Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have been reading all of your infinitely knowledgeable posts for some time now, and have become confident that I am addicted...
Now for my question about CF’s
I have built a cabinet to house a tank that is 36x24x36.
What kind of wattage should I be looking for?
I am bound by my dimensions of my cabinet, the lights at ahsupply seem to fit fine...
Just which ones I should use I do not know,

Searching the posts are somewhat lacking in nature...

Thanks thanks in advance!

Is that length by width by height? I'm assuming that means 24" high rather than 36" high, but that's a pretty big assumption.

My personal recommendation for good growth at 2 foot high is 2500 lumens per square foot if you want nice colored bromeliads and the ability to grow and flower some of the more light loving orchids. You can get by with probably 1500 lumens per square foot otherwise. My terrarium is 24" x 24" x 24", and uses three 40 watt compact fluorescents, each putting out 3300 lumens. If your terrarium bottom is going to be 3' from the light, I could do the foot-candle calculation to get a lumen equivalent for that distance as well.

However, it all depends on what types of plants you want to use, and where you are going to position them in the tank. If you can give me some ideas on that, I could let you know about what I would recommend.

Of course, everyone else has different experiences, too, so don't just take my word for it. Hopefully, some others will give you their take on this.
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Homer W. Faucett III, esq.
Purveyor of Trivialities and Fine Nonsense

"I could do the foot-candle calculation to get a lumen equivalent for that distance as well."

How do you do this Homer?
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Matt

Homer thanks for the info,
It is leading me in the right direction of thought.
The dimensions are a bit weird it is 36 inches in height actually more like 33 but for sake of simplicity.

As for plants I am pretty big on orchids, and I would like to try my hand at the broms, moss. Placement I am still unsure of. I am not exactly sure of the intensity the lights will produce at what distance. Your calculation sound like it would help out with this area.
You have got me thinking of allot more than lighting now and that is great!
Any thing you can throw my way,

Thanks,
Luke

Sorry I have been out of contact for a while. The easy calculation that gives you a decent approximation of the footcandles based on the distance from your bulb is this:

I = E/D^2

where I = intensity (in footcandles) at distance D, E = intensity at source (in footcandles), and D = distance from source (in feet).

This isn't exact, because I use the lumen output of my light (the source) as E because one footcandle is defined as one lumen spread over one square foot.

Perhaps my calculation is flawed, and I know it's not exact, but it seems to give me the proper location in my terraria to be able to approximate amount of light required for a particular orchid. check www.andysorchids.com to see approximate footcandles for a given species. Of course, the problem is that orchid growers assume you are using the sun as a light source, giving a more complete spectrum at any given intensity.

That's one of my beefs with some of the 6500K bulbs. If you look at a spectral readout, they don't have the depth or breadth of spectrum produced by some of the 5000K bulbs, and they have odd spikes and troughs. Anyway, that's the calculation I use for light intensity.
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Homer W. Faucett III, esq.
Purveyor of Trivialities and Fine Nonsense

interesting, thanks.
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Matt