# Look what I scored for only $12 at Salvation Army



## DragonSpirit1185 (Dec 6, 2010)

So stoked about this. I found one of my dream vivariums that I thought I would never afford let alone find used for cheap. Well I finally did 

Found an Exo Terra 18"x18"x24" which retails for around $120









Been wanting some Ranitomeya variabilis or standard imitators for a long time and I think I finally might get the chance 
I love their metallic colors of green, blue, and black.

Someone was using the tank for some sort of small animal like a hamster or something but it's super clean and I'll make sure I sanitize it before use.
They wanted $25 but I told them this isn't a small animal tank and I just want the tank and they were like ok $12 and you can throw the junk inside away lol.

I've found all kinds of power adapters to make power supplies for fans, cool mist humidifier for the crestie vivarium and all kinds of awesome stuff at this Goodwill. even found an original copy of Donnie Darko which is kinda rare since Richard Kelly made the directors cut and the original versions kinda vanished. 
Though I live in Ames home of Iowa State University so there is always awesome stuff around here lol

So yeah great day 
Now off to work on my paludarium that's so close to being finished


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## rpj211 (May 19, 2009)

Wow, I'm going to have to. Hit my local goodwill ASAP.


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## oldlady25715 (Nov 17, 2007)

That's cool. Great find! Perfect for a few thumbs but enjoy building and designing it too.


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## DragonSpirit1185 (Dec 6, 2010)

oldlady25715 said:


> That's cool. Great find! Perfect for a few thumbs but enjoy building and designing it too.


Yeah I'm having a blast with this paludarium I'm doing right now. it's getting pretty advanced well the most advanced I've ever done before. 
It's gonna be pretty sweet. I'm making some rope vines right now. Just torched and bent some PVC for some Spyra sheets to wrap around it making a moss vine to add some moss slurry to.


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## DragonSpirit1185 (Dec 6, 2010)

rpj211 said:


> Wow, I'm going to have to. Hit my local goodwill ASAP.


I go to every thrift store. There is 3 in town and another store that doesn't really ever have much. There used to be one called One Man's Junk and it was awesome but she closed it 
There is also and antique store as well but he mostly just has junk and wants too much money for stuff lol.


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## DragonSpirit1185 (Dec 6, 2010)

Fun....









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## Tekman (Sep 6, 2015)

That is a good setup. I have some cobalts in the same tank as my first build and it is great. Easy access and easy to mod. Keep an eye on the door was they tend to shift with a gap that can let flies out and get a piece of glass for the top to keep humidity in. 

Great shirt by the way. 

-Bob


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## DragonSpirit1185 (Dec 6, 2010)

Tekman said:


> That is a good setup. I have some cobalts in the same tank as my first build and it is great. Easy access and easy to mod. Keep an eye on the door was they tend to shift with a gap that can let flies out and get a piece of glass for the top to keep humidity in.
> 
> Great shirt by the way.
> 
> -Bob


Already did the glass and I have stainless fruit fly proof mesh









Using it to fire my broms up for my build









And to keep my moss good until my build is done.
I have 5 different kinds of moss in there









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## Tekman (Sep 6, 2015)

Looks good. I need to get some more live plants in mine. I only have a couple of small wandering Jews and a Boston fern to start with. Would like a couple of bromeliads or some of the tilandsia that are alright in that type of environment. 

What are you doing for lights?

-Bob


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## DragonSpirit1185 (Dec 6, 2010)

Tekman said:


> Looks good. I need to get some more live plants in mine. I only have a couple of small wandering Jews and a Boston fern to start with. Would like a couple of bromeliads or some of the tilandsia that are alright in that type of environment.
> 
> What are you doing for lights?
> 
> -Bob


I'm using an dual incandescent aquarium hood I found at the same Salvation Army. Using 5000K LED bulbs from Wal-Mart


















more details in the thread I posted about it http://www.dendroboard.com/forum/pa...w-out-need-some-things-identified-thread.html

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## Tekman (Sep 6, 2015)

Thanks for that I am going to go out and grab a couple of those for mine. I am assuming that the heat dissipation is extremely low on those led bulbs. I was going to grab online those 14 led lights but I'm going to get these instead.

