Inexpensive nano lighting
 

I found an inexpensive way to light my 2.5 gallon nano. I went to London Drugs and bought a couple of swing arm fluorescent desk lamps for $14.95 each. They have a nine watt daylight PC bulb.

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c9...nolight001.jpg

What color temperature are those "daylight" bulbs?

Nice looking wave nano.

they sell something similar to those at costco..don't know the wattage, but they're quad tube and bright suckers

Would be good for refugiums too.

for 40 bucks you could have got a 9w x 2 coralife light with proper spectrum and a nicer look.

Can't work out how to link prevous thread but in nano tank forum under "any suggestions" I have a couple of shots of the costco light . It's a four bar 27 watt and looks nice !!
:) Managed to link photo's . Cost about $19.00................Dave.

Lights of america does make nice quad PC lamps.

Here is a pic of a sump with one

http://www.reefcentral.com/totm/2001-08/index.php

A reminder to those who only want to criticise:twised:, I am reporting what I found, and am happy with. As to "proper spectrum". Please tell people that is your OPINION, not necessarily FACT

You are happy with it? How long has it been setup?

You still haven't answered what color spectrum those are, it would be helpfull for those reading this post and considering those lights to know what the spectrum of the bulbs is.

looks pretty low, around 6k

The LOA quad is 6500k. I'm considering adding it to my nano but I'm wondering if it will look too yellow.Since I would be adding to one 10000k PC I'm thinking the combo would be ok. BTW I've read that coral growth is best at this spectrum,that is 6500k.So are the LOA lights yellow from anyone using them?

I was under the impression that the proper spectrum was around the 6k region, the colour temp closest to the sun? And that we only use higher K bulbs because they are more visuallly appealing, but dont offer the same amount of growth as 6k bulbs?

Different wavelenths of light penetrate the water more/better. So as you go deeper, only certain wavelengths are present, or in high concentrations. So corals are not exposed to 6K sunlight, they get "filtered" light, with higher concentrations of blue light because it penetrates the water better.

So higher K lamps are used for coral growth, and visual appeal. Different corals, depending on where in the reef they are, will "want" different spectrums of light. They can also adapt though, and change out the symbiotic *cant remember name* and get food from different spectrums of light.

Hey Bob is that you little tank?.....looks good:cool:

That is a pretty good impression. Sunlight at noon at the equator is 6400K, so I believe daylight bulbs are around 6500K.:mrgreen:

It is Red Sea wave tank. Kind of cute, but only 2.5 gallons. It probably won't be set up for very long. That is why I only used inexpensive lights.:mrgreen:

Yes, that is why they call them daylight bulbs, but this is not necessarily the "proper" spectrum for corals and fish because they are underwater, not on the surface of the planet at the equator.

nice light might try to get one for my nano good score Bob nice and cheap:mrgreen:

ya that would work on some ones nano to light a AC 500 for a refugium.

Almost exactly what i need as well!Nice one BOB :>

just curious where did you get that wave tank?I dont think i have crabs was critisizeing you just letting you know about a really good inexpensive light.The coralife light sits right on top of your lid it is just a bit cleaner.Plus my corals are doing great under that light.I think those light's look good if they work well enough.

I saw that tank at BAs here in Edmonton last night actually, would presume other locals have them too, or can get them.

$30 at J&L.
http://www.jlaquatics.com/phpstore/s...t_ID=pc-al0909

So the same price.

Good thinking tho.

I got it from Eric (deathstar). I don't really want a light sitting right on top of the tank, so this works fine.:mrgreen:

I dont think I sold him a tank.I only sold one to ruth.But thanks anyway

What about PAR? I thought the Iwaski 6500k bulb has the best PAR out of all the metal halide bulbs. And, doesn't more PAR equal more growth? The PAR rating from 20k bulbs is significantly lower than that of 6.5k bulbs, which leads me to beleive that lower K bulbs (around 6.5k) give better growth than higher K bulbs (14-20k).

Sorry, Im not really sure how to quote properly with this site.

