FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

So I have this old 10gal aquarium lying around and I thought maybe I could make a little grow chamber for 1 or 2 heliamphoras. Im mostly looking for a good led fixture because of their low heat output but every led fixture I see suitable for plant growth will cost me an arm and a leg XD can you guys recommend some led fixtures on the cheaper side suitable enough for helis in a 10gal aquarium?

Anyone?

cpman wrote:So I have this old 10gal aquarium lying around and I thought maybe I could make a little grow chamber for 1 or 2 heliamphoras. Im mostly looking for a good led fixture because of their low heat output but every led fixture I see suitable for plant growth will cost me an arm and a leg XD can you guys recommend some led fixtures on the cheaper side suitable enough for helis in a 10gal aquarium?

MarsHydro 300 or equivalent will light up a 2ft x 2ft area if hung at a height of 24 inches. That's enough for 2 ten gallon tanks. Brand new the lights go for $70 or so. I think Hollyhock got one much cheaper on eBay. What's your definition of "An arm and a leg"?

If you want cheapcheap, buy a 2 lamp bathroom fixture, fabricate a 20 x 12 white reflector, and get two 100w equivalent LED Daylight lamps. This can be cobbled together for $20 - $30.

Good growing,
Mike

Thanks for the suggestions! I was already looking at the marshydro 300 but I just feel that its a little excesive for a 10gal XD My budget isnt very big id say that around $90 is my max as I dont really want to spend that much for lighting a few plants. I found these on amazon and although they are designed for fish tanks I think they would work pretty good, what do you think? I could find these for around $70ish too https://www.amazon.com/Finnex-Planted-A ... 4569438662 Also found these which I prefer just because of the price
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B01MPY7Y ... ref=plSrch

Here is a List of Aquarium LED Lights you could go with, just follow the links below -

http://fishsubsidy.org/finnex-planted-plus-24-7/

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07RGM3S9H/ref=emc_b_5_i

https://www.petco.com/shop/en/petcostor ... trip-light

https://www.petsmart.com/fish/heating-a ... gid=300122

https://www.aquacave.com/kessil-a360x-tuna-sun.html

I don't grow helis so take my advice with caution.

I've been looking into lights recently and found this reading to be extremely helpful: https://curiousplant.com/light-carnivor ... ts-part-2/

Looks like a heli needs a minimum DLI of 14-16, which translates to a PPFD of about 280 (assuming a light is on for 16 hours a day). Assuming your plants don't occupy too much space, here are two ideas:

1) Small LED panels that are placed really close to the plant. For instance, one of the reviews for this Shengsite light states it has a PPFD of 410 at 4 inches, 283 at 8 inches, and 201 at 12 inches. But keep in mind that these measurements were most likely taken at the center of the light, so you'd have lower values closer to the edges of the panel... so you'd want to place the light 6 or so inches above the plant for it to be bright enough, and the area that gets enough light would be small.

Warning: there are a lot of crappy lights in this category that are inefficient and not bright at all. Ideally you shouldn't consider lights that don't have any PAR/PPFD related specs.

2) A "300W" LED light such as mars hydro, meizhi, viparspectra, etc. I have a mars hydro 300 and a meizhi 300 and like them both. If you look at the amazon page for viparspectra, one of the images shows you what the PPFD would be across a grow area at a height of 18", and it seems that you'd have less than a 1x1 ft area that's bright enough for a heli. This isn't a problem as you'd just have to bring the light closer (12" may be good) and you'd likely have a 1.5x1.5 or 2x2ft area that's bright enough.

By the way, the light that you linked is comparable to these 300W lights even though it says 600W. This light actually consumes 150w while the viparspectra light above actually consumes 130W, so they're in the same category... one listing is just exaggerating a lot more than the other one.