Need Actinic Suggestions

midgetwaiter · #1 09-26-2006, 05:56 AM

I have a home made 150w DE pendant over my 20 gal with a Ushio 10000k bulb in it. I'm very happy with this setup so far aside from the colour I get out of it. The bulb has become much more white now that I am getting close to 100 hours on it but my zoas and my lionfish both look pretty bleh under it. I'm going to put a crocea in this tank so I'm thinking that moving to a 14000k or higher bulb would not be terribly smart unless I track down a radium or something and build different fixture. Most of the other bulbs sacrifice too much PAR.

This leads me to thinking about actinics but I can't figure out a way to do it. The pendant is rectangular about 10" by 8" suspended right over the center. I tried to find a way to get a T5 strip across the back but it was getting too hot because of the MH. I am now thinking about putting a couple of PC strips running front to back on either side of the pendant. I only have a 1' to work with so I can probably only fit 13w bulbs there. I can't decide if this is worth trying or if I am not going to have enough blue coming from them to matter.

So does anyone have some ideas or am I going to have to go back to Albert and get an Aquaconnect bulb? I don't want to see his I told you so dance again

albert_dao · #2 09-26-2006, 06:52 AM

midgetwaiter · #3 09-26-2006, 07:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by albert_dao

Lol!

Thank you for your constructive suggestion. Do you have those bulbs in stock yet?

albert_dao · #4 09-26-2006, 01:27 PM

Anytime man, ahha.

1" on either side is pretty slim pickings. Why NOT just get a new bulb?

But yeah, I don't have them yet. Still expecting...

midgetwaiter · #5 09-28-2006, 06:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by albert_dao

1" on either side is pretty slim pickings. Why NOT just get a new bulb?

I've reconciled myself to spending considerable amounts of money on this hobby but spending it twice because I made a bad call the first time annoys me. I was wondering if maybe there was something like a problem with my ballast that was giving me such a yellow output so I went and did some research to find out what would be a good comparison. I pulled a spectral plot off of Sanjay Joshi's site so I could get a rough idea what the Ushio 10000k should look like compared to a Hamilton SE 10000k I happen to have around. Turns out that the CCT he measured for the Ushio bulb was more like 6500k and if I compare it against some 6500k CFs I have it's pretty much the same. Great.

I'll admit to not knowing much about MH systems but this came as a bit of a surprise, from looking at Sanjay's site nobody is really offering a true 10000k bulb but at least most of them get closer than Ushio.

WWWD · #6 09-28-2006, 07:20 AM

Stop wasting your cash on ghetto lighting.

http://www.premiumaquatics.com/Merch...gory_Code=PFOp

albert_dao · #7 09-28-2006, 08:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by WWWD

Stop wasting your cash on ghetto lighting.

http://www.premiumaquatics.com/Merch...gory_Code=PFOp

Heh, there's better units than that for the money (Sunlight Supply LumenMax 3, LumenArc Mini's, etc). And besides, the reflector has nothing to do with his inquiry.

BTW, not that I've referrenced it, but Iwaki bulbs are suppose to have some of the best Color Index numbers.

Anyway, PM me Aaron.

WWWD · #8 09-28-2006, 04:08 PM

It wasnt the reflector I was showing it was a small pendant unit that has built in actinic mini builbs. Dude it's up to you, a retailer can probably talk you into anything they have to sell but in the end if you still don't have what you want then you wasted a lot of money.

albert_dao · #9 09-28-2006, 05:37 PM

There's a few issues I have with a unit like that though:

- The heat from the halides will skewer the performance and lifespan of the PC's.
- PC actinic lighting is garbage compared to T5 or VHO T12.
- Because of the PC's being fit in the same reflector as the halide, you're losing a lot of light to poor design and that's not even account for the flashthrough.

As far as AquaConnects and other good 14k bulbs go, you'll find a lot of people run these just fine without actinic supplementation.

But whatever, I'm just a retailer trying to scam another customer.

Delphinus · #10 09-28-2006, 05:50 PM

I don't know much about the Aquaconnect bulb. Are you married to the DE idea? Because I recently tried out the Iwasaki 14k bulb (175W mogul) and man let me tell you I wish I hadn't sold my other 175w ballasts because it puts many other bulbs in the 250w size to shame. It's not blue though like what you would expect of a 14k label, to me the colour is "what a good 10k should look like." I guess it goes to show though that don't get hung up on labels because they mean next to nothing. The only problem with the Iwasaki 14k is that it's hard to find and it's not the cheapest bulb out on the market by any stretch.

But anyhow. The issue here is that a 20g is a small footprint to work with.

I did shoehorn some VHO actinics into my 20g canopy, and I had a 150W small floodlight style pendent in there. It can be done but it sure was tight.

If I were to do it all again, I'd probably just go with a good 150W lamp, a decent reflector, and probably not even bother with a canopy.