T5 HO give up

[Nexogen]

Before changing plants had an inclination towards the window after changing plants grow vertically.

[estación seca]

An aquatic plant grower (water lilies, lotus, aquarium plants) in Tucson changed all his lights to the pink and blue LEDs designed for commercial growing. He is extremely happy with the results and says the reduced electricity cost paid for all the fixtures within a year. Tucson has lower electric rates than many parts of the USA and Europe. Aquatic plants require very much higher light intensities than do most orchids.

[snowflake311]

Originally Posted by estación seca

An aquatic plant grower (water lilies, lotus, aquarium plants) in Tucson changed all his lights to the pink and blue LEDs designed for commercial growing. He is extremely happy with the results and says the reduced electricity cost paid for all the fixtures within a year. Tucson has lower electric rates than many parts of the USA and Europe. Aquatic plants require very much higher light intensities than do most orchids.

I grow aquatic plants and have been for years. When LED first came out they were not strong enough or bright enough for true aquarium plant use. I have LED on a tank with NO plants it works well. I have a 80gal Fully planted I would not switch to LED for this tank. I am running CF 65watt X 2. To get an LED set up that can give me that amount of light would not be cheap.

I am old school and I think being able to change bulbs is a good thing. One little light went out on my LED light and I don't know how to replace it. Building your own is the way to go.

[Ray]

As a general comment to folks considering artificial lighting, please understand that light is light. The spectrum and amount of light (volume of photon emitted per unit time) will vary from source to source, but there are many ways to successfully "skin the {artificial lighting} cat".

When I was first growing plants in the early '70s, I needed artificial light, and ended up with roughly 50/50 wattage-wise T12 shop lights (cold white was all that was available) and normal incandescent bulbs. The former put out plenty of blue wavelengths, while the latter were strong at the red end of the spectrum.

Above tables on three walls of a 10' x 14' room, in order to have enough light for the vandaceous plants, I ultimately ended up with 14 shop lights and eight 100 watt incandescent clamp-lamps. About 1500 watts of lighting altogether, and it was great. They were high enough to have tiered shelves, with brighter-light plants up high, lower-light ones below.

One MAJOR drawback (electricity was included in our rent...) was that if you happened to be in or near that room when the timer turned it all on in the morning, you'd be blinded for a little while.