Thanks again,

-Bob


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## DragonSpirit1185 (Dec 6, 2010)

Tekman said:


> Thanks for that I am going to go out and grab a couple of those for mine. I am assuming that the heat dissipation is extremely low on those led bulbs. I was going to grab online those 14 led lights but I'm going to get these instead.
> 
> Thanks again,
> 
> -Bob


They are only 5000k bulbs though might not be enough

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## MasterOogway (Mar 22, 2011)

Kelvin rating has nothing to do with light intensity, if that's what you mean. Lumens, and more specifically, PAR ratings are the important aspects for light intensity. Kelvin just refers to the spectral read out of the bulb.


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## DragonSpirit1185 (Dec 6, 2010)

TarantulaGuy said:


> Kelvin rating has nothing to do with light intensity, if that's what you mean. Lumens, and more specifically, PAR ratings are the important aspects for light intensity. Kelvin just refers to the spectral read out of the bulb.


But we in this hobby do shoot for around 6500k it's the light spectrum that comes with it.

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## MasterOogway (Mar 22, 2011)

Kelvin is just an 'average' of the spectral readout, it's not a great number to rely on. You can have drastically different spectra from various lights that all have the same kelvin rating. If the light your buying does not have an actual spectral chart, it's probably not a fantastic choice. Now, that being said, if you're just looking for something that will get you by, without spending a large amount of cash, a kelvin reading of 6500 is an acceptable substitute. But it has nothing, absolutely *nothing* to do with light intensity, just how the color of the light 'appears' to the human eye.


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## CronicdenDro (Jun 27, 2015)

Those LED bulbs may not give you very good plant growth based on the spectral graphs I've seen of comparable LED bulbs. The light they emit tends to fall mostly in the green to orange spectrum with a small spike in the blue end of the spectrum and almost no UV light is emitted from these bulbs as well. Basically this boils down to very little PAR (photosynthetic active radiation) is being emitted from these bulbs. The best bulbs to use are ones that have a large spectral output in the 435nm range and the 680nm range, with T5HO being my personal choice. There are great A19 LED bulbs available for growing but a little research is needed to find one that will suit your desires (they tend to be more blue or purple in color than white).


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## DragonSpirit1185 (Dec 6, 2010)

CronicdenDro said:


> Those LED bulbs may not give you very good plant growth based on the spectral graphs I've seen of comparable LED bulbs. The light they emit tends to fall mostly in the green to orange spectrum with a small spike in the blue end of the spectrum and almost no UV light is emitted from these bulbs as well. Basically this boils down to very little PAR (photosynthetic active radiation) is being emitted from these bulbs. The best bulbs to use are ones that have a large spectral output in the 435nm range and the 680nm range, with T5HO being my personal choice. There are great A19 LED bulbs available for growing but a little research is needed to find one that will suit your desires (they tend to be more blue or purple in color than white).


Yeah these were just bulbs on a temp setup. everything is in my new paludarium besides 2 broms and left over moss 

I do however have these same bulbs on my crested gecko vivarium and dumpy tree frog vivarium and I get good growth from the heartier plants but some plants have died off such as the wandering jew and a petite version of wandering jew. 

Gecko (only looks wilty cause I neglected to water they plant. Smaller plant looks great.









Dumpy tank. The angel wing begonia only had one branch the one on the right is new growth.


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## Tekman (Sep 6, 2015)

6500k are generally referred to as Deluxe Daylight bulbs and also a wide spectrum for plant growth. Not that I'll get into the science portion of bulbs but certainly when attempting to grow certain things such as plants and depending if they are in a grow or bloom cycle etc you can get different results based solely on the bulb. I oversee our school hydroponic greenhouse and lights make a good amount of difference depending on what is growing. 

-Bob


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## DragonSpirit1185 (Dec 6, 2010)

Tekman said:


> 6500k are generally referred to as Deluxe Daylight bulbs and also a wide spectrum for plant growth. Not that I'll get into the science portion of bulbs but certainly when attempting to grow certain things such as plants and depending if they are in a grow or bloom cycle etc you can get different results based solely on the bulb. I oversee our school hydroponic greenhouse and lights make a good amount of difference depending on what is growing.
> 
> -Bob


and 6700k is good as well?


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## Tekman (Sep 6, 2015)

I'm going to not try and bore everyone with this. The simple way to look at lighting is threefold. One is the Intensity of the light measured in lumens. We won't get into PAR. Second is the Spectrum that the light actually outputs. Third is the Kelvin or temperature range that light shows as well. 

