Plants and UVB only light

[Nathanb]

Hi,

I'm in the process of setting some bioactive tanks up in the garage to grow baby/juvenile gecko offspring on. All tanks will have 10% UVB bulbs on them - is that all that plants need to keep them healthy or do I need to think about putting something like a UVA on there as well?
Thanks

Nathan

 

[acpart]

Are you sure the bulbs you're choosing are putting out only UVB? What kind of geckos are you going to be raising?

Aliza

 

[Nathanb]

Yeah - the bulbs will all kick out more than just UVB, but I've never tried bioactives in a room with no natural light filtering through at all; I'm just wondering if anyone else has tried it and if so was it a success or not?
Thanks
Nathan

 

[acpart]

I don't think the natural light in a room is doing much for the plants, so I'm going to guess you'll be fine with the artificial light. You could always ask at a garden center to be sure.

Aliza

 

[Nathanb]

Thanks Aliza. From the reading I've done a straight UVB strip and basking spot won't be enough (which is what I expected to be fair - my other main hooby is orchid keeping and I know the spectrum that artificial grow lights kick out for them). I've bought a couple of Arcadia Jungle dawn's - they should be enough to keep the plants alive and doing well.
Only down side is with the number of tanks I'm planning for babies/juveniles it could get expensive quite quickly!

 

[acpart]

What kind of geckos will you be working with?

Aliza

 

[JessJohnson87]

The jungle dawns will do very well with plant growth. You can always check a home improvement store for daylight bulbs ranging from 5000-6500K and if they have a PAR rating, check that with what plants need to grow. Compact fluorescent and fluorescent tubes will be your cheaper option since LED are still fairly new to the market (with home and plant needs.

NEHERP - Vivarium Lighting 101 - Everything you need to know, to grow plants in a live vivarium Here is an article on lighting. While UVB can be beneficial for certain species of gecko and required for others, plants do not really need the UV to grow, just the color spectrum from the lights.

 

[Nathanb]

Thanks Jess, I contacted a guy called John Courtney-Smith here in the UK, he works for Arcadia and he said the same thing about the Jungle Dawns. The couple of JD's that I've put on already have had a pretty positive effect (the only downside is the cost of them). I grow a lot of orchids as well and I've grown them under drow lights before - it's not quite as good as natural sunlight, but it's not far off!
His new book comes out shortly over here in the UK about Bioactive setups, I already have a copy on order


Aliza - apologies, I missed your question the other day asking about what species I'm working with at the min, list is below (plus the S torrei that we've discussed in the other post - they should arrive tomorrow :-D )
-P klemmeri 3.7.1
-P laticauda 1.1
-P lineata 3.3
-P quadriocellata 2.2
-L williamsi 2.2.1

(and I'm on the lookout for a pair of P cepediana and a pair of P robertmertensi as well (also probably another pair of S torrei as well - the chap that's sold them to me reckons he could have sold them 10 times over and I want the ability to put together unrelated pairs))

 

[JessJohnson87]

If you're on Facebook, there is a group called Reptiles and Amphibians Bioactive Setups, great group of people from all around the world and tons of UK members. I've really learned a lot from that group and the copious amounts of research I've done on bioactive setups.

 

[TheresaB.C]

Just a quick tip, use plants that are nice and sturdy. I used plantes once and my geckos crushed them haha.