34 replies to this topic

[Sebulon]

kisscool_38, on 9th January 2011 - 12:35 PM, said:

150 euros for this one, quite twice the price of a turboneon kit. But it has a longer life time, and replacing one LED is much cheaper than one turboneon tube.

Wanna reveal where you bought this from, I can't find any good sets that cheap! Or did you build it by yourself?

[moof]

Thanks for the answers! Sounds interesting. I'll have to think about the lights. The terrarium I've got now is OK, the plants are growing happilly and even U.campbelliana has got flowerstalks, but it became too small very quickly;) and the freezer method has some disadvantages (especially the humidity drop when the cooling is on).

Peter

[mobile]

A word of caution, many of the cheap LED growlights have wavelengths not ideally suited to efficient plant growth and are not the wavelengths that NASA used in their experiments - which the manufacturers/sellers often cite. The most efficient red LEDs emit at approximately 630nm, however chlorophyl absorption is at its peak at 660nm. If you are going to use an LED panel than I suggest that you get one that is known to work, as would appear to be the case with Aymeric's panel. You might also want to consider adding a few high power white LEDs, else your plants might grow well but they wont look nice to you. As Aymeric mentioned, the plants look black under red/blue lights. The white LEDs won't be wasted light either, as can been seen in the picture below of a H. pulchella which is grown entirely under 7W white LED.

Edited by mobile, 09 January 2011 - 15:06 PM.

[kisscool_38]

Here is the one I bought:
http://www.culturein...5w-mix-b-r.html

It is said that they can send worldwide.

[Sebulon]

I now bought a semi-cheap fridge from a flea market, with 30€. My plan is to make it Tobias Kulig style, and replace the door and roof with a plexi-glass. The first job is to take the roof off. I'll see what I can do this evening.

Is 12,6 celsius too cold for orchidioides utrics as a night temperature? I don't have a thermostat yet, and that's the warmest it can do.

[mobile]

Sebulon, on 11th February 2011 - 16:28 PM, said:

I now bought a semi-cheap fridge from a flea market, with 30€. My plan is to make it Tobias Kulig style, and replace the door and roof with a plexi-glass. The first job is to take the roof off. I'll see what I can do this evening.

Is 12,6 celsius too cold for orchidioides utrics as a night temperature? I don't have a thermostat yet, and that's the warmest it can do.

Do you have a picture of your 'semi-cheap fridge'?

[Sebulon]

mobile, on 11th February 2011 - 20:37 PM, said:

Do you have a picture of your 'semi-cheap fridge'?

I'll take some pictures as I progress with the thing. I have already taken some stuff loose from this thing before taking the photos:











But I encountered the first problem: the fridge has a freezer box inside it! And the box is the thing that cools the sytem down, so I can't just rip it off. What do you guys think?

My plan was to transform the fridge into a terrarium, but maybe I should keep to my other plan: build a new terrarium and transfer only the cooling elements of the fridge into the terrarium.

[sativ]

Hello

It is possible to remove "coolplate" from fridge, and place it inside the terrarium. This will procide best performance of used energy to recived temperature. BUT, it will also cause big temperature gradient inside.

I think that best option will be solution designed by maklerw

Look at:
http://www.rosliny-o...enia-t9734.html

If You have any questions- write, bu i think that googletraslate and photos will be enough ;)

If You want to place coolplate inside terrarium you possibly have to cut "gas pipes", [if cooling medium is not ecologic- don't even try to do this], place plate inside, weld and add loosed cooling medium. It is quite hard operation, you have to use vaccum pump and some other equpment so "upper solution" should be perfect for You.

Regards

[mobile]

That freezer box is going to cause you problems. You need a fridge with no direct access to the cooling coils if you intend putting plants in it. Would make a good beer fridge though Alternatively, you could use it to cool water to pump to a radiator, à la Martin Hingst thread.

[Sebulon]

mobile, on 12th February 2011 - 12:52 PM, said:

That freezer box is going to cause you problems. You need a fridge with no direct access to the cooling coils if you intend putting plants in it. Would make a good beer fridge though Alternatively, you could use it to cool water to pump to a radiator, à la Martin Hingst thread.

