Lighting Website Updates

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mwood, it's hard to see the difference unless you place them right next to each other. It's sort of a slight shift towards what I personally perceive as "white/yellow" to "white/white" as you go from like the XM to the BLV. However, since the BLV is very hard to get in the US it's a moot point (I got mine from viclite and I highly recommend people NOT repeat my experience with them).
 
Yes, Geisemann.co.uk lists them as...
5600K 'tropic'
12,500K (I assume this is the 13,000K) 'marine'
14,500K 'coral'
21,000K (I assume 20,000K) 'blue'

I dont know...that 13,000K 'Coral' doesnt look anything like the 'Coral' plot in the review. Something isnt right with the ballast selection either...I am allowed to pick 150watt M81 ballasts with 250watt bulbs...

FWIW, Geisemann has some one of the most confusing marketing/nomenclature strategies I have seen. Similar numbers or different numbers for the same bulb...giving names like coral and marine rather than a K number. Sheesh...its like picking an Intel processor.
 
Sanjay, Could you take a quick look at this info...
http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=87485

in particular...

"Short introductory physics lesson. Light posesses what is called a "wave-particle duality". In short, sometimes it behaves like a wave, and sometimes it behaves as a particle. The particles in light, called photons, should be thought of as bundles or packets of energy. One photon is a bundle of a specific amount of energy, and the amount of energy in a photon depends on the wavelength, or color, of the light. A photon from a red light source has less energy than a photon from a blue light source. The red light source has a longer wavelength than blue light, and it turns out that as the wavelength becomes smaller, the energy in each photon goes up."

Is this guy off his rocker (after all, hes being critical of PAR being used as a means of gauging output), or is he correct that blue light contains more energy for photosynthesis?
 
I gave the article a quick glance. There are several things that are incorrect in there. But the paragraph that you quoted here is correct.

Yes, a blue photon has more energy that red. But remember that the photosynthesis reaction is based on the photon being captured and starting a electron transfer process of photosynthesis. A red or blue photon will create the same photosythesis reaction, even though the blue has more energy.

All photons absorbed between 400 -700 nm can run photosynthesis. But all used at energy equivalent of a "red". So guess what happens to the excess energy from a blue photon. Yes, it is dissippated as heat, flourescence, etc.

Hence the biologist are always talk about photosyntheis in terms of number of photons (or PAR as aquarists want to call it). Corals have a wide range of pigments that allow it to capture light over a wide spectral range. much wider than what is assumed by aquarists who just want to look at chlorophyll and try to only match the peak.

Lumes and Lux are measures of light that are designed for human eyesight, and are weighted measures unlike PPFD. read my articles in reefkeeping.com :-)

sanjay.
 
That was very informative Sanjay. I didn't know that different colored photons will create the same net amount of photosynthesis. I was beginning to believe in my own formulated theory (based solely on observations in my own tank) that there was more to photosynthesis than just PAR numbers. I have been starting to believe that spectrum also plays a role. This belief was mostly brought on when I switched from 400w radiums on HQI's to 250w XM 10k's on M58's. This switch resulted in a drop of around 10 PPFD. After the switch, I noticed a large increase in growth rates. Since the PPFD was pretty much the same and no other major changes were made, I was thinking that the increased growth was correlated to a wider spectrum of light produced by the new bulbs. Any thoughts on this?

Of course, our tanks are always in a state of flux and there is so much going on that it is near impossible to say that a change in "x" caused "y" even if no other major changes were made. It could be that when I changed my bulbs is when my tank really came into balance (7 month old system). Or maybe that is when the majority of the corals had adjusted to the tank and really started to grow.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7373508#post7373508 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by moonpod
mwood, it's hard to see the difference unless you place them right next to each other. It's sort of a slight shift towards what I personally perceive as "white/yellow" to "white/white" as you go from like the XM to the BLV. However, since the BLV is very hard to get in the US it's a moot point (I got mine from viclite and I highly recommend people NOT repeat my experience with them).
Click to expand...

Is the Giesmann Coral easier to come by?
 
Yeah, I figured that most of the article was incorrect, but that part about alue light having more energy did make me wonder...

Any info on my post before that...about the Geisemann 14,500K bulbs and th 150 watt ballasts on 250watt bulbs?

Thanks Sanjay.
 
mwood, I'm not sure, but at least putatively the G'man bulb is supposed to be in the US. Officially, the BLV/Ushio 400w SE 14k is not in the US, why I dunno.
 
hey sanyjay, are the xm lights t5's? because i just bought the 48" high output 59w x 6 bulbs T5 lighting system from cadlights.com and i love it. it has NO ballasts, instant on and off (no flickering), and the thing i love the most is that it is SO much cooler in temperature compared to my aquamedic halides. they also have 2 seperate switches for the actinics and 6500k's. this thing is so bright. my corals couldn't even tell a difference from my old MH 175w system. i am never going back to p.c's and halides anymore!! i did some comparisons and even compared it to the tek t5's, cadlights ones are smaller and just as bright.
 
Sanjay, am I suposed to be able to chose a 150watt m81 ballast to go with the 250wattDe G-man bulbs? Is the 'coral' bulb really a 13,000K or a 14,500K?
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7384077#post7384077 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by hahnmeister
Sanjay, am I suposed to be able to chose a 150watt m81 ballast to go with the 250wattDe G-man bulbs? Is the 'coral' bulb really a 13,000K or a 14,500K?
Click to expand...

No, you should not be able to choose a 150W lamp with the 250W DE lamp. ? Is there a mistake in the database ? Will have to check.

I have no idea what the quoted color rating is on the G-man Coral lamp.. it tested more like a 10K lamp. Spectrally its very similar to the AB 10K lamp.

sanjay.
 
Sanjay

I was comparing a few bulbs on your site and was curious about the Giesemann line of bulbs because I think you may have miss labeled the "Coral Bulb" calling it a 13k, when it should be a 14.5k or maybe its not the coral bulb. You tested the following:

Giesemann 10K
Megachrome 13K called the "Marine Bulb"
Megachrome 14.5k called the "Coral Bulb" (On your site you have 13k)
Megachrome 20k called the "Blue Bulb"

I compared the Megachrome 13k with the Megachrome "Coral Bulb" all 250watt.

PPFD on the Megachrome 13k was 87 on the PFO HQI ballast
PPFD on the Megachrome "Coral" was 126 on the PFO HQI ballast
(Both Shielded)

I read your article when you tested the "Coral" and the numbers are different in the article than on your website. Just wanted to bring this to your attention.
 
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