Plant light help?

[Alex and the Redfoot]

I want to eventually place more variety of plants when I upgrade in his enclosure. Would adding something to diffuse the lights help at all?

1. Diffusors won't help with red/blue diodes. For regular white lights there is some benefit (shop light LEDs often have "frosted" front panels for softer, more even light spread).

2. From what I see, plants need way more brightness than we provide in the enclosures (general visible light, not specific blue or green spectrum). For tortoises it's fine to "flood" the enclosure with ambient light (but provide shade and hides, of course). For crepuscular species I would opt for a few spotlights over plants.

 

[catprincx]

1. Diffusors won't help with red/blue diodes. For regular white lights there is some benefit (shop light LEDs often have "frosted" front panels for softer, more even light spread).

2. From what I see, plants need way more brightness than we provide in the enclosures (general visible light, not specific blue or green spectrum). For tortoises it's fine to "flood" the enclosure with ambient light (but provide shade and hides, of course). For crepuscular species I would opt for a few spotlights over plants.

So would those plant led lights be more suitable to be in my sulcata’s or my blue tongue skink’s enclosure? As in more day time species and my ball pythons I should pick a less intense method of lighting? Im sorry if I’m not getting it, im trying to make sense of it.

 

[Alex and the Redfoot]

So would those plant led lights be more suitable to be in my sulcata’s or my blue tongue skink’s enclosure? As in more day time species and my ball pythons I should pick a less intense method of lighting? Im sorry if I’m not getting it, im trying to make sense of it.

Plants lights with blue and red diodes often have imperfect blending of different colors and thus cast colored shadows and such. Plants don't mind but for animals it can be discomforting. Think of music club or stage spotlights to get an idea.

A good plant light without colored diodes (white only), densely packed diodes or a good diffusor can be used with any animal species (diurnal and crepuscular). With the latter you need to provide more cover and hides, obviously and it's still beneficial for maintaining proper circadian rhythms.

 

[catprincx]

Plants lights with blue and red diodes often have imperfect blending of different colors and thus cast colored shadows and such. Plants don't mind but for animals it can be discomforting. Think of music club or stage spotlights to get an idea.

A good plant light without colored diodes (white only), densely packed diodes or a good diffusor can be used with any animal species (diurnal and crepuscular). With the latter you need to provide more cover and hides, obviously and it's still beneficial for maintaining proper circadian rhythms.

Oh I see now that makes a lot of sense. I will continue to shop around with that in mind thank you!