A great refugium lightbulb, IMHO!

[mpdharley]

jjmg - That's a good point, thanks for clarifying that. I decided to give the bulb a try since Marc was having such good luck with it. I already had the sockets with the heavy duty clamps so I only had to purchase the 3 bulbs. It would be nice if I get good growth out of it -- I'd much rather spend the money to run 57 watts of light instead of 190!

Anyway, I'll keep everyone updated with how well my Chaet grows over the next two weeks.

[jjmg]

Originally posted by mpdharley
jjmg - That's a good point, thanks for clarifying that. I decided to give the bulb a try since Marc was having such good luck with it. I already had the sockets with the heavy duty clamps so I only had to purchase the 3 bulbs. It would be nice if I get good growth out of it -- I'd much rather spend the money to run 57 watts of light instead of 190!

Anyway, I'll keep everyone updated with how well my Chaet grows over the next two weeks.

I hope it works for you. Have you looked at the daylight flourescents that HD sells for around $6? The VHO ballast will overdrive them to nearly VHO output at @ 6500K. They won't last as long as a real VHO but for 6 bucks you can change them every 5 months! Not a savings in electric, but still a savings and macro like the 6500K better anyway.

[mpdharley]

No, I haven't tried those. But, I got better growth out of the 10k than the Corallife 6500k (VHO). It may be because the 10k's were URIs and had the internal reflector. Although I have reflectors on my the hood I built for the fuge (a couple of old paraboloics), the URIs seemed to put a lot more light in the fuge.

[Red_Roadster]

Anyone considered this one?

http://www.lightsofamerica.com/floods.htm

Has a CRI of 6500, a plastic cover, reflective backing, doesn't put off much heat,and would sit flush on top of any cut out made for a fuge.

I have one in my yard that I am thinking about taking down and using.

Red

[melev]

Originally posted by Red_Roadster
Anyone considered this one?

http://www.lightsofamerica.com/floods.htm

Has a CRI of 6500, a plastic cover, reflective backing, doesn't put off much heat,and would sit flush on top of any cut out made for a fuge.

I have one in my yard that I am thinking about taking down and using.

Red

Red, many people do use these, because they are able to get them in their area. The Home Depots around here don't sell them anymore, and shipping from a vendor adds to the cost.

If you do want to use the one you've got, as others have posted here on RC, you'll need to drill holes in the housing to allow heat to escape so it won't overheat and turn off/fail.

[schoy]

hi all
does anybody know if they do mail order as i`m in the uk would like to try these but cant find here
thanks schoy

[AcroSteve]

I could not find any on ebay.

[melev]

Originally posted by schoy
hi all
does anybody know if they do mail order as i`m in the uk would like to try these but cant find here
thanks schoy

Wouldn't your power source be different than the U.S.? I know Europe is 220v. Isn't England?

We run at 110v in the U.S.

[kenreef]

save

[ONAGI]

there were a lot on e-bay over the weekend. $35 or 39 plus shipping I think. It's under fish in the lighting category.

[melev]

But the one I'm suggesting is only $10.

[ONAGI]

Sold! That's a much better deal. Especially when it achieves the same goal.

[TAMU Reef]

I saw this bulb in Home Depot over the weekend, good suggestion on using it. By the way, Lowes does NOT have a bulb that is even close to this one so don't waste your time there. You have just got me started back on my refugium project.

Thanks melev!
TAMU Reef

[melev]

You're welcome.

[melev]

Here are two pictures of the bulb over my refugium. As you know, taking a picture of something bright makes the rest of the picture darker.



So here I focused on the midpoint of the refugium to give you a better impression of the actual appearance.



This bulb is not hot to the touch, and is sealed so it can be wiped off easily.

[melev]

Btw, my Mangroves are getting some of this light also, 24/7 and are doing nicely.

[reefer20G]

Marc, that looks awesome. I cannot wait to get mine up and running.

How do you have those mangroves squeezed back there?

Nice to be back on track.

[melev]

The Mangroves were actually tall enough to have them in the display, but in a 55g as full as mine, there simply wasn't room for that monster root ball. so I put them in the refugium. They are growing behind the tank, which is 4" from the wall. They get light from the canopy above, and the refugium light adds some as well. Plus daylight from the side because they face the patio doors. Here's a picture I took of the mangroves about 6 weeks ago.

[reefer20G]

Wow, that's great. Nice use of space. I saw that image on your ID page a while back, but just put the space together with the other image of your sump. Really nice.

How many mangroves do you have? How long have you had them?

[melev]

Here are a few more pictures of the mangroves, as of today!

The first image is comparable to the original shot some time back. I'll check on the date.



Here's a new leaf about to sprout. Thanks for having me look so closely! The browning of leaves is normal and it happens very slowly over time. Eventually they drop off as new growth occurs. I know it isn't very pretty for this shot, but it is nature and not art.



And this is the other stem. Look very closely and you can see a tiny needle-like upright stem that will eventually fill in or become a leaf.



According to my logs, I got the two plants on Jan 26, 2004.

[reefer20G]

Very cool. It looks like more than two in the first pic without looking really close. How big/or how many leaves did they have when you got them.

They look really nice by the way.

[melev]

Oh, I don't know. Maybe 5 or 6 leaves each, standing about 16 to 18" tall. It doesn't look like I've increased the leaves at all. They seem to just replace the ones that die.

This new growth gives me another reason to be happy with this bulb, since they do get 5100K light all the time. For those reading along, I just want to remind you that this light will appear quite yellowish, compared to a daylight bulb. After I got used to it, I actually prefer it to the previous bulb I used.

[reefer20G]

Yeah, thanks for the info Marc. Sorry to get off topic, but in a different way.

[netgunz]

I just picked up the LOA flourex lamp and fixture model 9027 at HD. This is the 27 watt version that puts out 150W incandescent equivalent. It is also 6500k color temp which is ideal for macro. It was about $25 for the setup. Will keep you posted on results of using this bulb to grow Chaeto in a fuge environment.
http://www.lightsofamerica.com/floods.htm

[slanky]

Melev, thanks for the suggestion. I was just in the process of setting up my fuge for growing chaetomorpha when I saw this thread.

I wound up buying the 85w=19 version as Home Depot didn't have the 75w one you show in the pictures.

Anyway, I got the fuge set up a few weeks ago. I bought a cheapo $7 light fixture to hold the bulb and late last week I got a very small ball of chaetomorpha off Ebay. As of this morning, that tiny ball of chaeto has grown to the size of a watermelon almost and is still growing like a weed! The growth is amazing. I'm already thinking I'm going to have to trim back the chaeto in another week or so. Oh well, guess I can re-sell all my macro on Ebay or in the selling forum

Thanks for the bulb suggestion! It runs very cool and produces outstanding growth (at least in my chaeto)