Pretty much anything 5000k and above is going to mimic the way the sun looks in the sky. That's why you will see bulbs listed as daylight or deluxe daylight etc. It's just an easy way for the public to associate how a bulb will look. This does not necessarily mean that it will be the best for your plants but more than not could be.

The first important portion for a grow light is going to be what type of spectrum it will output. This gets very technical but the easy way is to see if the bulb specs list the wavelength that the bulb emits. Besides lumens you want to make sure that the bulb you are using is outputting the correct wavelength for the type of plants you are using. A full spectrum bulb will be a good start to many plants unless you have some plants that will bloom better at a different wavelength etc.

Lumens is how bright or intense the light is. This everyone probably understands as some plants and animals may like it brighter or not so much to survive.

I always check the lumens as there are so many choices out there with the led's becoming more prevalent and cfl's out there that you can't rely on packaging info that usually states watts and not lumens and varies from manufacturer

I'll end with a link I usually give people who want to geek out on this stuff a bit more. The Led's are not going away but unless tuned for the right wavelengths may not a great choice for plant growth but great for little to no heat and great on the electricity costs.

Indoor Grow Light Guide & Tips: How to Use Grow Lights | EYE HORTILUX<sup>®</sup>

Sorry for the long post.

-Bob


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## DragonSpirit1185 (Dec 6, 2010)

Tekman said:


> I'm going to not try and bore everyone with this. The simple way to look at lighting is threefold. One is the Intensity of the light measured in lumens. We won't get into PAR. Second is the Spectrum that the light actually outputs. Third is the Kelvin or temperature range that light shows as well.
> 
> Pretty much anything 5000k and above is going to mimic the way the sun looks in the sky. That's why you will see bulbs listed as daylight or deluxe daylight etc. It's just an easy way for the public to associate how a bulb will look. This does not necessarily mean that it will be the best for your plants but more than not could be.
> 
> ...


it's all good bob but unfortunately I don't have the time to read all those articles I gotta go to work soon.
So hopefully you can just give me a quick answer 

here is the lights for my 40 gallon breeder (flipped on side) paludarium. 
I have 2 6700k T5s in the big fixture, 6500k LED strip on the back, and a 6500k jungle dawn type of bulb on the right 
That should suffice, right?


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## Tekman (Sep 6, 2015)

As long as the T5's are a name brand (GE, Phillips etc) you will do fine with those as I use the T5's to start my seedlings with and are great. The Jungle Dawn bulbs are specific for plant growth and have the mixed led's in there for that. You just have to account for the lumens on those and make sure they are strong enough for the plants you have them covering.

The only one I would question is the led strip light. Not knowing if it is just a regular light or tuned for plants will make the difference. Again the generic led's are great for a lighting source but may not be necessarily so great for plants. 

All together though I 'd say you will be in good shape as long as everything is getting some light and depending on how you have the viv put together I would have the plants that need the most light closer to the light sources if you notice anything not doing well or losing color.

Hope that helps,

-Bob


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## DragonSpirit1185 (Dec 6, 2010)

Tekman said:


> As long as the T5's are a name brand (GE, Phillips etc) you will do fine with those as I use the T5's to start my seedlings with and are great. The Jungle Dawn bulbs are specific for plant growth and have the mixed led's in there for that. You just have to account for the lumens on those and make sure they are strong enough for the plants you have them covering.
> 
> The only one I would question is the led strip light. Not knowing if it is just a regular light or tuned for plants will make the difference. Again the generic led's are great for a lighting source but may not be necessarily so great for plants.
> 
> ...


These are just white LEDs. It's made in China nothing to do with light your reptiles or jungle dawn. The bulbs are Coralife.

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## Tekman (Sep 6, 2015)

The coralife bulbs of course are great. The china bulbs I doubt came with any real specs on it so you'll just have to monitor the plants below it to see how they perform. If they do well then you know at least that bulb is good. Problem with the china generic bulbs is that the quality control from one batch to the next is not very consistent.

Keep us updated on those generics as I'm certainly curious how they perform.

-Bob


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## DragonSpirit1185 (Dec 6, 2010)

Tekman said:


> Keep us updated on those generics as I'm certainly curious how they perform.
> 
> -Bob


the strip gets super hot but with a fan on it it's ok.


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## Jjl (Feb 2, 2014)

Hi DragonSpirit,

I hope you don't mind a quick off-topic question. How does your gecko do with the glass top on its enclosure? Most crested tanks that I've seen only aim for that kind of humidity at night.


