Lighting Website Updates

[Markk96]

Originally posted by Sanjay
I sent off the article with the data on Lumenmax reflectors to Advanced Aquarist. So it should appear on feb 15th.

The short version is, is that the lumenmax puts out the same amount of light as the Lumenarc, but the peak values are slightly lower than the lumenarc. So basically, you cant go wrong with either one. The lumenmax is slightly bigger in dimensions.

sanjay.

Thanks Sanjay

I know that SLS is coming out with a Mini version sometime at the end of this month or in Feb. Those are the ones I will be wanting to run on my tank.

Mark

[Sanjay]

Originally posted by timr
Sanjay, this might already be somewhere on the site or here but can you post a Reader Digest version of what each of the parameters listed mean and what you should ideally look for in a bulb. I've looked at the site many times but when it comes to the different spikes, PPFD, efficiency, etc it gets confusing to us lighting technology rookies.

Thanks,

Tim

I am working on a series of columns for reefkeeping.com where I will explain the light concepts starting from basics and buiding up. These columns will be in small easily understandable peices designed to increase the lighting IQ of reef aquarists.


sanjay.

[mwood]

Originally posted by Sanjay
Lets make a list of features that people would like to see added to the site.

sanjay.

I saw in an artical once where you segmented the light color spectrum into color ranges and gave some summary statistics by each range. Kind of like quartiles. This would be nice. Sometimes I am guilty of looking for the highest spike around 450 and 420, but the area below the curve may be a more appropriate number.

PS, I noticed you didn't test 400w xm 10k's on electronic ballasts. Was there a reason for this or have you just not had time? I ask as I've heard the stories about xm 10k bulbs.

[Codeman00]

Originally posted by Sanjay
I am working on a series of columns for reefkeeping.com where I will explain the light concepts starting from basics and buiding up. These columns will be in small easily understandable peices designed to increase the lighting IQ of reef aquarists.


sanjay.

I can't wait to read those articles. Thanks, Sanjay.

[MattD004]

If your looking for a good coloration with decent growth for sps, which would you go with? the XM10k or the coralvue reflux 10k?

Heard a lot of people changing from xm to reeflux. Wondering if the reeflux justify the mass exodus?

[want2reef]

Sanjay,

Have you heard if Iwasaki is going to come out with a 250W 14K bulb?

Thanks

[Codeman00]

They are coming out with a 175W 14K bulb too (Aqua2) and it has high par... scroll back to page 13 and read about it.

[Ovaltine]

I know that JEBO had a horrible reputation for lighting and even tanks. They have since come out with what is suppose to be an improved version with the Odyssea Power Compact units with Lunar lights. Can anyone tell me if they have bought this new version, how it's worked out, and or if anyone has pertinent info they could share on these lights?

[Sanjay]

Originally posted by want2reef
Sanjay,

Have you heard if Iwasaki is going to come out with a 250W 14K bulb?

Thanks

I do not know. I don't talk to Iwasaki directly.

sanjay.

[mwood]

Sanjay, could you test uri vho actinics and t5 blue bulbs and post those on the website to be able to compare that light to 20k halides?

[nreefer]

I have read all 15 pages and excuse me if I missed this but I used to run 250W SE Ushio's 10,000K with a M57 ballast and switched to 250 HQI DE Ushio 10,000K with a M80 ballast. Is it true that my PPFD went from 116 for the SE bulbs down to 84 with my DE bulbs? So I actually lost PAR by going to a DE system?
Or is my thinking wrong?
Do SE bulbs outperform DE bulbs?

[dgasmd]

Originally posted by mwood
Sanjay, could you test uri vho actinics and t5 blue bulbs and post those on the website to be able to compare that light to 20k halides?

I've always had the question of whether someone had already tested the VHO or T-5 bulbs for PAR. I have not seen any direct testing data like the one Sanjay has done for MH bulbs. It would be interesting to read if someone has it.

Also, I wonder why is it that the same ballast with different bulbs will use different wattage and amperage. I see in Sanjay's site that the radium 400 watt with a PFO HQI ballasts uses 5.11A. The same ballast with a XM 10,000K uses 5.31A, but that same arrangement in my house uses 3.47A with a Kill-O-Watt meter (XM and PFO HQI ballast)?

[Sanjay]

Originally posted by mwood
Sanjay, could you test uri vho actinics and t5 blue bulbs and post those on the website to be able to compare that light to 20k halides?

I would either have to clone myself or somehow increase the length of each day to 48 hrs.

I just can't find the time to do it. I am still back logged with MH lamps right now have several sitting to be tested. Between work, family, tanks, breeding fish.. lamp testing takes a back seat.

To do the FL right, it would require some serious though how to best evalute them given the 4ft length, and would require redoing my testing rigs.

So for right now.. all I can say is that it wont happen in the near future.

I do have the data now for some 24" T5 fixtures though, that I will show in my presentation at WMC.

sanjay.

[causeofhim]

Originally posted by nreefer
I have read all 15 pages and excuse me if I missed this but I used to run 250W SE Ushio's 10,000K with a M57 ballast and switched to 250 HQI DE Ushio 10,000K with a M80 ballast. Is it true that my PPFD went from 116 for the SE bulbs down to 84 with my DE bulbs? So I actually lost PAR by going to a DE system?
Or is my thinking wrong?
Do SE bulbs outperform DE bulbs?

Check out Sanjat's site. Click on: Spectral Plots - Compare 2 Lamps
http://www.reeflightinginfo.arvixe.com/articles.htm
SE = 118 PPFD
DE (shielded) = 84 PPFD

[moonpod]

The absolute ppfd drops. The reflector can more than make up for it.

[causeofhim]

It totally depends on what kind of reflector you are using for each one.

[moonpod]

absolutely, but that's why IF you're gonna go DE you gotta sport for the quality reflectors.

[nreefer]

Thanks! I am using the Mini Pendants from PFO lighting which I read are pretty good reflectors. But all the reading I have done on the Luminarc reflectors makes me think that a SE with Luminarcs are better than a DE with the Mini Pendants. Is that true?

[moonpod]

I doubt it. You got numbers in terms of total incident light using a 400w bulb in the LAIII that were only a little bit more than what you could generate with a DE pendant (controlling for a somewhat similar bulb). Obviously all of this is bulb/ballast dependant as well. Where the LAIII realy excels IMO is that if you are not lighting up 2x2 footprint areas the wider dispersal is nice. The other thing is that visually the DE pendants "cone down" the light so sometimes you get more shadows than you will from the more dispersed effect of the LAIII.

[Siffy]

Originally posted by Sanjay
I would either have to clone myself or somehow increase the length of each day to 48 hrs.

Sanjay,
You need to "hire" yourself some local college students as interns. And let them count their time as "reefer community" service hours.

I know I like being able to see empirical data on lighting. I'm pretty sure most others on here do as well.

Thanks for all your hard work,
Will

[Ceak]

Are the Reef Optix III still the best DE reflectors out there?

[wnutz]

hey sanjay all ur information is great i was wandering ur opinion on the 48 in coralife aqualight pro should i change these 150 10k halides with some aqualine or ushio bulbs and if so how high off my 90 should they be off the water surface?

[brad23]

Sanjay, I can't decide between the EVC 10k and 14k I will not actinics for a while and wondered if I would be loseing a lot by going with the 14k.

[mwood]

Too bad you can't blend the two. I've always thought the evc 14k would make a good blue supplement to a white bulb.

[brad23]

What do you mean have a 10k on one side and a 14k on the other?

Wouldn't that look kind of odd?