Beer fridge. But really, why is it bad for plants that the coils are there?

I was thinking, maybe I could just install some sort of air pump there, and pump the cold air into the terrarium à la "sort of" Martin Hingst. Not using any liquid, but straight transferring the cold air into the terrarium.

[mobile]

Sebulon, on 12th February 2011 - 13:10 PM, said:

Beer fridge. But really, why is it bad for plants that the coils are there?

Because it will 'burn' any leaves that touch it.

Quote

I was thinking, maybe I could just install some sort of air pump there, and pump the cold air into the terrarium à la "sort of" Martin Hingst. Not using any liquid, but straight transferring the cold air into the terrarium.

This would be significantly less efficient than using a liquid but in theory it'd work. You would have to ensure that any fan does not create any significant heat and you would want to try to use the biggest exhaust you can, such as the large ducting pipes used in air conditioning systems. Keeping the fridge as close as possible to the terrarium, so as to keep the exhaust pipe as short as possible, would also help. Alternatively, moving the freezer box inside the terrarium and using a fan to distribute the cold might work, but this would be quite difficult unless you know a refrigeration engineer who could extend the pipes and re-gas.

[Sebulon]

mobile, on 12th February 2011 - 13:31 PM, said:

Because it will 'burn' any leaves that touch it.
This would be significantly less efficient than using a liquid but in theory it'd work. You would have to ensure that any fan does not create any significant heat and you would want to try to use the biggest exhaust you can, such as the large ducting pipes used in air conditioning systems. Keeping the fridge as close as possible to the terrarium, so as to keep the exhaust pipe as short as possible, would also help. Alternatively, moving the freezer box inside the terrarium and using a fan to distribute the cold might work, but this would be quite difficult unless you know a refrigeration engineer who could extend the pipes and re-gas.

So the leaves would kinda get frostbitten?

I was thinking about moving the freezer box inside a terrarium, but your right, that's a damn hard work. It would be easier to transfer the heat with liquid or air. The liquid cooling system is pretty expensive, but maybe I should invest to that.

[Sebulon]

Phew, two days of hard work tearing the fridge apart, and finally I got the compressor and wirings separated!




I already tested the thing by screwing the wires together, it worked! The next step is to solder the wires "perma-together" and safety tape them. Then I put the cooling plate in an empty terrarium and do a test run.

Highlands ahoy!

[pmatil]

Sebulon, nice to see you're making progress. It's been kinda quiet on our Finnish forum on the subject ;) I see you've done as I did, bought a fridge and ripped it apart For those who aren't familiar with my project here's a few links:

Picture 1
Picture 2
Picture 3
Picture 4

So I have a water cooling setup with the fridge parts. I tested it with my main terrarium and the cooling power is nowhere near enough for that. So I'd need a smaller terrarium. We'll se what I come up with or will I just trash the whole project ;)

But, good luck Sebulon and sorry for advertising my project on your thread :)

kisscool_38, on 9th January 2011 - 02:33 AM, said:

Light inside is provided by LED which advantage is that they don't produce any heat.

That's not true obviously. They may produce LESS heat than some types of lights.

[Fernando Rivadavia]

Hello Aymeric, could you please give us an update?

As you know, I have set up a Ping wall at home (http://www.cpukforum...pic=17560&st=60) and am looking to add some lights. So I am researching LED options and found this post with your interesting setup. I am debating using white LEDs versus a blue/red LED panel. I am confused why terrarium LED panels often offer a blue/red mix whereas planted aquarium lighting always seems to be some broad spectrum white light.

I've read tidbits here and there about wavelength being important for flowering, but have not found info about WHICH wavelengths are beneficial for flowering.

My Ping wall receives some natural light, but not enough through the N-facing window. I've had a P.agnata pot sitting by that window for the past few months as a test, and it was looking a bit etiolated when I set up the wall. So I can only assume that all Pings will look equally etiolated soon.

All tips/suggestions are welcome!


Thanks,
Fernando