What's new
TerraForums Venus Flytrap, Nepenthes, Drosera and more talk

Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

Can you give CPs too much artificial light?

I was told a while back that you can never give CPs too much artificial light. Is this true? The reason I ask this is because recently I added another few light fixtures to my collection, so now over each of my 20 gallon tanks I have four 40 watt bulbs, bringing the grand total wattage to 160 watts per tank. I grow Nepenthes, sundews, butterworts, and sun pitchers in them and they seem to be changing colors as a result of the extra light. I know this is usually a good thing but I just want to make sure I'm not pummeling them all with too much light!
 
The changing of colors is their "suntan". This is normal when you take a plant from lower light levels and give it much more light. It will not harm the plants at all, and will actually make them hardier.
dewy
 
Thanks for the reply Dewy. It's good to know they're going to be hardier because of the extra light
smile.gif
 
Dewy is right. I remember talking to Judith Finn one day at the Berkely Botanical Garden at UC Berkely. I had questions regarding the red flushes on her heliamphora and neps. She explained it rather like Dewy did. She ended that bit of knowledge with, "It protects the plant from sunburning." Good show Dewy! You too, you MAD GECKO!!!!!!
 
I'm not sure if this is how you do it, but from what I understand about lighting you do this*:

Find the overall amount of lumens provided by all of the bulbs.
For 4x 40 watt 4' tubes I would guess its somewhere around 10,000 Lumens.

Find the surface area of what your lighting. You said 2x 20 gallon tanks so assuming they are the long, not high, standard size of 30 1/4" x 12 1/2" you get a surface area of 1512.5 in.^2.

Divide your lumens by the surface area. This gets you 5.95 Lumens/in.^2.

Convert your inches^2 to meters^2. Now you have 9,222.5 Lumens/m^2. This is the same as 9,222.5 lux.

Here's a chart of corresponding daylight values:
Bright sun 50K - 100K
Hazy day 25K - 50K
Cloudy bright 10K - 25K
Cloudy dull 2K - 10K
Very dull 100 - 2K
Sunset 1 - 100
Full moon 0.01 - 0.1
Starlight 0.001 - 0.001

I'd say your plants are experiencing a bright day with some clouds
smile.gif


*Doesn't include light intensity loss
 
Thanks again for all the replies guys
smile.gif


I really like that breakdown you have there Eric. Bright day with some clouds sounds great to me
biggrin.gif
 
Oh, YEAH!!!!! Heliamphora loves bright cloudy days. And some VFT's respond to bright cloudy days by sometimes turning bright red in this kind of light.
 
What the heck, every tiem I do this calculation I end up with something huge like 26,000 lumens per square meter. I'm pretty sure its right. No wonder my new plants get rust spots...
 
explain that of lumens to me please, i use 2X20wats yellow light fluorecent bulbs, 1X9wats 6,500°K florecent bulb, 1X9 2,700°K fluorecent bulb pl type, i hav more bulbs, but if i light them the terrarium got al least 90°F, now the terrarium w that light and the fog maker each 4 hours (aproximate), is 80°F, i dont want burbn my plants!, i tink dewy tell me if it reach 90°F X.X ,i want give my plants the best but im scared to burnt them, i have a 26wats i tink 1,750lm 2,700°K bulb, but i dont use it right now, well good day.
 
  • #10
[b said:
Quote[/b] (Cha @ April 04 2006,1:32)]explain that of lumens to me please, i use 2X20wats yellow light fluorecent bulbs, 1X9wats 6,500°K florecent bulb, 1X9 2,700°K fluorecent bulb pl type, i hav more bulbs, but if i light them the terrarium got al least 90°F, now the terrarium w that light and the fog maker each 4 hours (aproximate), is 80°F, i dont want burbn my plants!, i tink dewy tell me if it reach 90°F  X.X  ,i want give my plants the best but im scared to burnt them, i have a 26wats i tink 1,750lm 2,700°K bulb, but i dont use it right now, well good day.
Just make sure that the temperature doesn't exceed 90F, and your plants will do fine. If your terrarium is completely enclosed, see if you can move the glass lid, or whatever encloses your terrarium, so that there is a small opening. This should prevent your terrarium from overheating.
dewy
 
Back
Top