for VFTs. I know since LED's are a more direct light source, their lumens are usually lower than cfls which disperse the light 360 degrees.

thanks

Greg

Curious as to these...i know the brand name is not there. but as far as LED lights go the lumens is decent, each is 10w so may have to put them closer than you guys did with the grow lights. but for the price maybe ill pick them up and try it, and tell you the results, (that is if my wife lets me set it up)

http://www.amazon.com/Onite-LandScape-S ... =LED+6500k

http://www.amazon.com/MaBright-85-264V- ... =LED+6500k

Also, any ideas what i should use to increase the temp inside the terrarium, so i can keep it around 80 during the summer, then remove it and let it cool to 60 or so during the winter?

Needless to say I have not gotten much work done today lol

your temps need to go below 60 in the winter(try putting it in the garage for winter), but for heating a simple incandescent bulb will heat up a terrarium no problem (my room measures around 79 while the rest of the house is at 67)

Those led lights will not help with plant growth, I recommend getting fluorescent lights.

I thought as long as the bulb was 6500k its still the same light spectrum as the 6500k flourescent bulb...

The light itself has to provide the full spectrum (not just the 6500k). I have a fish tank (bought it to hold extra guppy fry) with white led lights 6500k and all the live plants I put in slowly died, only one plant survived from extra light from a near by tank. If you want to look into inexpensive led lighting look into these http://www.amazon.com/LEDwholesalers-25 ... row+lights

Darn, I wanted to stay away from the red and blue cause of how the plants look under it, a more expensive led white light option would be the ones rated for growing coral I guess?

I promise you that 14 watts of LED arent even remotely strong enough. You will need the leds touching the plant. Just stay cheap, go to walmart and buy shop lights

The original post by Steve and goldslinger were using 3 - 28 watt set ups for 84 watts over a 4 ft span. For just 1 plant to start I thought 10 watts would be enough, I guess instead of talking about watts tho, it should be lumens since watts will vary depending how crappy the bulb is lol. I guess my hunt will continue tomorrow for a decent screw in led bulb

Happy Hunting! And remember, you get what you pay for if its cheap.