Lighting a tank with a Xenon bulb?

[GoFish]

Has anyone seen someone use or used a Xenon automotive bulb to light a tank?
I have several ballasts wiring and new bulbs from BMWs in different Kelvin ratings lying around.

Thoughts?

[hillegom]

Sorry I don't know either, following along

[StirCrazy]

yup several times years ago, to much heat not enough usable light, very inefficient lights

Steve

[sphelps]

I've changed such bulbs in my BMW before, I wouldn't want that bill twice a year for bulb changes

[mike31154]

Interesting topic, so I started surfing & found some cool info. Xenon automobile lamps are actually Metal Halide that only use Xenon for quicker start up, i.e. instant on for safety reasons! Last thing you want on car headlights is a prolonged start up time. Also interesting to note that Xenon lamps closely mimic sunlight, so they really should be ideal for our hobby, no? Of course most of us prefer a bluer light for our tanks to make the coral 'pop', so Xenon might be a little to white.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xenon_arc_lamp

I recall working on these in my former life as a technician. You could light up your tank from a mile away! All you need is a 28 Volt DC power supply that can pump out 55 to 62 amps, so somewhere in the neighbourhood of 1600 watts. Check your local army/navy/air force surplus store, perhaps you can score a second hand unit for cheap! Or contact Spectrolab directly, maybe we can do a group buy!

http://www.spectrolab.com/searchligh...%20REV%20E.pdf

[hillegom]

Wow
we really need 40 million candlepower

[mrhasan]

Originally Posted by mike31154

Interesting topic, so I started surfing & found some cool info. Xenon automobile lamps are actually Metal Halide that only use Xenon for quicker start up, i.e. instant on for safety reasons! Last thing you want on car headlights is a prolonged start up time. Also interesting to note that Xenon lamps closely mimic sunlight, so they really should be ideal for our hobby, no? Of course most of us prefer a bluer light for our tanks to make the coral 'pop', so Xenon might be a little to white.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xenon_arc_lamp

I recall working on these in my former life as a technician. You could light up your tank from a mile away! All you need is a 28 Volt DC power supply that can pump out 55 to 62 amps, so somewhere in the neighbourhood of 1600 watts. Check your local army/navy/air force surplus store, perhaps you can score a second hand unit for cheap! Or contact Spectrolab directly, maybe we can do a group buy!

http://www.spectrolab.com/searchligh...%20REV%20E.pdf

The corals will bleach before you even turn that thing on!