glass or acrylic lens

[mrcopitr]

Hi guys,

Is a glass or acrylic len required for power compact lighthing. I have read somewhere that gorgonian react babdly to UV rays when no lens is place between the water and the lights....Is this true??? Will soft corals expand better with a len..??

Thank you for any input into this

Marco

[StirCrazy]

Marco, Although I can't give you a answer at this time about the UV out put of PC's I just wanted to let you know I am in the process of ordering a UV sensor that will alow me to test various lights and see what the UV out put from them actual is. I should have this with in the month so I will start testing in July.

Steve

[DJ88]

Unless you are using a double ended HQI without its UV lens you wont have a problem.

[reefburnaby]

Hi,

In general, as long as you aren't using blacklights (BLs or BLB), the UV concentration of fluorescent lamps is low. 8 hour exposure of conventional tube lighting has about the same exposure of 1 minute of outdoor sunlight.

Without phosphors, fluorescent tubes contain a lot of UV and not a lot of visible light. The phosphors efficiently convert UV in to visible light and heat. Hence, very little UV escapes outside the tubes -- its all contained within the tubes.

MH, MV and HQIs have a significant amount of UV. Hence, a shield is required for bulbs that do not contain a self-contained shield -- for example HQIs.

- Victor.

[mrcopitr]

Thank you guys for your input on this subject

best regards

Marco