Rob-Rah Posted December 20, 2003 Report Share Posted December 20, 2003 I have a small tank for some CPs. Just over 1 (tall) x 1 (deep) x 2 (wide) feet. It was formerly a fishtank, with a 16" light fitting in the lid, which I would like to continue to use as it looks nice. It currently has a 15W "aqua-glo" tube in it (on a timer switch), which I presume is not bright enough. Now that winter is here, I need more light as I don't want to stand it in a windowsill any more. I am growing a few small lowland neps in it (belii, campanulata, adnata, ampullaria), a genlisea hispidula and a bulbuphyllum orchid - yes it's pretty full! None of these need very high light do they? I am completely new to this: what kind of wattage/tube should I go and purchase? Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vic brown Posted December 20, 2003 Report Share Posted December 20, 2003 I know nothing about the light requirements of orchids, but the Genlisea hispidula will probably require more light than the Neps. I grow all my Genlisea with several hours of full sun (when it appears) each day and when I have grown them in a terrarium they grew and flowered well with high light levels, under which sundews in the same tank grow well. You will probably find that you can't increase the wattage of a single tube very much within the size limits of your tank and will probably find that adding a second tube fixture or maybe some compact fluorescents (energy saving bulbs) will increase the light to the required level. The compacts have the advantage of having internal ballasts, so are cheaper to set up and they can throw out a lot of light too. Vic Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob-Rah Posted December 20, 2003 Author Report Share Posted December 20, 2003 Ok - my genlisea will go back to the same place as my other ones with "natural" light in the greenhouse highland nep chamber. I still want to know what sort of actual wattage I should look for for the lowland neps 6-10" from the tubes. Cheers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
travman Posted December 21, 2003 Report Share Posted December 21, 2003 I have about 40w of flo' tubes per running foot of tank. Plants are about 24 inch from them and growing fine. Not much help I now but best i can offer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Ahrens Posted December 24, 2003 Report Share Posted December 24, 2003 Tubes of a certain length can only be a certain wattage. The wattage is based on the length. This was vaguely mentioned above. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Ahrens Posted December 25, 2003 Report Share Posted December 25, 2003 If this helps, I use two 3 ft Tritons, above my Neps. The photoperiod is 13 hrs per day. From my experience, this is penty of lights for Neps. The reason that I use Triton-type tubes is because they don´t fade, they keep going. They conk out all of a sudden, but they do last a long time. I think you will find that any fluorescent tubes will work to a point though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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