Lights for Red plants

**idiot** · 26th Feb 2012, 20:47

I'm starting to grow more and more red plants but have limited success. Besides iron I know lighting is also important. I'm currently using Philips 14W T5 light, those kind that can get from any hardware stores and the plants seems to be growing green reddish leaves instead of bright red.
Do I need red or blue lights? Is the Philips light ok? I can see some of my green plants giving out small bubbles so does it mean it is ok for green plants but not red plants?

**idiot** · 26th Feb 2012, 22:50

images from google
Attachment 28897Rotala macrandra

Attachment 28900 variant of Nymphaea maybe rubra?

Attachment 28901 Hygrophila polysperma

Eusteralis stellata though this is more of purple than red

Rotala rotundifoli

**felix_fx2** · 7th Mar 2012, 18:58

Philips 14W T5 ?
T5HE am i correct? not enough lights. If Rotala rotundifoliit will grow skinny and not lush due to reaching up for light...

**idiot** · 11th Mar 2012, 21:10

Thanks for the advice. My old lights were 12k range (comes as a set) and dimming so I changed to the new Philip light.
My NO3 should be very low as GEX soil was from 2 years ago, only been dosing iron.
Some observations after light change:
Rotala rotundifoli shows signs of stunned growth in this new light
Eusteralis stellata seems to be growing more leaves more frequently, but shorter

Recently bought aquazonic red (or pink) and blue lights, hopefully this will give the full light spectrum.
Am I correct that if the leaves seems to be having holes and melting, phosphate and potassium is deficient?

**idiot** · 12th Mar 2012, 21:56

Attachment 29315

Sorry for the lousy pics but Rotala macrandra is redder than when I first bought it now that I have red and blue lights and is "pearling"
Nymphaea is also sending out many leaves from the gravel

**felix_fx2** · 20th Mar 2012, 18:24

Nitrogen deficiency?
Looks like it, the older leaves. Yellowish and looks like have small holes in them.

Lol greenie, not many include their par rating on the package.

**greenie** · 20th Mar 2012, 18:29

Originally Posted by felix_fx2

Nitrogen deficiency?
Looks like it, the older leaves. Yellowish and looks like have small holes in them.

Lol greenie, not many include their par rating on the package.

Yes, many light setup never label PAR rating but this E27 bulb I found does. Still experimenting with it.

Will post in equipment section when I'm done experimenting. Price wise not cheap but does not require a ballast, just screw in type (E27). Purposely keeping high demand plants.

**felix_fx2** · 20th Mar 2012, 20:34

Originally Posted by greenie

Yes, many light setup never label PAR rating but this E27 bulb I found does. Still experimenting with it.

Will post in equipment section when I'm done experimenting. Price wise not cheap but does not require a ballast, just screw in type (E27). Purposely keeping high demand plants.

What brand? There's huge range of E27 bulbs in the market.. if it is not easy to get a specific brand for E27 then abit pointless correct? and mounting might be a problem for some folks :P
I am still looking for a local place to get this holder, doing a tad of testing on my low tech.

**greenie** · 20th Mar 2012, 21:34

Originally Posted by felix_fx2

What brand? There's huge range of E27 bulbs in the market.. if it is not easy to get a specific brand for E27 then abit pointless correct? and mounting might be a problem for some folks :P
I am still looking for a local place to get this holder, doing a tad of testing on my low tech.

I mentioned in my earlier post, brand is OPTILED. See their products here. But I can't recommend the bulb yet since still under testing.

You could get similar bulb setup from a local source - DELIGHTINGS here. They sell 6500k LED E27 bulb, but a bit more ex.

Here is their bulb showing 2 blue led but the 6500k all are whites with PAR38 rating.

For holder, IKEA have many types of E27 lamp holder with articulating arm. Anyway all electrical shops sells the holder, I don't see how difficult it would be to buy and mount. Even NTUC Fairprice sells these holders.

You mean low maintenance or low tech. 2 different setup you know . Low tech no need use LED lights IMHO.

**ralliart12** · 20th Mar 2012, 23:09

Originally Posted by felix_fx2

...Lol greenie, not many include their par rating on the package.

Actually, I find it quite pointless for manufacturers to indicate PAR ratings on their package. They also don't know how high, or low we are going to mount it above the water surface, how deep the tank is, what optics we may be using for the diodes, etc.

The surest bet? Get a PAR meter.

**greenie** · 20th Mar 2012, 23:20

Originally Posted by ralliart12

Actually, I find it quite pointless for manufacturers to indicate PAR ratings on their package. They also don't know how high, or low we are going to mount it above the water surface, how deep the tank is, what optics we may be using for the diodes, etc.

The surest bet? Get a PAR meter.

Sure, PAR meter is a luxury. By logic, if a manufacturer does indicate PAR rating, they are confident of their product. But can also be abuse. I can see this happening in the future when every tom, dick and harry brand will use bogus PAR rating to sell their products here.

At the moment many does not know PAR value is as important as colour temp aka 6500K for plants. Only those that know will indicate PAR value on their product.

**felix_fx2** · 20th Mar 2012, 23:22

You trying the range that is CREE Led based?
Getting a holder was never hard to begin with, hardware shop already sell those without reflector for less then from $0.90-$3.00. All no reflector.

Low tech do not require high light. Not LED

Anyway if we want to chat about this, we can Pm or start thread. Kind of OT

**Shadow** · 20th Mar 2012, 23:36

Originally Posted by ralliart12

Actually, I find it quite pointless for manufacturers to indicate PAR ratings on their package.

I agree the light might not be designed for plant. Normal people don't care about PAR, only those people who are working with plants care about it.

The website mention DE PAR38 6500k, does PAR38 indicated PAR value at certain distance or just a model name?

this is what I got from wiki, which is no correlation with Photosynthetically active radiation at all.

Building and stage lighting

In stage lighting, sealed beam lamps are often used. A common size, also used in rock concerts, as well as outdoor architectural lighting, is the parabolic aluminumized reflector 64 (PAR64). PAR lamps are measured in non-SI units of measurement equal to one eighth of an inch, so a PAR64 light is a light that is 8 inches in diameter. The fixtures that such sealed beam lights go into are called "PAR cans", so a PAR64 fixture is an 8-inch-diameter (200 mm) can.
Other popular sizes are PAR56, PAR38, and PAR36.
Beam spreads are designated as FL (flood), SP (spot), NSP (narrow spot), and VNSP (very narrow spot), as stamped on the back of the lamp's reflector.
A PAR64 sealed beam typically comes in 250 W, 500 W, or 1000 watt.
Sealed beam lamp arrays are also in use by modern lighthouses.[2]

**greenie** · 20th Mar 2012, 23:58

Originally Posted by Shadow

I agree the light might not be designed for plant. Normal people don't care about PAR, only those people who are working with plants care about it.

The website mention DE PAR38 6500k, does PAR38 indicated PAR value at certain distance or just a model name?

this is what I got from wiki, which is no correlation with Photosynthetically active radiation at all.

Not model name but actual PAR38. This is a better read than the one you qoute.

C'mon we OT here.

**Shadow** · 21st Mar 2012, 00:07

What I'm saying, PAR38 is standard naming for stage lighting. 38 here refer to the light diameter of 38" x 1/8 = 4.75 inches

Byt the way we should asked plant talk MOD to split LED discussion to hardware section.