Lighting Poll

[Pan]

heh, now add to this discussion the LED fictures...ie solaris ( ithink thats them)

[Fish]

aww crap... no wonder I can't sleep at night ( :

Solaris looks awesome and has great possibilities! - too rich for my blood though. Who knows, maybe LED is the future....?

[Doug]

Comparison is actually hard to do without using some measuring device as Steve mentioned. I believe the thread on Rc Chad mentioned, does have lots of par measures.

I will agree with Chad, that my 4 T-5,s are brighter than my two 175w halides. No disputing that. What they will measure at the tanks bottom is another question.

Then again, I,m comparing with 14K 175w bulbs. If I used the new Iwasaki 14K bulb, I would assume the halides would be brighter. So there,s the problem.

My friends 250w 14K halides is not as bright as all his T-5,s. A pair of 400w 14K,s are a bit brighter but throw a pair of 65K Iwasaki,s on and wholley mackeral.

[Reefer Rob]

If somebody in the Lower Mainland has a light meter and they want to take some measurements, they could measure my lowly 324 watts of T5s I have now, or wait until I set up my 180, it will have about 800 watts of T5 lighting over it. That sounds like more fun

[StirCrazy]

Originally Posted by Reefer Rob

If somebody in the Lower Mainland has a light meter and they want to take some measurements, they could measure my lowly 324 watts of T5s I have now, or wait until I set up my 180, it will have about 800 watts of T5 lighting over it. That sounds like more fun

Ok when you do this make sure it is a PAR meter not a lux or what ever meter. To bad you wern't on the Island as I do have a PAR meter.

Steve

[kwirky]

There are a lot of factors to consider for the "best" light.

I think individual applications can be deciding factors for "the best light". Square tanks vs long/narrow tanks, deep tanks, shallow tanks, etc etc.

I think cube tanks are best lit with MH lights. T5's are good IF they're propperly reflected. And a properly cooled fixture (not the sunlight supply fixture) can get almost DOUBLE the output (can't remember the name of that 'better' branded T5 fixture). I'm really contemplating voiding my sunlight supply warranty and carving holes in the top of my 8 bulb fixture for ventilation fans. Heard you get about a 75% increase in output by running the lights cool.

about those solaris lights, I think of them as buying your fixture, AND your next 8 bulbs at the same time. That's something I rather would NOT like to do, since it can be great to experiment with a different bulb combination when you change lights. Sure you can change the colour, but you're just decreasing output with colour changes. The good thing going for the solaris fixture though is the fancy cloud effects it's computer can do.

I was pricing out the components of the solaris for a while, and those 1-2W LED's get pretty pricey once you work in the cost of their power supplies. Not very economical to DIY...

speaking of economical, MH wins as king for costs if you understand how to solder a capacitor

[Fish]

Are you thinking of "Aquatinics" fixtures? They are getting some good reviews because they come with cooling fans and acrylic shields and their individual reflectors are all stacked in a parabolic shape so you get better mixing of light. Unfortunately, the ballasts on the aquatinics fixtures are 'hard start' and not as good as Sunlight Supply's. I know that the Sunlight Supply have been tested with fans and a par meter and that their output is better with active cooling... but I didn't think it was anywhere near 75% better! I thought it was more like 15-20%???

- Chad