self watering terrarium

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dundadundun

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Jan 21, 2009
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keep in mind, those bulbs he used looked like t5 or t6 bulbs. they're becoming an old standard for cfl. nowadays t2, t3 and t4 are more the standard, further reducing re-strike issues not only in the center of the bulb between windings but in the reflector as well since less bulb is in the way.

plus... you're sitting at 3-4" of substrate PLUS 3-6" of pot PLUS the growth height of your plants. his examples were from 10" to 18" where your closest leafs can't be but a hair over 6" from 2 bulbs.

plus... it seems you're using ~27 watt bulbs, where he used 23 and 14 watts respectively.

i found that using the numbers in that post with the inverse square rule and multiplying that by approximately 1.5 gave me pretty close to his actual figures. that would put... at about 6"... with the same bulbs and reflectors... you at about ~560 umols... per bulb possibly...



that's very bright! :evil_lol: and i think you're likely using higher wattage bulbs that are probably reflected more efficiently. but you're right about the heat probably... and all that light will only exacerbate that issue.

hope this helped a little.
any time, jb.
 

jbradt

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May 9, 2008
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Holy crap, that definitely helps. I may have to be more concerned with burning the tips of the leaves than I thought. I think keeping the heat down should do the trick, but I guess we'll see.
 

jbradt

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raising the lights so there is air flow between the light and the glass will help a lot, as will a small fan up there.
I had wondered if the fan up top would help. That's good to know. Thanks, Mellow!
 

jbradt

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Ask and ye shall receive. Taken today:



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jbradt

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I should probably mention that I took out the second fan shortly after the pics were taken. It brought the humidity down too low. Since adding more leca pellets to the bottom, the humidity stays steady while the terrarium is flooded. It really seems like they're happy as can be in there.
 

jbradt

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Night time temp gets down to the mid fifties. Humidity stays around 95%. Daytime, the temp gets to 71-73.
 
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