Interesting Lighting discussion

jtesdall

jtesdall

Premium Member
Has anyone tried using the new spiral screw in fluorescents to actually light a reef tank? I know this sounds way out in la la land, but I have been doing some research.

26 Watt 6500K Spiral Fluorescents are about $6.50 at Wal-Mart
They put out 1600 Lumens each
4-110w bulbs put out about 24000 lumens
2-150w MH put put out about 27000 lumens

This means it would take 16 spirals to create 25792 lumens. These bulbs would cost $45 at Wal-Mart against $72 for VHO's and about $100-$160 for MH's. Plus you don't have to buy an expensive ballast and could wire them in a hood fairly cheaply.

I think my figures are fairly accurate, please correct me if I am wrong.

MH's still draw the least amount of electricity so they would cost less to run. But the VHO's draw more. I have done an annual kilowatt comparison against the cost of MH and spiral bulbs. Maybe I will do that tomorrow. ;0)

Anyone tried it or have a reason why it shouldn't be done?
 
I would think it would be difficult to build a super effective reflector for a spiral bulb because of the size...
 
Thank you,

I posted on the general RC lighting forum as well. They said it won't work because the spectrum is wrong and that the light is not aimed down.

kau_cinta_ku, any chance you have Bob the penguins email? I would like to ask him some questions.
 
The spectrum isn't wrong it just isn't going to get you great color.
I put my bulb in one of those metal dome shoplights that you can clamp onto something and it points down into the refugium.
 
There is someone on the RC lighting forum that claims the PAR value or spectrun is wrong. There seems to be opinions that vary all over the map on this issue. I have been reading posts and articles. This post gives many opinons from learned peoples: ;0)

http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/lofiversion/index.php/t87485.html


Do they make an actinic CFL yet? Or is there a way to put a lens on it to give the blue spectrum? I have one on my refugium as well.
 
I don't know how there could be a whole lot of question on this- they work great over a refugium, and I actually have had my 4x6500k fluorescent fixture over my 120 for a few days and everything is completely happy. Completely ugly, too. The downside to fitting a hood with 16 fluorescent bulbs is that you have one choice for lighting - 6500k fluorescent - and that choice is ugly as sin for corals. Whether the spectrum is perfect for growing corals or not and you could figure out a reflector option, in the end it's still an ugly light temperature and probably not a good option for a reef tank.
 
Ahhh, come on Ryan ......

Well atleast you have tried it. Not having a higher temp bulb is an issue for color. But maybe they will come out with a 10K or higher bulb?
 
I am the gentleman that built that light with bob_the_penguin. I'll try to answer questions here as he is rarely if ever online.

These bulbs do work over display tanks. I run 3 26W on my 29 gallon and he is running 4 over his 30 breeder. We are growing birdsnest, staghorn, and similar lower light sps corals. They are all on the brownish side but are growing at a great pace in spite of that.

One of my coworkers copied the general idea and mounted 24 of them over his 125 gallon tank on 2x4s.

I have ok success growing some more light demanding sps as long as they were at the very top of the tank. Still colour will always be brownish.

My tank also has frogspawn, kenya trees, candy coral, zoas, gsp, and tons of sponges (my reason for having reef anyway)

We measured the par of a 6 month old 23W bulb at 2 inches away at the water surface and found it to be ~600 par.

Any other questions I will try to watch this thread.
 
OK, but the time is coming. I see Coralife now has these bulbs offered in a 10K/actinic - 50/50 bulb. It is only 10w though for $8.99.
 
LtHighlighter - Have you had any luck finding any higher temperature bulbs. On the RC - lighting forum someone says they have 10K spirals but can't find them now.
 
It is an issue of reflecting the available light. Those CF spirals are made to spread light like a tungsten light bulb 360 no reflector. If you can't get the light back down into the tank the light is useless even if you find the right temp.

I had enough Coralife spirals back in the day to give it a try. Trust me it is a waste of time.

If you want to save some cash look at the Chinese import route. Do your research and you will save a bundle. Don't do your research and Aquatrader will burn your house down.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10079125#post10079125 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Covey
It is an issue of reflecting the available light. Those CF spirals are made to spread light like a tungsten light bulb 360 no reflector. If you can't get the light back down into the tank the light is useless even if you find the right temp.

I had enough Coralife spirals back in the day to give it a try. Trust me it is a waste of time.

If you want to save some cash look at the Chinese import route. Do your research and you will save a bundle. Don't do your research and Aquatrader will burn your house down.
Click to expand...

T5's and Mh bulbs don't have internal reflectors which is why the external reflector is important. Other than tank appearance being an issue there is no reason why they wouldn't grow coral since they do a fine job on refugiums.
 
MH is a near point source. The lumniarch style diamond reflector and many other do a good job of getting the light back to the tank.

T-5HO is a narrow line source. The IceCap SLR and many of the newer Euro reflectors do a good job of getting the light back down into the tank.

Both very different lighting technologies have one thing in common there fairly easy to reflect a good amount of light back into the tank. Again the spiral CF lamps where mean to directly replace tungsten bulbs in everyday fixtures. There is no way to direct the same amount of lights off the spiral CF bulbs.

At one time internal reflectors where very popular in VHO bulbs but as it turns out reflecting the light from a bulb even once back thru the other side of the glass could lose you up to 40% of the original PAR the internal bulbs reflector thing died out quickly.

Again lastly. I tired this first hand back in my planted tank days. I had 3 Coralife CF Screw in and 3 6500K from Lowe's or Walmart. It was not bright. When I coughed up the cash for a "blinding"sarcasm 110W PC light from JBJ it was in the neighborhood of 50% brighter. Cheap didn't work.

Reinvent the wheel if you want but don't be surprised if it doesn't roll.;)
 
Oh yeah and if you want to talk light useful for corals you need to work in PAR. Lumens is not nearly as useful.
 
UNCLE - However, I enjoyed and learned immensely from the great discussion on this topic.

I will stick with my original plan of moving my original 4 VHO's to the new 55. Then I will setup 2-250 MH and 2 Actinic VHO's on the new 90. Maybe even add one 40w actinic for moonlight, not really happy with my moonlight LED's.

Does that sound better? ;0)
 
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