Joined
·
4,213 Posts
Hello folks!
I am in the midst of building a large vivarium and I am in need of advice on making a custom light for this critter. The vivarium is 4 feet long, 3 feet tall, and 20 inches wide. The opening for the light is 8 inches wide and about 40 inches long.
I want a light that will hit as high up the back wall as possible while also providing at least 50 ppfd (more preferred) at 36" inches. I am guessing this will be a combination of COBs and PCB LEDs. I learned a lot from the last time I built a light, and one important lesson is that colored lights on a vivarium are a bad idea. I was really excited to have richer then real colors on my last vivarium, and when the top is dry it does look lovely. BUT when I mist (which happens every day) either water gets on the top glass or condensation forms. This wouldn't matter except that these water droplets create a lensing effect from the LEDs. For the white leds this doesn't matter. But for the red and cyan leds it means I get little red or cyan spotlights in the tank which is super weird looking.
Not something I would have thought about but having experienced it, I now know to avoid it. So this light needs high cri but only using white light, no RGB colors.
Thoughts on which components to use?
I am in the midst of building a large vivarium and I am in need of advice on making a custom light for this critter. The vivarium is 4 feet long, 3 feet tall, and 20 inches wide. The opening for the light is 8 inches wide and about 40 inches long.
I want a light that will hit as high up the back wall as possible while also providing at least 50 ppfd (more preferred) at 36" inches. I am guessing this will be a combination of COBs and PCB LEDs. I learned a lot from the last time I built a light, and one important lesson is that colored lights on a vivarium are a bad idea. I was really excited to have richer then real colors on my last vivarium, and when the top is dry it does look lovely. BUT when I mist (which happens every day) either water gets on the top glass or condensation forms. This wouldn't matter except that these water droplets create a lensing effect from the LEDs. For the white leds this doesn't matter. But for the red and cyan leds it means I get little red or cyan spotlights in the tank which is super weird looking.
Not something I would have thought about but having experienced it, I now know to avoid it. So this light needs high cri but only using white light, no RGB colors.
Thoughts on which components to use?