Lola's cage build

[dshuld]

So, obviously I'll have to wait until I'm home tonight and get it over her cage but, first thought it's gonna take two over her cage for even coverage of the two hibiscus. Second thought, holy blindingly bright!!! Believe it or not, the pic of the bulb lit was taken outside in broad daylight lol. If you look very closely at the upper right edge of the dome you can barely make out the pipe for the drain pump in my wash bay and one of the hoses . The pic of the bush was a quick test but the phone couldn't distinguish what I was seeing with my eyes. I held the dome in the hole and was able to see the led light down to about the second line. Not to shabby for broad daylight even though the real test will be later.

 

[cyberlocc]

So, obviously I'll have to wait until I'm home tonight and get it over her cage but, first thought it's gonna take two over her cage for even coverage of the two hibiscus. Second thought, holy blindingly bright!!! Believe it or not, the pic of the bulb lit was taken outside in broad daylight lol. If you look very closely at the upper right edge of the dome you can barely make out the pipe for the drain pump in my wash bay and one of the hoses . The pic of the bush was a quick test but the phone couldn't distinguish what I was seeing with my eyes. I held the dome in the hole and was able to see the led light down to about the second line. Not to shabby for broad daylight even though the real test will be later.

View attachment 212889 View attachment 212890

If you go with JDs (I wouldn't, but that's a whole other story).

Your going to want a few of them. They are 60° beams.

Your cage looks great, do you have a video of the rain system? I want to make a rain system that looks like really raining, but came up short on ideas. Mostly due to extreme water usage, mine is for a Parsons, so I need it to run for a long time.

If money is no issue, at least upfront cost, I got some better lighting Ideas for ya. The JDs are nice, from a upfront cost pov, but their L/W is worse than T5s, just something to chew on. You can get double the L/W for a tad more money. You can also retain the CRI, and have a similar form factor in the DIY sector.

To put it in perspective, your getting 3500lumens for 40ws on that JD, I can get you 7400 lumens, for 38 real watts LEDs (about 45ws from the wall). The upfront cost will be around double though, it will also take some DIYing. I would still add more than 1, depending on what Reflectors you use and how you want cage par laid out.

If you want a super plant growing fixture. Keep an eye out for my LED fixture build, I am going to document it. Your looking at about 350 each, without a controller (of which depends how many fixtures your planning to run, for just 1, it would be 100-200, if your doing many, it changes, I'll cover all that). 200ws from the wall, all lights full blast, and about 35,000 lumens, which comes close to what these animals experience in the wild. However, you really won't run them all full blast, as there is colors for correct photosynthesis, you'll likely be pushing 20-25k lux max at cage top (shade outdoors) per fixture.

To give you an idea of where to start, if you don't want to wait for my thread. Or dont just want a straight suggestion. The JDs run a low cost, low effiency cob, at it's max power. This is done to save money, on upfront cost, to mass market it.

You will be doing the opposite, you will be running expensive high output cobs, and running them at low power, which drastically improves their effeincy.

I have spent alot of time in the last two months on shady forums learning all about this stuff . Those guys make money from their lighting working well for plants, and effeincy = Profit . That's where the real lighting gurus are.

 

[dshuld]

That is actually not a jd, it's a pool bulb at significantly less money then jd's. What kind of video are you looking for on the rain? Only one I have is the one I posted earlier but can try to walk you through what I did.

 

[cyberlocc]

That is actually not a jd, it's a pool bulb at significantly less money then jd's. What kind of video are you looking for on the rain? Only one I have is the one I posted earlier but can try to walk you through what I did.

Oh I didn't see a video . Let me go look.

How much water does it consume per minute running?

Edit: seen the video. That's exactly what I am looking for.

If you could give me a rundown . And how much water roughly per min (or per 15, or 30mins)? I would be aiming to run mine 30mins a day, and it would need to be more tubes, about 4x as many as yours as the cage is 4ftx2ftx4ft, and my lights are lifted, so I was aiming for 6-8 rows of tubing.

Also link to the pool bulb? Cheaper is worrysome. With LEDs upfront cost determines L/W, and if it's cheaper it's less effeincy, which will cost you more in the long term or give you less light.

Just like the JD, from a Lumens Per Watt standpoint you are better off with T5s.

 

[dshuld]

Oh I didn't see a video . Let me go look.

How much water does it consume per minute running?

I have not measured that. The pump currently hooked up is rated for 1.35 gal/ m at 116 psi but that has been cut with the valves. Not sure where I ended up setting the ball valve going back into the tub tbh. The Swagelok I spun out until I saw constant drips then slowly dialed it back to get a some what random drop pattern show up but I did open it a little more then in that video. I do wish I had done a second supply hook up off the other back corner though.

