Metal Halide Shimmer Lines -- Do they bother some people?

[jimk0157]

I'm getting ready to buy lights for my new 90g tank. Has anyone that's used MH been bothered by the shimmering or strobing effect? I'm sensitive (kind of makes me queasy) to things like strobe lights and computer monitors with low refresh rates. I'm not sure what it is but my brain/eyes seem to easily pickup on subtle strobe effects that other folks can't see. I've only spent 10 or 15 minutes (at a time) looking at HM illuminated tanks at LFS dealers and I don't seemed to go crazy but I don't know if a longer period of time might get to me. I like the shimmering effect that MHs produce just hope the shimmering likes me.

Thanks,
Jim

 

[Anonymous]

I love the shimmer lines and think that they are the best thing about MH lighting.

 

[Anonymous]

I think the best thing about MH lighting is how it makes corals grow

But yeah, the glitter lines are very cool.

 

[cjsrch]

the glitter lines if the tank is small actualy make me feel nausious ! at the show i went to they had a 10 high with a 250 wat mh and i stared at it and felt sooo sick.


the other mh tanks that were there had weaker glitter lines and those look good and dont cause problems..


you ever hear of florecants botheringpeople because of the cycles in the electric

 

[cjsrch]

if you have problems i definitly wouldent go with MH .. go with florecant using a good ballast ( icecap or other high end ) those dont cause much flickering ( so fast you cant see it) some of the ballast flicker the lights 60 times a second



90 gallon may be a little hard on you if your really that sensitive. altho you could go MH if you use a reflector that makes it cover a large area.

Just go florecant to be safe. (vho, pc, t5)

 

[Anonymous]

you can easily have MH without shimmer lines, just dont have much of a flow across the top of your tank, and voila no shimmer lines.

Or you can always go with a lower wattage MH bulb, and put more accent lighting (t5s etc) that drown out the effect considerably.

Personally I think the whole "shimmer lines" bit is over rated, before I had them people would say shimmer lines shimmer lines.. I got MH, and then was thinking, hmm that's it?

 

[cjsrch]

looks good that is tho.. if i want shimmer lines ill pop a spotlight in with my vho.

 

[Juck]

at the show i went to they had a 10 high with a 250 wat mh and i stared at it and felt sooo sick.

Sick with envy

 

[cjsrch]

no the tank looked like crap lol

 

[ChrisV]

More info from the lighting master cjsrch huh? Very informative :?

 

[cjsrch]

hey you could buy MH and then drownout the shimmer lines with florecant. best of both worlds and no shimmer lines to make you sick




its wierd how flashing light can actualy cause seizures in people. i really dont understand

 

[Anonymous]

I LOVE the shimmer lines! Best thing is at night, when all other lights are out in the house, sitting on the couch and relaxing. I really enjoy it!

PS- you may have what is called "simple partial seizure". It is a type of epilepsy that is caused by strobing lights, cycling of lights etc. It is not a big deal and usually just results in nausea or disorientation for the short term. It is pretty common, but can be fixed with medications such as trileptal if you are uncomfortable with it.

 

[jimk0157]

Thanks for all the replies. I think I'll go with MHs but with a good amount of FL wattage to balance.

Jim

 

[ZooKeeper1]

what makes you think fluorescents will have any effect on shimmer lines?

 

[jimk0157]

what makes you think fluorescents will have any effect on shimmer lines?

Seems to me that:

MH = shimmer lines
FL = no shimmer lines (or much less intense at least)

50%MH + 50%FL = 50% shimmer line intensity

Right?

Jim

 

[ZooKeeper1]

taking something, and adding more of it doesn't equal less of something.

Because they are so much more intensive than flourescents, metal halides just overpower the flourescents. If metal halides themselves cannot wash out glimmer lines, how can fluorescents?

 

[Anonymous]

I had one on my tank, it was fine, everyone liked the look

However I put two on there, its a corner bowfront and the overlapping flashes from the lights made me sick

That could be because of it being a corner bow and having the two lights so close together

 

[Rikko]

Personally they drive me nuts. It's like seeing the light get interrupted by viewing the tank through the cooling fan. Looking head on it's pretty for a while, but if you ever have the tank in your peripheral for a long period of time it gets rather irritating.

I suppose if you wanted to eliminate that you could put a thin diffuser between the bulb and your tank, but that light energy lost would make it pretty redundant to have the halides at all.

 

[Anonymous]

what makes you think fluorescents will have any effect on shimmer lines?

Seems to me that:

MH = shimmer lines
FL = no shimmer lines (or much less intense at least)

50%MH + 50%FL = 50% shimmer line intensity

Right?

Jim

Sorry, but you are wrong. I have a Coralife hood with almost 50/50 MH to Actinic and still have the glitter lines.

 

[jimk0157]

Jim

Sorry, but you are wrong. I have a Coralife hood with almost 50/50 MH to Actinic and still have the glitter lines.

Is was thinking more along the lines of daylight FL bulbs... Or a mix of daylight and actinic.

Jim