First Terrarium - Lights/lighting suggestions and advice needed

[Amanda L]

I am about to start buying everything I need for my orchid terrarium. I will be buying the misting system and the mounting medium this weekend. As well as the stuff to create the background and seal it. I'm confident with everything, except lighting. Right now I have 3 desk lamps with daylight CFLs. This is fine for the short term and offers enough light for them to not completely die. However, this isn't a good long term solution. It doesn't offer enough light for good growth and flowering, it's not nice looking, and is very inconvenient. I don't want to spend a whole bunch of money, meaning I don't want to spend over $100 on lights. If I can keep the lighting around $50 that would be great. What suggestions do you guys have?


Thanks!

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[WhiteRabbit]

- I edited the thread title to reflect your question; hopefully that may help get you the advice / suggestions you seek

[Subrosa]

Originally Posted by Amanda L

I am about to start buying everything I need for my orchid terrarium. I will be buying the misting system and the mounting medium this weekend. As well as the stuff to create the background and seal it. I'm confident with everything, except lighting. Right now I have 3 desk lamps with daylight CFLs. This is fine for the short term and offers enough light for them to not completely die. However, this isn't a good long term solution. It doesn't offer enough light for good growth and flowering, it's not nice looking, and is very inconvenient. I don't want to spend a whole bunch of money, meaning I don't want to spend over $100 on lights. If I can keep the lighting around $50 that would be great. What suggestions do you guys have?


Thanks!

What are the dimensions of the tank?

	Mistking Looking for a misting system? Look no further. Automated misting systems from MistKing are used by multitude of plant enthusiasts and are perfect for Orchids. Systems feature run dry pumps, ZipDrip valve, adjustable black nozzles, per second control! Automatically mist one growing shelf or a greenhouse full of Orchids. See MistKing testimonials

[Amanda L]

Originally Posted by WhiteRabbit

- I edited the thread title to reflect your question; hopefully that may help get you the advice / suggestions you seek

Thanks! I have a tendency to ramble without ever asking my question. LOL

---------- Post added at 10:40 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:36 AM ----------

The tank measures 45x20x11 (LxHxD). There are catts, phals, and a bulb. medusae that will go in there temporarily.

[u bada]

I've mainly grown under MH (when electricity wasn't so much an issue) but since switched to LED's which are pretty pricey... it's fairly new to plant growing, but I've had success with combo of cool lights and warm ones and fixtures are much cheaper now. The light penetrates lower/deeper than fluors and is more even, and doesn't add much heat. (although heat may be good if you need the temp drop) If you're interested get as much lights on a strip as possible, and if you can't find cool, stick to warm, it's fairly close to warm flourescents. LED lights are particularly cheap at IKEA.

Fluor shoplights seem to work the best though for most low tech growers, i've grown plants fairly close to bulbs (at least 6"). I've even grown well under cfl, multiple fixtures so don't think what you have isn't potentially good long term. maybe add another fixture or two.

Everything should do fine, but maybe the catts, depends on what catts you're growing...?