 

[cyberlocc]

I have not measured that. The pump currently hooked up is rated for 1.35 gal/ m at 116 psi but that has been cut with the valves. Not sure where I ended up setting the ball valve going back into the tub tbh. The Swagelok I spun out until I saw constant drips then slowly dialed it back to get a some what random drop pattern show up but I did open it a little more then in that video. I do wish I had done a second supply hook up off the other back corner though.

Okay cool. What kind of valves did you use?

Got like a build guide?

 

[dshuld]

Okay cool. What kind of valves did you use?

Got like a build guide?

The valve controlling the flow to the lines is a swagelok ss-4mg with vernier handle. The rest of them are just 1/4" ptc ball valves. I'll take a few more pics tonight when I get home so I can write it out a little better lol.

 

[dshuld]

Just saw the edit sorry. https://www.amazon.com/Swimming-Rep...TF8&qid=1535569897&sr=8-31&keywords=pool+bulb.

With having an adjustable flow mileage may vary on water usage but I'll try to guesstimate tonight. The mister nozzles in the corners are from this. https://www.amazon.com/Gesentur-Upg...gesentur+upgraded+2018+misting+cooling+system . I wanted to be able to pull the nozzles and open them up to clean them out and put right back in. I didn't care for the mistking / climist nozzles but to each their own there lol.



Working from that pic for now for the below the cage stuff:

A: is the relief valve back into the reservoir due to the pump currently connected being to much for this use really. In this pic it looks to be 1/4 to 3/8 closed but, as mentioned, not sure if that was the final setting on it. This also allows some stir up as the water goes back into the tub.

B: is just there as a shutoff valve for the misters. It will serve as flow control with less control if wanted though. I have it set to full open but half closed on that valve was still an acceptable mist should I notice her stressing out over it. This goes up the back wall to a wye connector then to the bulkheads for the misters.

C: shutoff valve for the drip/ rain lines.

D: swagelok ss-4mg that controls the flow of the drip/ rain lines. This runs up to the back left corner to the bulkhead the drip/ rain lines are connected to.

I had a scrap piece of plywood that matched the rough size I originally wanted in here so I used that to cut my 1/4 tube to size. I marked off 1" increments and then secured each long tube to the plywood. Then I used a pushpin to poke the holes every inch down the long tubes. The short pieces between the ptc connectors have 1 hole poked in them too. The tubes are connected with standard ptc fittings. 90° fittings on 3 corners, tee in the middle for the center row and tee on the fourth corner to connect the feed line into the 3 rows of tubing.

 

[dshuld]

If you go with JDs (I wouldn't, but that's a whole other story).

Your going to want a few of them. They are 60° beams.

Your cage looks great, do you have a video of the rain system? I want to make a rain system that looks like really raining, but came up short on ideas. Mostly due to extreme water usage, mine is for a Parsons, so I need it to run for a long time.

If money is no issue, at least upfront cost, I got some better lighting Ideas for ya. The JDs are nice, from a upfront cost pov, but their L/W is worse than T5s, just something to chew on. You can get double the L/W for a tad more money. You can also retain the CRI, and have a similar form factor in the DIY sector.

To put it in perspective, your getting 3500lumens for 40ws on that JD, I can get you 7400 lumens, for 38 real watts LEDs (about 45ws from the wall). The upfront cost will be around double though, it will also take some DIYing. I would still add more than 1, depending on what Reflectors you use and how you want cage par laid out.

If you want a super plant growing fixture. Keep an eye out for my LED fixture build, I am going to document it. Your looking at about 350 each, without a controller (of which depends how many fixtures your planning to run, for just 1, it would be 100-200, if your doing many, it changes, I'll cover all that). 200ws from the wall, all lights full blast, and about 35,000 lumens, which comes close to what these animals experience in the wild. However, you really won't run them all full blast, as there is colors for correct photosynthesis, you'll likely be pushing 20-25k lux max at cage top (shade outdoors) per fixture.

To give you an idea of where to start, if you don't want to wait for my thread. Or dont just want a straight suggestion. The JDs run a low cost, low effiency cob, at it's max power. This is done to save money, on upfront cost, to mass market it.

You will be doing the opposite, you will be running expensive high output cobs, and running them at low power, which drastically improves their effeincy.

I have spent alot of time in the last two months on shady forums learning all about this stuff . Those guys make money from their lighting working well for plants, and effeincy = Profit . That's where the real lighting gurus are.

Oh I didn't see a video . Let me go look.

How much water does it consume per minute running?

Edit: seen the video. That's exactly what I am looking for.

If you could give me a rundown . And how much water roughly per min (or per 15, or 30mins)? I would be aiming to run mine 30mins a day, and it would need to be more tubes, about 4x as many as yours as the cage is 4ftx2ftx4ft, and my lights are lifted, so I was aiming for 6-8 rows of tubing.

