Threads pop up from time to time about providing lights that help with maitaining healthy growing plants in chameleon enclosures. These are my thoughts on the subject.
Sunlight is the least expensive way to illuminate plants, so some people double-up on plants and rotate their plants between the cage and a sunny window or outdoors (one comes out of the cage and to the window, and the other leaves the window to go into the cage). Sunlight has a colour temperature of about 6000°K
But lots of us dont want to have twice the number of plants and the bother of moving them, not to mention the stress that may cause the chameleon.
So "grow bulbs" can be helpful. Generally, cooler lights are better for green growth as they mimic the spring lights and warm lights are better to encourage blossoming like fall light.
The standard tungsten incandescent bulbs many of us use for heat are a yellowish light, more towards red than blue. Hallogens too. Our UVB tubes are often more towards blue, but not very bright (low lumens /low watt/ low intesity). Providing a 6500k (towards blue) fluorescent tube or CFL along with your UVB tube and heat lamp will provide the right colour light to help green growth. Flowering and fruiting plants want a more red colour temp.
These websites are ones I found simple yet useful to refer to:
http://www.succulent-plant.com/light.html
http://homeharvest.com/whichgrowlightisrightforme.htm
http://retirees.uwaterloo.ca/~jerry/orchids/light.html
http://www.thekrib.com/Lights/intensity.html
About lighting for chameleons (not plants):
http://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/sandrachameleon/68-lighting-links.html
http://www.chameleonforums.com/definitive-lighting-thread-everything-you-really-need-know-80869/
http://www.chameleonnews.com/04AugBeveridge.html
http://www.chameleonnews.com/10JulWeldon.html
http://www.testudo.cc/Pages/Table 4.html
http://www.chameleonforums.com/definitive-lighting-thread-everything-you-really-need-know-80869/
Typical Colour Temperatures
1000°K: candle, oil lamp
2000°K: sunrise & sunset, high pressure sodium lamps
2700°K: "warm white" fluorescent lamps
2850°K: ordinary tungsten household bulb
3000°K: studio lamps, photofloods
3500°K: quartz halogen lamps
4000°K: clear flashbulbs, blue photofloods
4100°K: "cool white" fluorescent lamps
5000°K: blue flashbulbs, electronic flash, average daylight
6000°K: bright midday sun, Metal Halide (HID) lamps
7000°K: lightly overcast sky
8000°K: hazy sky
10,000°K: heavily overcast sky
11,000°K: blue sky, no sun
20,000°K: shadows in mountains on a clear day
Sunlight is the least expensive way to illuminate plants, so some people double-up on plants and rotate their plants between the cage and a sunny window or outdoors (one comes out of the cage and to the window, and the other leaves the window to go into the cage). Sunlight has a colour temperature of about 6000°K
But lots of us dont want to have twice the number of plants and the bother of moving them, not to mention the stress that may cause the chameleon.
So "grow bulbs" can be helpful. Generally, cooler lights are better for green growth as they mimic the spring lights and warm lights are better to encourage blossoming like fall light.
The standard tungsten incandescent bulbs many of us use for heat are a yellowish light, more towards red than blue. Hallogens too. Our UVB tubes are often more towards blue, but not very bright (low lumens /low watt/ low intesity). Providing a 6500k (towards blue) fluorescent tube or CFL along with your UVB tube and heat lamp will provide the right colour light to help green growth. Flowering and fruiting plants want a more red colour temp.
These websites are ones I found simple yet useful to refer to:
http://www.succulent-plant.com/light.html
http://homeharvest.com/whichgrowlightisrightforme.htm
http://retirees.uwaterloo.ca/~jerry/orchids/light.html
http://www.thekrib.com/Lights/intensity.html
About lighting for chameleons (not plants):
http://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/sandrachameleon/68-lighting-links.html
http://www.chameleonforums.com/definitive-lighting-thread-everything-you-really-need-know-80869/
http://www.chameleonnews.com/04AugBeveridge.html
http://www.chameleonnews.com/10JulWeldon.html
http://www.testudo.cc/Pages/Table 4.html
http://www.chameleonforums.com/definitive-lighting-thread-everything-you-really-need-know-80869/
Typical Colour Temperatures
1000°K: candle, oil lamp
2000°K: sunrise & sunset, high pressure sodium lamps
2700°K: "warm white" fluorescent lamps
2850°K: ordinary tungsten household bulb
3000°K: studio lamps, photofloods
3500°K: quartz halogen lamps
4000°K: clear flashbulbs, blue photofloods
4100°K: "cool white" fluorescent lamps
5000°K: blue flashbulbs, electronic flash, average daylight
6000°K: bright midday sun, Metal Halide (HID) lamps
7000°K: lightly overcast sky
8000°K: hazy sky
10,000°K: heavily overcast sky
11,000°K: blue sky, no sun
20,000°K: shadows in mountains on a clear day
