FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

i have a 80x32x40 terrarium with 2x T8 18W Fluorecent lights, the distance between the lights and the carnivorous plant mix is around 25-30cm. i also used a light measurement app which told me that i have between the 400-600 lux (depending on the angle of the light) and a light colour between 5-6k.

i asked around at my local garden center and they told me that this is fine for the plants, and the first two days in my terrarium they did perfectly fine, but since yesterday some of the Drosera capenis suddenly lost their mucus on a few leaves.

so i was wondering since you guys might know a lot more about lighting than my local garden center, would this lighting in my terrarium by good enough for them or do i need to find some other/better fluorecent lights?

How long have the plants been in the terrarium? Where were they before you put them in the terrarium?

Capensis is a very hardy plant, and will grow just fine in an open air environment. They don't need a high humidity environment to be happy. From my experience they actually fair much better outside of a terrarium. I grow mine outside in Northeast Ohio, and here in a couple weeks they will be going on a grow rack once my night temps start dropping into the 40°F range.

My suggestion would be put them on a shelf. Hang the light right above them, almost touching the tops of the plant. A T8 light will not put out enough heat to burn your plants.

Happy growing!


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this is the 4th day, the first two they were perfectly fine, but yesterday they stopped the mucus production on some of the leaves. they used to be in a windown still but i had to relocate them because they grew too big, and as only that window stilll has direct sunlight i had to put them in the terrarium to provide them with artificial lighting.

so its not that i keep them in there for the humidity, its just that this seemed to be the best and easiest way to keep them (as the 2x T8 18W fluorecent lights were already build in). and as they are already build in i cant lower them to get them closer to the lights (also there are some others plants in there which are a little higher as drosera so even if it were possible to lower them the lights would squish my other plants .

but then i suppose that i would need to find some stronger fluorecent lights which would fit in the cover. (if thats even possible :p)

If you just put them in there, they are probably just acclimating to the change in environment. A pic would help to confirm this.

I was recommending an open rack, as opposed to a closed terrarium. Like the pic I attached. I just recently set this back up for germination, and over wintering my sundews that I grow outside.

The only things I grow in a terrarium are my Heli's, because they like humidity.

Open rack. Ignore the bags, those are germination attempts and acclimating plants.


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i hope that your right about the acclimating part, i miss those beautifull little glistering orbs.

as for the open rack, i live in the netherlands and winters here can get up to -20 degrees which is -4'F if im right. ofcourse it doesnt get that cold inside the house but i have seen it -5 once before in my bedroom (where the plants are) and a closed terrarium should be able to provide some more heat to protect against that.

and im not home at the moment so i'll try to make and send some pictures as soon as i get home

as a side questiom, i have been searching the internet for fluorecent lights with a higher lumen/lux as the ones i have now. but no matter what i cant seem to find them.

fluorecent lights 600mm seem to be maxed at 1300 lumen, while led tubes 600mm are around 1000 lumen. the only difference is that led lights are more energy friendly.

is it even possible to have a ''lets say'' fluorecent light with like 3000 lumen?

here are the pictures


that stone wall like thing is one of my left over aquarium decorations, that is the place i water so that i can soak into the soil instead of pouring it on top


as you can see, the lights are build in so all i can do is switch them with other fluorecent lights of the same length


here you can see that the mucus is all dried up


i also noticed that one of the new and growing pitchers started to shrink instead of expand (as if the air is getting sucked out from the inside), while the fully grown pitches still seem to be healthy and still produce their insect attracting liquid

The setup looks very beautiful, but unfortunately you have some plants in there that need dormancy, so a terrarium setting will not be very good for them. Those lights also dont look quite sufficient enought for most of those plants. I would just buy some commercial fluorescent lighting, T8s at least. Don't buy lighting from garden centers, the fluorescent lights they sell there are just like the fluorescent lights you can get at a hardware store, only more expensive.

im aware of the dormancy period of some plants, such as the dionaea muscipula. to solve this problem i was planning on lowering the temperature to 10°C (50℉) which would be low enough for the temperate plants to enter dormancy but for plants such as drosera capensis and nepenthes to not be harmfull (they will just grow a lot slower for that period).

as for the lighting, as you can see that its build in de case, so i can only change them with lights of the same length which seems to be impossible to find. to be honest is seems to be impossible to find any decent lighting at all. the longer the fluorecent tube the higher the light intensity, but this also means that they have to light up a way larger area then a smaller tube with lower light intensity would need. so they all seems to have almost the same lumen per square feet.

at the moment i have two of these
http://www.de-waterlelie.nl/webshop/aqu ... etail.html

and the only possible upgrade that i could find was this one
http://www.de-waterlelie.nl/webshop/aqu ... etail.html

it goes up by 10w and as i can place 2 lights in the case i would get an upgrade of +20w, would these lights be enough or still not?

https://www.systeemplafond.nu/led-tl-bu ... oCIJbw_wcB

Also found this one, but the more im searching the more im getting confused.

I have read that full sunlight gives off 25.000 lux so this would be needed for plants to grow perfectly. So if the hight difference between the light and the leaves is 20cm how much lumen does the light need to be to reach 25.000 lux on the leaves?