[MA70Snowman]

Okay I'm going to be building my 5th tank, my others is are a 40B vert, 20G Long, 20G Tall, 10G cube. Leucs/leucs/crawling toads/mants respectively. I'm now building a 18/18/24 exo for a trio of Auratus that I got. anyway. I've tried a variety of various lighting options on all of my tanks, from suspended Home depot fixtures, to a custom made canopy for my 40B, and various hoods, all w/ mixed success (I don't think any ONE has been 100% success IMO) anyway I'd like to take suggestions for this tank on

Fixtures/bulbs I"d like to stay on the budget side of things, but quality is considered over price as long as its not a HUGE difference.

also for this tank I'd like to try my hand at some min-orchids. Andy's Orchids is right down the street and I'm thinking of picking some up from him. He's got a "beginners pack" that has like 5 easy/moderate that you can get for a decent discount that I'm thinking of getting so. I'd like some pointers on setting up a tank geared for the frogs and orchids so any suggestions on that.

 

[MA70Snowman]

bump for some ideas please

 

[mike35]

Try AH Supply they have a wide range of diy lighting kits.

 

[MeiKVR6]

A simple and fairly inexpensive solution would be using the standard Exo Terra 18" hood + 2 26W CFL 6500K bulbs... If that's not enough light for the types of plants you are using - you can always double it up with 2 hoods & 4 bulbs... We just built some Leachianus terrariums with Exo 18x18x24 and we use 1 hood on each enclosure with no problems so far.

If you are going to be using a bunch of bromeliads & other plants that need BRIGHT light to stay colored up, you could always use 2 hoods. Doing the math it's cheaper than T5s, and probably just a hair more expensive than T8s, but it looks nicer.

edit: The cheapest solution would be 3-4 5.5" "clamp lamp" housings with 26W 6500K CFLs. I don't think it can get much cheaper than that... It won't be too pretty - but extremely effective.

 

[Vinnner]

Id say go with the double exo hood as well. Works great for a 40b vert. Got one on mine and all the plants are dong great. Lined it with a small amount of reflective tape to get a little more out of it and Im quite happy with the results its had with my broms too!

 

[MA70Snowman]

Try AH Supply they have a wide range of diy lighting kits.

Thanks for the recommendation, always nice to have another resource to check out.

A simple and fairly inexpensive solution would be using the standard Exo Terra 18" hood + 2 26W CFL 6500K bulbs... If that's not enough light for the types of plants you are using - you can always double it up with 2 hoods & 4 bulbs... We just built some Leachianus terrariums with Exo 18x18x24 and we use 1 hood on each enclosure with no problems so far.

If you are going to be using a bunch of bromeliads & other plants that need BRIGHT light to stay colored up, you could always use 2 hoods. Doing the math it's cheaper than T5s, and probably just a hair more expensive than T8s, but it looks nicer.

edit: The cheapest solution would be 3-4 5.5" "clamp lamp" housings with 26W 6500K CFLs. I don't think it can get much cheaper than that... It won't be too pretty - but extremely effective.

The hoods are nice and wouldn't be a bad route to go, it's honestly be easier the making my own housing as I did for my 40B (which proably came out to the same price as the Exo hood, but I did get 4 bulbs. and thanks for the recommendation on the lighting, That's what I'm really keying in on. I'm using 4 CFL's 6500k in my 40 and it lights it up great (Forget the wattage but its = to like 100w regular bulb) gets a little warm up top though pretty much the top 1/5 of my viv doesn't mave much if anything growing due to the heat, but everything below is growing great, thats why I was concerned about duplicating that for my exo being that it's a bit shorter bringing the heat closer.

Id say go with the double exo hood as well. Works great for a 40b vert. Got one on mine and all the plants are dong great. Lined it with a small amount of reflective tape to get a little more out of it and Im quite happy with the results its had with my broms too!

"reflective tape" great Idea.. I just painted my insides WHITE to help reflection..

Thanks for the ideas guys.

 

[mike35]

The refletive tape works very well. I used the foil tape that is used to seal heater duckts. Another cool item offered at home depot, lowes, and any HVAC supply company.