New lighting - new technology????

[stephane]

Originally posted by BCReefer:
I hear what everyone is saying about the lumens etc, but what about the cost savings on power consumption and then the water evaporation from the MH. I currently have 1 175W MH and 2 30W actinics. The problem that I find with MH is that with my 33G tanks which is 3’ long I believe that only the middle 12” gets the full intensity of the MH and the further you go out the lower the intensity.

Please correct me if I am wrong.

So I was thinking about putting 2 of the 65W or 95W bulbs in and take out the 175W MH.

Stircrazy – yes that looks exactly like what I saw.

Stephane – you indicate that you would need 3 bulbs to match the lumens. I am at about 50% understanding of how lumens work with our aquariums, I understand the wattage and Kelvin thing, but not so hot on the lumens. Can you explain to me, in laymans terms please, why the lumens are important.

Lastly, if you way some of the pro’s and con’s like less power consumption, no noisy fan needed, cheaper bulb, no ballast needed – but then it is fluorescent, less lumens??, new technology.

What if we went with the 90W lights which is supposedly comparable to 400W?

Thanks all for the information.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">the consumption cost are about the same if you compare to MH
the lumen are the real intensity a lamp (real light to get out of the bulb) They
said 90W equal 400w but not 400w of MH bulb they
more often compare to incandescent bulb who are
energy wasted. kelvin rated is the color of the lamps. an watt are the power consumption

HID (hight intensity dicharge) for mercury vapor,
sodium,and metal halide are the best economy savingway to light anyting thats require lot of light. That why any big commercial area is ligth with those lamp, you would never see a Home Depos light with any kind of fluorescent for $ reason

that said it alway depend on where do you want to go whith your reef if you dont want to keep
animal that require big intensity of light it could be an option to put conpact fluorecent but
to save the most $ I will go more regular like a GE super daylight at 3$ each and overdrive it by electronique ballast or a ice cap and suplement it by actnic 03 that way you could change all your buld every six monts for very less $ dont forget that those conpact are gone a loose their initial intensity probably very fast and shift color in less tham one years

never forget that No fluorescent could never give you the full spectrum of a MH buld and the beautifull color that they give to you tank .
IMO lightning is a great part of a good looking reef I will never buy a 125$ coral an put them under a light that made them look like crap.

see you Stephane

[FishGeek]

Clinton

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Simon

[StirCrazy]

Originally posted by stephane:
[QB to save the most $ I will go more regular like a GE super daylight at 3$ each and overdrive it by electronique ballast or a ice cap [/QB]

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">you said save money and IceCap in the same statment :D

conpact are gone a loose their initial intensity probably very fast and shift color in less tham one years [/QB]

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">actualy thee are a few tests going on right now that show "good PC's" only dim with age, there spectrum doesent change.. if I can find them again i will post the info for you to read.

never forget that No fluorescent could never give you the full spectrum of a MH buld and the beautifull color that they give to you tank . [/QB]

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">actualy this is far from the truth.. there is a far greater selection of NO tube colours than you can imagin.. MH is still very limited in its colour selection as are PC bulbs. the problem is that NO bulbs are not as intense as MH so you can't get the amount of light you need in deeper tanks.. but as far as colour goes NO is more virsitile than MH anyday IMHO.

Ok, I went to a few stores today the bulbs I was talking about require a external ballast but I found the self ballasting ones also. the local hydroponic store wants 139.00 each for a 95 watt bulb (so -10% on orders over 100.00.. works out to 125.00) they are 6400K and the internal ballast in them is a electronic one.. so instant on and no flicker. I am going to keep looking for a sourse for them because if a store is charging 139.00 you should be able to buy them wholesale for under 100.00 easy.

so even at 120.00 each they would still be good for nano's refuge's, or inplace of other PC's if you don't mind the 6400K temp.. they are ~12" long and 3" wide so you could stuff a lot of them in a hood if you wanted to .

Steve

[BCReefer]

So would 2 95W lights be just as good as 1 MH bulb for lumens but with a better spread of the light?

I am in the midst of upgrading my lights and I want to go as cheap as possible both short term (i.e. cost of ballast and bulb) and long term (i.e. power consumption).

[StirCrazy]

the totaly lumen value might be just as good but the intensite woulden't.. so IMO it totaly depends on how deep you are trying to punch that light into the water.. thats why MH are so good. being a point sorce light they penatrate a lot deeper than the equivalent powered PC.

with my light meter at the bottom of my tank (24" distance between the meter and the lights) I get a reading of 5375 lumen +/- 3% from two 96 watt PC and 3 NO actinic bulbs (but this is anywhere on the bottom of my tank not just in a couple spots). I am going to take another reading with a water proof meter when I fill up the tank so I can see how much I lose due to the water ( has anyone done this and worked out a percentage loss per distance in water?)

Steve

[stephane]

[quote]Originally posted by StirCrazy:
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">you said save money and IceCap in the same statment :D

I have said overdrive whith a electronique ballast they only cost 35$ or a ice cap If your
good in calcul you would even save on long run whith an ice cap

never forget that No fluorescent could never give you the full spectrum of a MH buld and the beautifull color that they give to you tank . [/QB]

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">actualy this is far from the truth.. there is a far greater selection of NO tube colours than you can imagin.. MH is still very limited in its colour selection as are PC bulbs. the problem is that NO bulbs are not as intense as MH so you can't get the amount of light you need in deeper tanks.. but as far as colour goes NO is more virsitile than MH anyday IMHO

you could never achieve the magical look given by a MH even if you mix all the fluo in the world do you have ever see shimering effect in a tank light with fluo? a tank light with MH alway look more alive

but your are probably right an that why in a couple of years all reef will be convert whith
your new bulb

[StirCrazy]

hehe ya.. I like the glimmer lines also.. they look cool, but you can get them with yellow MH bulbs also. some people have reported getting them from overdriven NO tubes but I haven't seen that myself.

I can't see anyone using these bulbs for a show tank, well I guess I can as Safari uses one on one of there tanks so I found out today.. looks good but it has actinic help.. now if they made a 10000K version :D

Steve

[fredfish]

"These are also available in wattages as high as 100, replacing the energy guzzling 400 watt and above, in commercial spaces."

I think that this hydroponics site is being misleading. Notice that they don't say what kind of lighting, just 400W. I am sure they are 4X more efficient than no lighting, but not HID.

Has anybody thought about how the configuration of these lights may affect the usable light they emit. With the two bends it is like putting 4 tubes in a bundle. How much of the light shines inwart towards another part of the tube and never gets out to your tank?

Fred.

[reefburnaby]

Hi,

I have seen these lamps before and I think reefers used them too (especially nano) - light of america sound familiar ? They are basically 65W (or 55W) PCs compressed in to a smaller package. So instead of 2 tubes (like a regular PC), there are 4 to 6 tubes in a zig-zag configuration. The 4x comparison (I think) is betweeen normal incandescent lamps to this PC lamp.

- Victor.

[Troy F]

Patrick, I like your preposed lighting set up but is there any reason you can't go with the 150W 10000K set up?