Oops, nevermind, I just figured it out.
lol

True





False


true but nit relevant in our tanks

Both true and false.. (low K is better for growth than high K but some people think high K brings out colors better), Besides this is a thread about Bob's cheap lights he found that actually look decent. If you want to know more do a search on light spectrum, lots and lots of good information

Looks good Bob.

Oh and sense Bob didn't pick it up "spectrum" is already a plural so you don't need the "S" on the end.. :mrgreen:

Steve

Steve, a question for you.

I know say 6500K iwasaki bulbs have great PAR, but do you know how much of that PAR gets to the bottom of a 30" tank compared to a 20K bulb?

The blue in the 20K should penetrate better, but I don't know whether 30" will make a difference or not?

And lower K is not always higher PAR. 20K XM bulbs put out more PAR than 15K XM bulbs, just wanted to point that out.

I hope i get this right. and i wont be offended if i'm wrong but don't badh the heck of out of me...

alot of the 6500k will make its way down there its the color that pushes it to the bottom so if you look at the 20 K color its has to filter out is color to make it to the bottom. Because I believe and some one can back me up on this or help me out blues are the first color to go, when its in the water. IE as you go thur the leve lof water.

And Yellow /white hardly hasa nay color to defuse thur the waves of water.

So the lower K rating will break longer thur the water then a 50 K or a 20 K

a lot more than the 20K bulb.. just because the PAR is higher to start with and 2 feet of water isn't going to make a difference.




In 80 feet of water nope.. what you got to under stand is that the blue is not filtered out as fast as other colors of light.. so think of it this way .. even a 6500K iwasaki has a huge blue component to its spectrum.. that blue will make it just as far if not farther than the radiums or XM's 20K as it is more intense to start with.. now talking about our 24" tanks.. doesn't matter not going to cut out enuf to be significant.




Is this a new 20K bulb as the old test results showed that the 15K put out more.. but at any rate.. 15K and 20 are not accurate there 20K is probably about 17K and there 15K is probably about 16K in reality.

a AB 10K has an actual color of 13.6K and will blow any bulb on the market out of the water if run properly.. so don't get all hung up on K values as for the most part it is a misleading number used for marketing.. I had one companies bulbs here a 10K, a 14K and a 20K.. the 10K was a very impressive bulb with a decent look and a very high PAR output. the 14 and 20K bulbs you could not tell the difference in by looking at them but a camera could pick it up.. very slight.. I would say 500K to 1000K real life difference at most. but they were also both about 1/2 the Par of the 10K at the bottom of my tank so 24" of water plus 8" of air.

personaly I would like to get ahold of one of each of these new bulbs and run some par test like I did a coupld years back but I am not in the finantual position to blow 600.00 on bulbs I don't need. Now if anyone wants to loan or donate some different bulbs we can do some used comparasons on aged bulbs and see how different bulbs hold up.

also just because a bulb looks blue don't assume it has a higher blue output than a bulb that looks crisp white.. that crisp white bulb is usually a high (very high) blue spike, with just enuf green and red to make it look white.

but we shoudl leave Bob's thread to his Nano and continue this in a new thread of you want to discuss more on this.


Steve

got it back wards buddy, blue (longest visable wave lenght is the color that will go the deepest.. red will strip first, then green then finaly blue, but like I said in our 24" oceans it doesn't matter much. the trade off for having a blue bulb is lower par to start out with and corals will adapt easily to using the other colors that are with in the PAR range.

so if you like the blue look use blue bulbs, if you like the ice blue look get good 10K bulbs with VHO actinic.. if you like the white look use 10K's.

Steve

Thanks Steve I knew it was somthing like that ..

mike

so after all that nonsense do the cosco lights have proper spectrum or power to properly keep corals under?
im shure the fish could care less, but is it a good choice to not use lighting made for a fishtank instead of nightstand?

yes they will work fine.. they are a daylight bulb so they are the right spectrum.

Steve

if they had something stronger it might be a sweet sump light to save some money

where did you buy that tank?:P all glass?