Also link to the pool bulb? Cheaper is worrysome. With LEDs upfront cost determines L/W, and if it's cheaper it's less effeincy, which will cost you more in the long term or give you less light.

Just like the JD, from a Lumens Per Watt standpoint you are better off with T5s.

Lol just noticed this edit too. I'll keep an eye out for your thread on it.

 

[dshuld]

@cyberlocc the tub was 6 to 7 gallons down. With guestimating on how long I spent testing Sunday, between the drip lines and the two nozzles I'm using ~.05 to .08 gallons per minute. The listing for that misting bundle used to specify .3mm nozzles but I don't see that now. How ever, according to an answer from the seller the nozzles use ~.03 to .06 gpm each. I can give a closer gpm usage number a few days the new refill.

Here are a couple of better pics of the inside workings of the lines.




Now for the bulb, it is similar in specs to the jd bulbs though not an exact match. This one is supposed to be 6500k, 45w and 3900/ 4100 lumens but still has 60° lens. For the $29 I spent on it, I'm not unpleased with it. I ran out of time before lights out to get proper comparison pics so I'll have to try again tomorrow for those.

 

[Matt Vanilla Gorilla]

How kind of you to show all your work and share what you learn through all of this with the rest of us!

 

[cyberlocc]

I checked out that pool bulb, you may have just found the realistic priced JD. That doesn't say what the CRI is, but everything else is the same as JD, the heatsink, the LEDs, I need to get one to disassemble to be sure, but ya defiantly same maker for those 2.

That's a much better value. The old saying, if it says reptile stay away, the price just doubled.


And yes, thanks for sharing .

 

[dshuld]

I checked out that pool bulb, you may have just found the realistic priced JD. That doesn't say what the CRI is, but everything else is the same as JD, the heatsink, the LEDs, I need to get one to disassemble to be sure, but ya defiantly same maker for those 2.

That's a much better value. The old saying, if it says reptile stay away, the price just doubled.


And yes, thanks for sharing .

Pretty sure it said 80+ cri when I first looked at. That being said there are only two 6500k lumiled 3030 chips I could find, 70 cri and 80 cri. The two pics above with the drip line connections are taken with only the pool bulb turned on. While I'm happy with the bulb for the $29 I do feel it will need suspended from the ceiling over her cage as at least a pair, possibly triplets, to get what I'm after. Lola is the only one that will have hibiscus and what has been up there has been enough to maintain the higher parts of the plants, even flowers blooming, but beyond the top 1/2 to 1/3 of the plants not at all. Here is a pic of just the pool bulb on from last night. I was able to get better distribution raising it off the cage but my arms aren't long enough to hold the bulb up and get a pic from the front lol.

 

[dshuld]

Though this is really going to be an apples to oranges comparison, it is the 45w pool bulb vs an ecosmart 14.5w 5000k floodlight bulb that is supposed to be 1200 lumens. So what she started with was two of the ecosmart bulbs, a finnex planted plus (left overs from taking my tanks down), Arcadia freshwater led tube, Arcadia uv and of course a heat lamp. If I have time tonight I'm going to seperate the pool bulb to see how many watts it's actually pulling.

Is it delivering just under four times the light of the ecosmart for three times the power? Not sure and since I don't have a meter I can only go by my eyes unfortunately. I do have a second bulb that is supposed to arrive tomorrow though. That way I can try to layout how these will be so I can build something to suspend them over her cage rather then on it. Here is a comparison of the center between the two bulbs.

Pool bulb


Ecosmart

 

[Decadancin]

Love to see a spoiled chameleon, and even a spoiled chameleon enclosure ...

 

[dshuld]

This is interesting....

 

[dshuld]

Think I'll wait for the usage meter that is supposed to arrive tomorrow and check again. I tried the ecosmart and it was all over the place on its readings. Any where from 250ma 14.w at 119.6v to 356 ma 51.4w at 80v. That screen shot is from the usage monitor on one my wifi switches.

 

[dshuld]

Well Amazon is screwing up shipments again. Second bulb was supposed to arrive today but looks like it won't be arriving until tomorrow . They did at least get the usage meter on time though. Though I now have to question the results of the wifi timer usage readings the dedicated meter gave more of what I expected the results to be. Makes me wonder if somehow the wifi timer was reading post driver stats?

 

[dshuld]

So looking for thoughts and opinions. I've drawn this to ~1/3 scale (1" =3"). I'm thinking about picking up two of these bulbs wifi bulbs to do sunrise sunset on the ends. Just not sure which configuration I want to go with. The dotted box is a second possibility incase I decide to put a third pool bulb up there.

 

[dshuld]

@cyberlocc .093 is the usage from Wed night to tonight. I did open the drip lines a bit more Fri night though.