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## MasterOogway (Mar 22, 2011)

Tekman said:


> I'm going to not try and bore everyone with this. The simple way to look at lighting is threefold. One is the Intensity of the light measured in lumens. We won't get into PAR. Second is the Spectrum that the light actually outputs. Third is the Kelvin or temperature range that light shows as well.
> 
> The first important portion for a grow light is going to be what type of spectrum it will output. This gets very technical but the easy way is to see if the bulb specs list the wavelength that the bulb emits. Besides lumens you want to make sure that the bulb you are using is outputting the correct wavelength for the type of plants you are using. A full spectrum bulb will be a good start to many plants unless you have some plants that will bloom better at a different wavelength etc.
> 
> ...


I had to come back to this, sorry. 

We'll try starting here for now. Why would you not "get into PAR"? That is *literally* the only reading that truly matters. It's not a complicated subject, it just means photosynthetically active radiation. Basically, it's the part of the spectrum of light that plants use, spiking at a couple key frequencies. It's not technical, it's just reading a graph. Of all the things about plant physiology that ARE difficult, lighting is not really one of them. 




Tekman said:


> Pretty much anything 5000k and above is going to mimic the way the sun looks in the sky. That's why you will see bulbs listed as daylight or deluxe daylight etc. It's just an easy way for the public to associate how a bulb will look. This does not necessarily mean that it will be the best for your plants but more than not could be.



No. Just, no. I don't know if you just meant anything within the next couple thousand 'k' readings or what, but this is so not the case. Look at a 10k bulb, or a 20k reef bulb, and tell me that looks like natural sunlight. The higher the K reading, the more blue a bulb will be. 6500-6700k is closest to 'sunlight' appearance to our eyes, and that's it. Above that, it's too blue. The second part of that statement is spot on though, a 6500k bulb definitely does not mean it's going to be great for your plants. But at any rate, relying on Kelvin to tell you much about the actual spectrum is a pretty poor idea if you're serious about lights. 




Tekman said:


> Lumens is how bright or intense the light is. This everyone probably understands as some plants and animals may like it brighter or not so much to survive.


Lumens is a measure of how bright the light appears to *us*, not to plants. Again, it's the PAR reading that counts. 

I don't know what your beef is with LED's, but in today's market, a good LED light will outperform a good t5ho light. I have lots of t5ho lights, and like them, but they're still expensive, and replacing bulbs every year sucks like crazy. I use Giesemann bulbs, which are considered 'top of the line' plant bulbs, and they're like 20-25$ a pop. Which is an extra 100$, every year, just to keep up ONE 4x light fixture. LED's last for easily 5 times as long, for a comparable price, and PAR values are just as good, if not better. Any respectable LED light is going to outperform a T5HO in the long run. And now, they're just as reasonably priced as T5's are. Granted, 5 years ago, this wasn't the case, but it's not 5 years ago. Finnex, Ecoxotic, and CurrentUSA all make superb LED plant fixtures, just to name a few.


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## CronicdenDro (Jun 27, 2015)

TarantulaGuy said:


> I don't know what your beef is with LED's, but in today's market, a good LED light will outperform a good t5ho light. I have lots of t5ho lights, and like them, but they're still expensive, and replacing bulbs every year sucks like crazy. I use Giesemann bulbs, which are considered 'top of the line' plant bulbs, and they're like 20-25$ a pop. Which is an extra 100$, every year, just to keep up ONE 4x light fixture. LED's last for easily 5 times as long, for a comparable price, and PAR values are just as good, if not better. Any respectable LED light is going to outperform a T5HO in the long run. And now, they're just as reasonably priced as T5's are. Granted, 5 years ago, this wasn't the case, but it's not 5 years ago. Finnex, Ecoxotic, and CurrentUSA all make superb LED plant fixtures, just to name a few.


I see a lot of people don't really understand LED wavelengths or make the assumption that a 6500K light is the same spectrum as any other 6500K light and this may be what stops a lot of people from buying propper LED setups.

I love LEDs as well and was going to use them for this tank until I heard of SunBlaster. They make an amazing T5 fixture and bulb. They actually rate their bulbs at 10,000 plant light hours (they say the bulb will last much longer) which means you can replace the bulbs every two years instead of the recommended once a year from everyone else. They are also some of the coolest running fixtures I've ever seen on a T5, no ventilation is required to keep them cool. Just thought you might want to give their bulbs a try for any of your T5 fixtures.


