I purhased a new 200L aquarium and I turned it to terrarium. Now the light are my only problem. How strong lights should i buy? My friend said that one cold light and one cold light would be fine. 18W/830 and 18W/840. What do you think?

http://www.iso-jussi.fi/index.php?page=sho...t&Itemid=42
http://www.iso-jussi.fi/index.php?page=sho...t&Itemid=42

What plants do you plan on growing in your new set-up? I use a single 250W, 6400K Envirolite over mine (100x60x40cm, 240L)), for mainly Nepenthes and Heliamphora. When I used four 40W (160W total) fluorescent tubes my plants seemed healthy but were far weaker in comparison to what they are now. My opinion is that with only 36W, light-loving plants will suffer.

Im going to grow there N. rafflesiana, old Ventrata with 2 cuttings, and one big H. Hookeriana and 4 potted sidebranches. I think i wont find 250W lamp in Finland.

2x 18W should be fine for those. I grow my lowlanders - including several hookeriana under 2x 18W daylight tubes (15-30cm above plants)
As you can see, after a year they don't look too bad and are growing well.

It's not as dark as it may look here - I was using flash.


As you can see, they have good colour.

Oh good, those have big pitchers by the way. Have you tried cold and warm lamps? Is it a big difference between a normal 2 and C&W lamps?

I've only tried these daylight fluorescent tubes. Someone else will have to say what the differences are.

So mainly lowlanders, so a lower wattage as Phil demonstrates should be fine, but bear in mind that combined with extremely high humidity or a lack of ventilation can result in soft plants. I grow highlanders only (with the exception of a campanulata) and prefer to pummel them with as much as I can afford!
Cold or blue lamps (higher colour temperature measured in Kelvins, i.e. Envirolite 6400K) promote vegetative growth while warm or red lamps (lower colour temperature i.e. Envirolite 2700K) are usually flower-promoting. I would personally recommend using only blue, depending on the colour temperature, especially if you want vigorous growth.
Have you tried looking at what fish/reptile shops sell?

The raffs and hooker will not need much light as mentioned above, however the raff will need good air movement or it will quickly succumb to fungal problems.
The thing that worries me is that by the time the raff starts to produce good pitchers, it will have a leaf span of about 90cm and in addition to that will have tendrils 60cm long. They are huge plants!

Amori- Are you saying that blue is better colour for the lamp than warm/sunny?

Dicon- I've heard that too. Luckily its still a little so i have time to think about larger terrarium or greenhouse.

Snowwy,
The red spectrum simulates the light naturally abundant in the second half of the year in late summer and autumn, in the northern hemisphere, and also as the sun starts to set every afternoon. In many plants this increasing time of red light (= days getting shorter), is a signal to start flowering as different photoreceptors photosynthesise this light. Blue light mimics long, spring and summer days and mornings. So contrary to what you may think so far, blue is the sunny colour
From my experience with sodium lamps and red spectrum bulbs in general, Nepenthes seem to become etiolated somewhat, too. Of course, a mix won't do any harm and I doubt any decrease in vigour would be noticeable, it is merely a preference of mine to use just blue

Okay, thank you so much for advice!

I went today to see lamps. The packages contained only lumens, and I dont know them well. If 10 000K is good, how about lumens? Whitch is more important, lumens or Ks?

Both, really. I'd shoot for 6000-7000K, I'm not sure how much of the light the plants can actually use at 10,000K (PGL: Plant Growth Lumen, PAR: Photosynthetically Active Radiation). My 250watter kicked out about 15,000 lumens when brand new (no leaf burn), and the plants still seem to enjoy it over a year later.

if you use light tubes, then it's muuuuuuuuuuch better to buy t5! t8 is fine but t5 is still way better!