Newbie--help me with my indoor grow setup please!

[Aquaticjade]

Yes, I used the wabi kusa balls for the emersed portions, I found that regular sphagnum moss ball works as well. I think many people really get hung up on PAR reading, and there’s always constant debate whether a particular light/PAR reading will be the best , but also those are the people with aesthetically questionable-looking tanks anyway hahaha. Your Twinstar might work, I used to have one and they are not bad! PAR reading for aquarium light is measured with water. Without water, your PAR reading can be higher. If we are talking about a 20yrs old plus tree, it’s reasonable to believe the tree will perish when the condition change drastically. On the other, if the tree is young enough to adapt to the new living condition, it might be possible. It might not be a 10’ tall, world championship tree, but it might be able to thrive within a confined environment. One thing I would also consider is to simply look at your livestocks. If everything grows and seems happy, maybe it is working (?). If things start to change visually, you will know.

Yeah twinstar redid their RGB line in like 2019 and they are much brighter with a better color balance than the old models. After this paludarium build I'm going to rescape my UNS 5 gallon shallow and switch it over to high tech dutch-ish style, I think I'm going to buy another twinstar EA for this tank too but I'll probably need a dimmer since it's such a shallow footprint. Right now it's a little betta pond style with an emersed section. These trees are just 3-5 year old pre bonsais, nothing special. 5 seem to be doing well but one of them had gone yellow on me since the beginning. I plucked the bad leaves off last night so it's about 20% leaves at the moment but plenty of buds so hopefully it springs back nicely. I kind of bought 6 to account for any "whoopsie" trees. I can fit 6 in the paludarium but with only 4-5 it wouldn't look sparse either. I'm really intrigued by someone's suggestion of azaleas though.....I found some pretty crimson satsukis that I'm very tempted to just buy and put them in the paludarium instead. Seems to be a much easier and more suitable tree. But then I'd have the issue of either having to keep 6 elms also or try and unload them on someone somewhere without losing too much of my money....*sigh*

 

[Glaucus]

True, these PAR values are theoretical. Practice is different. I guess water does kind of work as a mirror. So that does give a very different dynamic. But I think bonsaiscaper means PAR values for aquatic plants that grow inside water, right?
But if the PAR values already say something is not possible, then the details and nuances of the actual practical side are maybe a waste of time. So it is good to check.

 

[Aquaticjade]

True, these PAR values are theoretical. Practice is different. I guess water does kind of work as a mirror. So that does give a very different dynamic. But I think bonsaiscaper means PAR values for aquatic plants that grow inside water, right?
But if the PAR values already say something is not possible, then the details and nuances of the actual practical side are maybe a waste of time. So it is good to check.

Water acts as a sort of diffuser. The guys I got my data table from on my LED had figured out a conversion equation to factor in-water measurements for the lights that they measured outside of water which is interesting. I don't think it's a huge difference in PAR value, but I guess their readings back up the idea that PAR readings are slightly higher when the light isn't diffused through a depth of water. I think knowing a PAR value is a good thing when you are growing plants with certain light requirements. Of course there's no way to say one light will be better for a plant than another but its very helpful in knowing if a light will be sufficient enough for certain plants. It seems that trees definitely need a little more light than even high demanding aquarium plants however. Even red stem plants.