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## DragonSpirit1185 (Dec 6, 2010)

lol you guys need to make up your minds xD
How about I just buy this light here Current USA Satellite LED Plus
T5s seem to be keeping my tank in the upper 70s


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## CronicdenDro (Jun 27, 2015)

DragonSpirit1185 said:


> lol you guys need to make up your minds xD
> How about I just buy this light here Current USA Satellite LED Plus
> T5s seem to be keeping my tank in the upper 70s


Haha well there is a lot to consider when buying lights but if you can afford $40 more I'd go with the Finnex 24/7. Similar style but way better features and spectrum capabilities. I chose the SunBlasters because of cost, quality, and I wanted to be able to warm the tank with my lights rather than a heater. Also I prefer the color of the light emitted from T5s compared to LEDs (not the kelvin rating but just how my eyes perceive the light).


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## DragonSpirit1185 (Dec 6, 2010)

CronicdenDro said:


> Haha well there is a lot to consider when buying lights but if you can afford $40 more I'd go with the Finnex 24/7. Similar style but way better features and spectrum capabilities. I chose the SunBlasters because of cost, quality, and I wanted to be able to warm the tank with my lights rather than a heater. Also I prefer the color of the light emitted from T5s compared to LEDs (not the kelvin rating but just how my eyes perceive the light).


yeah I might have to save up for it but I have an issue with these lights. 
I also need the strip in the back and the jungle dawn type bulb to dim as well.
What is the probe thingy for?









edit: nvm I see that's the sensor and it has a chord for canopy style tops

Also I think I could just set the other LEDs to only come on on the brightest setting of the day


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## Tekman (Sep 6, 2015)

Lighting is a whole subject onto itself and as I mentioned earlier I didn't want to get into all of the specifics including PAR which is a true measurement. The Kelvin scale is used to mimic what the Sunlight would look like at certain times, whether that be at high Noon, an overcast sky, clear sky etc. Lumens again measures the brightness or intensity of the light.

Led's have come a long way and I use some test units in my greenhouse but depending on the manufacturer may or may not be consistent. They have to be tuned to the correct wavelength for plants. Although Led's are certainly the future and the led's themselves are rated higher they may or may not last as long as purported because they are still driven by a power supply that is more susceptible to burning out versus the led itself. They are coming on fast but they still have a ways to go. But with how fast technology moves that means it's closer then we think. 

If we want to go old school but is still one of the most effective then I'm still running HPS lights over my commercial hydroponic units. I can take some pics of that if anyone is interested.

The beauty of the Internet is that some quick searches can yield all the info and research on lighting you can eat if you are into such things. Cornell has some good papers on lighting for growth etc.

It's a fun topic at least for me.

-Bob


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## MasterOogway (Mar 22, 2011)

Again, I just don't know what you're talking about. LED's, especially the modern, high quality units are of excellent quality, provide a very good spectrum for plant growth, and have a high output. Agreed, it IS a fun topic; photosynthesis was always one of my favorite topics in all my plant classes back in college. But you don't really tune LED's, I still don't know what you mean by this. If you go to a place like 'buildmyled' you just select LED's with the output that you are looking for, this is what I assume you mean? But places like Finnex, CUrrentUSA, etc, those are prefab units, you just turn them on and they're already amazing plant lights. HPS bulbs, MH, etc, are all awesome for plant growth, and I've used them over freshwater and saltwater tanks, but not so much for frogs. The heat they put out is tremendous and you will cook frogs in no time. Again, I think, if you're looking for high efficiency, low temperature, long lasting lights, LED's are the way to go.


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## Tekman (Sep 6, 2015)

If you really want to geek out then go check out this magazine which is a great source for info and upcoming lighting. It's geared towards the commerical horticulture end but still has some great info. 

LEDs Magazine - June 2015

By tuning an LED all I mean is that they are optimized(matched) for whatever wavelength is needed for whatever application they are being used for. Led's are long lasting but most of the issues will not be with the led itself, it will be with the power supplies driving them. This is especially true depending on the environment they are in. Earlier generations did not do well with a higher heat and humidity of a greenhouse. Now things are better and will continue to improve. I'm of course talking about a large scale production greenhouse not what we are dealing with in a smaller viv. 

Check out the magazine it's got some cool stuff in it.

-Bob


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