LED Lighting

[Carrillxxp]

Genuinely curious -

Why the slow transition to LED lights? This reminds me of the fish tank hobby in the early 2000’s when keepers refused to transition to anything new. Now halogens are sparse when compared to the LED fixtures on the market.

I understand LED lights are still somewhat “new” but the biggest challenge I could see with LEDs would be supplemental heating…

Anyways, has there been anyone who has wanted to try LEDs only for their enclosure?

 

[Tonyww93]

I have leds in mine even trying out the led uvb so far going good been about 5 months

 

[Tonyww93]

Biggest problem is finding the rigth distance for placement if your trying to use the led uvb, and like you said the supplemental heat but i use just regular inco bulbs and it keeps it a solid 78 then 80 at a basking temp.. just fine tuning with them thats about the only difference imo

 

[Tkrd69]

I looking into led grow lights for my enclosure. Hopefully around Christmas I'll know more

 

[TayloredExotics]

It's mostly that darn UV, I think. LED UVs need some better testing, and/or cheaper options. I have LEDs for everything else. Fun fact- high power LED floods meant for outdoor use are awesome for plants growth, given the right spectrum range, and can be warm enough to double as basking. I'll have to check what bulb/wattage I'm using, but generally 'cool white' bulbs in the 5000-6500k+ range are good for plants. And the outdoor use means they're splash/moisture resistant!

 

[Decadancin]

Quite a few of us use LEDs. As stated above, the main issue is using them as a UV source. As far as I know, the technology is “there” but not in a product ready for us yet. As for heating or a basking source, I have some LED bulbs for that as well. They have internal fans that blow the heat out of the bulb.

 

[nightanole]

If it wasnt for reef bros, we wouldnt even have T5HO's for reptiles that came out only 10 years ago, id say the T5HO train didnt even get a full head of steam till 5 years ago.

Now in the last year we have got some promising UVB LED, but here is the problem. LEDs are VERY narrow spectrum. Your "white" LEDs are not white, its a combination of VERY narrow spectrum red/green/blue stacked on top of each other. They are not full spectrum (though neither is T5HO, but at least they have peaks and valleys in the spectrum) infact Sony makes a projector screen that is "black" and only reflects pure Red/green/blue. Our eyeballs interpret this as "white". Reptile T5HO UVB bulbs have 1 phosphor with a hump in the bone growth spectrum. You have already seen 15 years ago when the hump when too far in one direction and we got eye problems from too deep of a UVB output.

UVB LED is even worse. The band is very narrow. So most UVB LED is tuned for plant growth, industrial epoxy curing, and human skin treatment(eczema). Good luck finding a high production low cost "D3" or bone growth band.

 

[JacksJill]

I use LED for my plant lighting. I see that work on UVB production is coming along but I have reservations about the gaps in the spectrum it creates. I'm currently running 8-9 cages so cost is an issue as well.

 

[ChamelaChameleon]

What is a lighting set up that provides for both plants and Cham.

 

[JacksJill]

Currently the standard way to light for UVB and plant care is to use one linear T5 HO for UVB and a LED grow light. I already had dual bulb T5 fixtures so I just replaced the fluorescent plant light with a LED made to fit the fixture. If I were starting from scratch I would look into the LED fixtures produced by the growing industry. They are available everywhere even DIY stores.
https://www.chameleonforums.com/threads/a-really-neat-new-led.173498/ info on the developing full spectrum lighting.