February 15, 2008 Meeting Minutes
Announcements:
14th Annual All-Ohio Frag Swap, sponsored by C-SEA, will be Sunday, April 13th, 2008, Noon to 4 pm, with HUGE raffle beginning at 3 pm.
Location (same site as last year):
American Legion Hall--Clifton Post
22001 Brookpark Rd, Fairview Park, OH 44126
Fragswapper.com - Eric Kreeger announced that he will have the site turned on this week for the 2008 Frag Swap. Be aware if you have already registered it was likely for the 2007 swap.
John Janda has requested that anyone with material from the club library please return the items if your done with it.
Guest Speaker: Tullio Dell Aquila
“Tullio Dell Aquila is head of new product development and founding
partner of Aquatic Research and Development. Located in Utica, New York,
ARAD is a contract lighting manufacturer and developer specializing in
advanced high power LED lighting systems for aquarium and aquaculture
use. Tullio has spent over a decade focusing on the importance of proper
lighting techniques for aquarium and aquaculture use. His dedication and
continued work with high power full spectrum LED systems has made him a
true pioneer in the aquarium and aquaculture trade.
Tullio has been an avid reef aquarium hobbyist for over fifteen years.
With an extensive technical background, he initially started out
researching, testing, and developing products for various companies in
our industry. During this time he helped design, and develop numerous
aquarium products still available to hobbyist today. Today Tullio spends
most of his time developing and testing new lighting formats for various
industries as well as designing LED, metal halide and fluorescent based
lighting systems for top companies in our hobby.
Abstract: Full spectrum LED systems for aquarium and aquaculture use.
See the future of aquarium lighting. I will be demonstrating some of the
brightest LED packages available today and showing how to design and
build an LED fixture for aquarium use.†Source: Bio. from C-sea Website.
Program Highlights:
Before continuing; on behalf of the C-sea members, I thank Tullio for sharing his knowledge and experience on the subject of Reef Aquarium Lighting with all the members. I would also like clarify that in writing this summary of Tullio’s presentation I have intentionally left out information that has resulted in heated debates in other forums/posts. It is not my intent to misrepresent Tullio’s presentation, I just simply don’t want to be in the center of a debate.
Tullio started with a brief history of reef aquarium lighting discussing the initial use of standard/high output (HO), and very high output (VHO) fluorescents; the introduction of metal halides in early ’90s; and in more recently since 2001 the growing use of compact fluorescents, T5, and LED’s. Tullio explained that during this time manufacturers have learned to formulate different combinations of phosphors in the bulbs to provide both full spectrum bulbs that are suitable for reef aquariums and more specific spectrum bulbs so aquarist can achieve a specific appearance.
Tullio continued with his presentation by discussing the fundamental flaw of using the wattage of a lighting system to determine its ability to provide sufficient light over an aquarium. The basic problem is the wattage of a system is the power required to operate the lights and not a measurement of light going into the tank. Tullio proceeded to introduced club members to the measurement of a lights efficacy for evaluating performance. Efficacy is the luminous flux of a light source (measured in lumens) divided by the wattage to generate the luminous flux (lumens/watt). In short, the higher the efficacy the more efficient the bulb is at producing actual light from the power consumed. Tullio sited relative efficacies that place both LED’s and Metal halide lamps at the same level and both ahead of fluorescents in terms of efficacy. It should be noted that the efficacy of LEDs has been rapidly improving and trends show it will continue to improve meaning LEDs may soon be the leader in terms of efficacy.
Tullio went on to discuss the more obscure, but equally important, points of bulb configurations and reflectors. Tullio explained that while efficacy describes the efficiency of the bulb-ballast combination it is still largely based on manufacturer’s luminous flux measurements that are totaled from all directions of the lamp. In an aquarium fixture we should also be concerned with the light directed into our tank. To make use of light that is emitted in the wrong direction we use reflectors above the bulbs which are not 100 percent efficient and very in effectiveness depending on reflector material and design.
Tullio explained how much of the light exiting the top of a compact fluorescent relative to our tanks is reflected right back into the bulb. Likewise, systems with multiple fluorescent tubes placed closely together have the same problems. The use of individual reflectors on T5 lamps, such as the icecap retrofits, was sited as the most optimal use of reflectors on fluorescent lamps.
Metal halides present an almost point source which allows engineers to optimize reflectors and direct a higher percentage of the light output into the aquarium. Tullio sited the work of Sanjay Joshi on evaluating metal halide systems and reflectors; for members who are unaware of Sanjay’s work his website is:
http://www.reeflightinginfo.arvixe.com.
Finally Tullio introduced LED’s and demonstrated some examples of how bright their directional light is. The advantage LED’s provide is the light produced is already directed forward from the source and towards our tanks. The use of fixtures here is really more to focus the light into a tighter area rather than redirect light headed the wrong direction. Because of this, LEDs are able to get a higher percentage of their overall light production into our tanks.
Touching briefly on tank husbandry; Tullio stressed that with the advancements in bulb spectrums, light fixture efficiencies, and ballasts that overdrive bulbs, tank owners are tending towards too much light on tanks. Tullio pointed out that with lighting systems getting more effective at illuminating our tanks lower powered systems can satisfy the inhabitants’ requirements. On a brief discussion of moonlight LEDs, Tullio also pointed out how tank inhabitants can benefit from a little illumination; for example hunting pods that come out night.
Following the LED fixture demonstrations Tullio took some questions from the audience which I’ll try and summarize here:
• Regarding the life of LEDs, they are projected to maintain 70% of their output for 50,000 hours.
• Spectral shift; Tullio explained the output of a raw LED is already in the blue regime. In order to achieve different color temperatures or full spectrum output a phosphorous layer is added over the diode. Therefore, as the phosphors degrade the spectrum output of an LED will shift towards blue where fluorescents and halides shift towards the yellow/green/ and red end of the spectrum.
• Heat; LEDs do not emit forward heat into the tank but the do produce heat that is removed by heat sinks and/or fans on the top of the fixture.
• Developments: include new LED fixtures that are simple on/off control and also systems that can be interfaced with controllers for timer and dawn/dusk settings.
• Glimmer Lines: yes, LEDs will produce glimmer lines like metal halides.
• Tank Depth: Tullio stated that LED’s can be used on tanks deeper than 24â€Â.
• Cost projection: Tullio stated he was optimistic we will see more attractive pricing in the next 1-2 years but felt definitely in 5yrs.
Finally, for those looking for various lighting manufacturers and systems, some of the names mentioned in the presentation and audience include: PFO lighting, Omega One, IceCap lighting, Aquaillumination, Nano Customs, JBJ, Oceanic, Iwasaki.
Hope this was a benefit to those who could not make the meeting.
-Dave
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