I like bananas
 

Yes, I do. I like bananas. A lot. My reef aquarium recently cracked and flooded and I had to tear i down, so the next logical step for me is to grow a couple musa dwarf cavendish in its place. Just got them today. Going to set up a warm mist humidifier and 2x LED grow lights once I get the spectrum nailed down. Going for the gold here. I want fruit. And lots of it. :0519:

Re: I like bananas
 

Welcome to the Jungle...:woohoonaner:

Re: I like bananas
 

Welcome aboard ,
pull up a chair and have some fun learning.

Re: I like bananas
 

I like bananas too! Welcome to the forum.

Re: I like bananas
 

Hello, Welcome & Happy Growing.. :v)

Re: I like bananas
 

You'll need 50 to 75 Watts/sq.ft. projection at a color temperature of 6400 to 6500 Kelvin. You can't achieve that spectral intensity from LED's. You can get the intensity but not the spectrum from arc lamps such as HPS. Just about the only way to get both from artificial light is with fluorescents. If you use standard daylight T5HO you'll need from 16 to 23 4' bulbs per 4' by 4' area. However, there is a Very High Output version of this bulb sold in pre-assembled fixtures: "Sun Blaze T5 VHO 48". Here's one of several sellers: Sun Blaze T5 VHO 48 - 4 Ft 8 Lamp Fixture

Re: I like bananas
 

I am not sure I would agree with the intensity not being strong enough. I will use reef tanks as an example. 3W (What they are run at) Crees can melt the tissue of corals while you need to stack T5s just to provide the adequate lighting. Even without optics, the PAR produced bu LEDs blows T5 out of the water, you use optics, you practically have a laser.. LEDs can produce almost any spectrum through color mixing yes, and Cree makes an XML 6500K that is pretty adequate.

The T5 needs to be practically touching the plant to produce the usable energy that a Cree LED system can produce on the ceiling. If you want a 4 foot spread, you need to use probably a 10 bulb system at 4 feet above the plant and PAR will drop. All of this is probably overkill for tropical plants, and you would probably not use that many bulbs, but I am using these comparisons to illustrate just how superior LEDs are. A 120W fixture running brandname (Cree, Luxon, Bridgelux) 3W LEDS at 700ma dialed down 50% with no optics is comparable to a T5 system with separate reflectors easy. The LED system doesn't even need to try. You also don't have to replace $20 bulbs every 8 months or worry about heat as much.

The sunblaze isn't even that good if we want to compare T5 to LED. If I was to compare a T5 fixture to HP LEDs I would use an ATI since it has a 98% efficient reflector and much better cooling.


I am not sure where you are getting this "not intense enough" opinion from, but LEDs are vastly superior to any lighting on the market.

My 2 cents.

Nice to meet another lighting aficionado :)

Re: I like bananas
 

And thank you all for the welcome!!!!!

Re: I like bananas
 

If you can get 50 to 75 W/sq.ft with a color temperature of 6400 to 6500 Kelvin for less cost of ownership then go for it!

Re: I like bananas
 

Just so you know, dwarf cavendish can get to 6+ feet tall of pseudostem (not counting height of leaves). Super dwarf cavendish might be a better candidate for indoors as it will only get 3-4' of pseudostem.

Re: I like bananas
 

Sorry to hear about your tank, but welcome to the jungle those bananas should have more than enough light with those LED's.

Re: I like bananas
 

please post pics after you set everything up!