Littlefoot's digs - day 3

[BarelyBreathing]

Be careful with aquarium lights, Wayne. They're made to go through water, and have been known to cause eye infections in reptiles. Keep a close eye on his eyes, and if you see swelling, discharge, or general not opening his eyes, turn it off immediately.

[kernel]

What are you going to use to provide UVB for LF?

[infernalis]

Originally Posted by BarelyBreathing

Be careful with aquarium lights, Wayne. They're made to go through water, and have been known to cause eye infections in reptiles. Keep a close eye on his eyes, and if you see swelling, discharge, or general not opening his eyes, turn it off immediately.

Will this work?

[AaronRiot]

The enclosure's looking great! I love how LF will be able to dig and burrow under rooted grass, that's awesome!

In regards to lighting, and a clear simple explanation of types of bulbs and spectrum's and what's what have a look at this:

Indoor Plant Lighting

I found it very enlightening... for instance full spectrum at equatorial noon is 5500k...

Unfortunately there isn't much on UVA/B/C and it's affect on reptiles in the article but it explains a few key points about (UV) light and how the (UV) bulbs work.

[BarelyBreathing]

I'm sorry, but I really don't have any experiences with plant lighting. Perhaps somebody else is better equipped to answer this question than I am.

[DragonsEye]

I am unable to advise about the hazards of the aquarium lights that BB mentioned. I have never heard of them causing issues with animals, but then I've never tried them either.

Wayne, if getting the grass growing well and keeping it reasonably healthy is something you are striving for (and it seems like it is), then you will need rather intense light. However, IME with plants, "grow lights" are not generally worth the $. You can do just as well with "daylight" fluorescent bulbs or a combination of "cool" and "warm" bulbs.

The biggest issue I foresee may be light intensity as many grasses are very high light plants. However, some grasses are far more shade tolerant than others and some are more adaptable than others. Light intensity falls off with the square of the distance from the light source. (So the light intensity 2ft away from the bulb is only 1/4 as strong as it is 1ft away from the bulb and so forth.) Judging the intensity of the light you're currently providing "by eyeing it" is unfortunately not possible. The human eye is quite a sensitive instrument. The intensity of light required for photosynthesis is much higher than that needed for the eye to see. The good news is that there is a simple method for at least getting a rough idea of light intensity. If upon positioning your hand about an inch or two above the surface of the grass you see a dark, sharply defined shadow, then you are providing light of strong intensity at that level/height. If the shadow is lighter with a 'fuzzy' outline, light intensity is closer to dappled shade. If a shadow is not visible at all, intensity is roughly equivalent to full shade or even deep shade.

I use four 40W "daylight" bulbs (two shoplight fixtures) on each level of my plant rack to grow some of my orchids -- some of which are higher light plants. However, these high light plants are only an inch or two from their leaves actually touching the bulbs. As the plants grow taller, I either raise the height of the lights (they are on chains) or -- if the plant was originally a small one -- remove the overturned pot I had it sitting on and replace it with a shorter "booster seat". I was thinking you might be able to try something similar with LF's abode. Namely, having the lights hung by chains so you could start out with the lights closer to the ground and then raising them as the grass gets taller and LF gets bigger. HOWEVER, here's where my ignorance of savs comes in, I don't know if LF would attempt to jump up onto the lights if they were intially hung, let's say, 1ft above the ground.

Hope this didn't bore the crap out of everyone.

[infernalis]

I have that one plant light, then the spiral and the flood.

The two edison base (E-27) lamps are 6500K daylight bulbs. The 2700K cool white bulbs just look yellowish to me.

[AaronRiot]

2700K should look yellowish, ~5500K is White/Sunlight, so more than 5500K you're seeing more blues and less than 5500K you'll be into the yellows and reds.

I'm no expert but I'm sure the grass should do fine with that spread colour-wise. I cannot attest to whether it will be "enough"... If not it's easy to adjust you have a whole lawn of hackable product that comes with nice roots and dirt for the wee one to root through.

There are a lot of neat LED light options now too that offer a higher density of light in a smaller space with less wattage. Might be worth some future research for long term use.

Regardless of what you go with, you have the right idea paying attention to the Kelvins now.

[infernalis]

My user name on the laser forum is "Photonaholic" .. No stranger to Kelvins or nanometers.

Aside from biology, I am somewhat of a physics geek too.

I have already started using L.E.D. bulbs elswhere, and I think I like the big par lamp with the red/blue LED array, it's cool to the touch, so if Littlefoot gets near it, no problem.

[infernalis]

Originally Posted by alessia55

Wayne can you post a photo of the whole enclosure? I see parts of it here and there.. the grassy side, the basking area, the water dish.. I'd be interested if you could post a pic of the whole thing in one shot

[alessia55]

wow it looks FANTASTIC, Wayne

[kernel]

Looks awesome Wayne! Are those garters you have on top?

[infernalis]

Mostly, three tanks have milk snakes in them.

[Norm66]

That's going to be grand for Littlefoot. Nice job Wayne.

[DragonsEye]

Lookin' good!