Lighting for bromeliads

[rpritch]

Looking to improve my track record with bromeliads. I have not lost one, but they tend to lose their color and grow very slowly. On top my my vivarium (an 18x18x36 skyscraper) I have a Naturalistic Terrarium Hood by ZooMed. What kinds of bulbs would you recommend to enhance the color in these plants? Any advice is welcome.

Thanks!

 

[Carlton]

What species of bromeliads do you have? Some only develop color (other than their base grey green) when they are in bloom, and they are often when they are most attractive. But, depending on the genus/species they may only bloom once and never again.

 

[rpritch]

To be honest, I am no sure. Got them from Lowes and the only tag said "Bromeliad." I can tell you that it has had some degree of color (red) since it was purchased several months ago. The red has faded, however, to a light pink.

 

[JGuinan007]

A pic could help us to help you let us help you

 

[Twitchet]

Hi There, I am in the U.K but believe these are available to you -I use arcadia jungle dawns- they come in 9, 13 and 22 watt- I have mainly terrestial dart frog vivs, so use 9 and 13, I was advised that with such a tall viv the round 40 watt jungle dawn would be the only one powerful enough to light the floor but if your broms are at the top I would be just using 13 watt ( the 40 watt are quite expensive too) I kill house plants easily but I have all 16 vivs planted with allsorts of plants inc broms, I can't believe how well they are doing- not through my care but i put it down to the jungle dawns, The plant growth is perfect, not leggy or yellowing, uv lights tend to scorch plants. The pics are of a cryptanthos- one under a JD and one not- in 3 days the plant turned it's desired red colour, and now even redder- the plants improve in a matter of days under these lights.
One tip- put bulb in a normal bulb holder not in a canopy and lay bulb on top of wire mesh top if possible, they prefer more airflow as they warm up quite a lot.
Hope this helps.

 

[markpulawski]

Most broms need pretty bright light or they will be mostly green and sometimes leggy, some of my nicest broms outside have gone completely green by putting them in the shade. 6500K is the best plant growing spectrum so T5 HO 6500 bulbs work well or LED's which are bright enough to color up broms, I use 2 14" ones on each tank that is about 30" deep and my broms have great color and reproduce nicely. Venustus1 is a sponsor here, he has great plant growing lights.

 

[Venutus1]

A pic could help us to help you let us help you

......................." I was advised that with such a tall viv the round 40 watt jungle dawn would be the only one powerful enough to light the floor but if your broms are at the top I would be just using 13 watt ( the 40 watt are quite expensive too) I kill house plants easily but I have all 16 vivs planted with allsorts of plants inc broms, I can't believe how well they are doing- not through my care but i put it down to the jungle dawns, The plant growth is perfect, not leggy or yellowing, uv lights tend to scorch plants. The pics are of a cryptanthos- one under a JD and one not- in 3 days the plant turned it's desired red colour, and now even redder- the plants improve in a matter of days under these lights.
One tip- put bulb in a normal bulb holder not in a canopy and lay bulb on top of wire mesh top if possible, they prefer more airflow as they warm up quite a lot.
Hope this helps.

Hi Twitchet,
I am so pleased you are having good luck using Jungle Dawn®.
Especially the 40w ! YEP- they are perfect from Broms.
The Jungle Dawn® 40w LED I developed just for Tall Tanks and High Light Plants.
Yea.. it costs a bit more because it has A FAN AND A MOTOR inside .... How COOL IS THAT??
The other thing is that the LED diodes in it are special order that the factory gets just to make these.
They have a great CRI (color rendering index) and the mixed Kelvin colored diodes bring out the colors like natural sunlight would.

They fit in a small dome light and can be set ontop of a screen cage , or hung up about 5 - 6 inches over it. You just can NOT set them down flush on a glass top because the motor and fan must be able to blow the air freely out the face of the bulb.

NOTE: They went VIRAL and we sold out at LightYourReptiles.com , more are coming in a week.

 

[Twitchet]

Hi Todd, that is indeed super cool, I didn't know that about the motor, if I set up an arboreal maybe I will treat myself.
The jungle dawns are fantastic, I'm very lucky that I also visit reptile forum uk and Arcadia John is so helpful and on there all the time to answer questions, not just about the Arcadia products but reptile care, he actually lives about 30 miles away from he but never met him. The dawns have been a godsend for me as I said I'm not gifted as a plant grower but with these I flick a switch and I have beautiful plants! John said not to put the lower watt ones in a canopy, or in a canopy but remove the metal reflector behind them, I've done that with some and it was quite easy, he said the lights will last longer if just on the top of the viv, I am now up to about 12 bulbs and loving them!!
Cheers

 

[rpritch]

Wow! Thanks for all of the replies!

 

[rpritch]

That is one heck of a set-up! Looks great!

Hi There, I am in the U.K but believe these are available to you -I use arcadia jungle dawns- they come in 9, 13 and 22 watt- I have mainly terrestial dart frog vivs, so use 9 and 13, I was advised that with such a tall viv the round 40 watt jungle dawn would be the only one powerful enough to light the floor but if your broms are at the top I would be just using 13 watt ( the 40 watt are quite expensive too) I kill house plants easily but I have all 16 vivs planted with allsorts of plants inc broms, I can't believe how well they are doing- not through my care but i put it down to the jungle dawns, The plant growth is perfect, not leggy or yellowing, uv lights tend to scorch plants. The pics are of a cryptanthos- one under a JD and one not- in 3 days the plant turned it's desired red colour, and now even redder- the plants improve in a matter of days under these lights.
One tip- put bulb in a normal bulb holder not in a canopy and lay bulb on top of wire mesh top if possible, they prefer more airflow as they warm up quite a lot.
Hope this helps.