Starting over

[nadja77]

Hi All :)

It has been a long while since my last post on here so hello everyone :) I had to give away my collection when I moved to the UK but have slowly started to accumulate plants again. It took me a while to get used to the different growing conditions here but fingers crossed, I seem to have cracked it. I have always used T5's for lighting and had good success with these in the past but I am wondering what everyone is using these days since I have been out of the loop for so long. LED's were still really expensive then but they seem to have come down in price considerably. I am just not too keen on the red light. I currently have a supplemental strip by the window over my D. regia and was recently asked by a concerned block associate just what am I growing there?  I really do like T5's but they generate a lot of heat. I have a small 6 tube fitting over my 3ft tank and it gets quite hot, even with cooling. I have read that CFL run cooler but not sure how effective those are? I am expanding my growing area and would be interested to know what everyone uses for their setups. Looking forward to get stuck in again! 

[Karsty]

Hi Nadja,

I just use cool white (6000K - 6500K) LEDs of various types, mainly spotlights, 36W to 45W, been using them for a year now and the plants are just fine (~8 I  even recently installed a 100W LED cool white floodlight in my flat.

Edited September 5, 2017 by Karsty

[nadja77]

Hi Karsty,

Thanks for that :) I am still undecided but I think I might just stick with what I know for my large tank but I have two small ones that I want to set up. I will sacrifice a few poor souls for lighting experiments for those and see how the grow.