Growing under lights - Tip of the Day

[wetfeet101b]

Tip of the Day:
If you are growing plants under Power Compact lights (PC) or Flourescent T5 (regular or HO), ask your friends if they know anyone with reef aquariums using the same bulb types and sizes.

When brand new, these bulbs designed for aquariums produce light in the 420-450nm spectrum which is ideal for corals.
However, after 6 months (PC) or 12 months (T5) the bulbs start to degrade and "Red Shift", meaning the light they produce start shifting towards the red spectrum which makes up 90% of plants' photosynthetic diet.

So instead of buying brand new "Plant Grow" lights, you can repurpose old reef light bulbs and you get a good 12 months out of them before they completely degrade and become inefficient for plant growing.

Reefers (folks in the reef aquarium hobby) are going to dump these bulbs into landfills anyway, or use them as garage lights until the bulbs die out. I am sure they are more than happy to give them to you or sell them to your for a quarter of the original price.

[Brutal_Dreamer]

Thanks for the great tip, John. Recycling like this also helps everyone - not just the orchids we love.

cheers,
BD

[panam]

John, I sure love the idea of a "tip of the day" thread. What do you think - start another one generically titled "Orchid Tip of the Day" and put little tidbits like this as we find them?