Found: Supplemental Blue Lighting

[jamesw]

Well, I found my "cheap-guy" DIY solution. I purchased 2 24" 4-bulb over-the-bathroom-mirror light fixtures (8 lamps total) and 8 of these:

http://www.homedepot.com/Lighting-Fans- ... ogId=10053

$40 for the two light fixtures and $60 for a 12-pack of lamps.

I bought one and tested it out w/ a "clamp light" over the tank and it adds a decent amount of blue to my 10/14K MH with a bit of flourescence. If I need more I can always add one or two of these:

Cheers
James

 

[Raskal311]

You could have gotten a current HOT5 Fixture for the same price or less.

 

[Anonymous]

I wouldn't use the black lights. For one they are not the same as actinics and two, they don't seem to encourage anything good to happen, just bad.

 

[Petsolutions]

I will be very curious to see what result you have with those bulbs over the long term. Actinic bulbs are made to work with a certain wavelength of light (420nm and 440nm) if I remember correctly. They are tuned to that color specifically by design. I wonder what will happen to the corals over the long term using that blue lighting of an unknown wavelength? It is possible that it will have no effect at all on anything, but I'm curious if either good or bad things will happen, and I really hope you will update us after a few months.

You spent $100 for the fixtures and bulbs. You could have picked up a dual bulb T5 high output fixture designed for aquarium uses with 2 actinic bulbs for about $25 more. Something along the lines of https://www.petsolutions.com/GLO-T5-HO-Lighting+I15513900+C33.aspx . Though I understand if you were on an extremely tight budget, the extra $25 could be out of the question. I'm on a very tight budget myself.

GreshamH, have you used a black light over an aquarium before or have you seen the results from the use of one? I never have, so I'm curious what sort of thing results from a black light being used over a reef aquarium?

 

[jamesw]

There is nothing special about actinic lights - they just use a flourescent phosphor that produces pleasing colors for aquarium hobbyists. They do emit spikes at one or two of the wavelengths that stimulate zoox. but so do just about every lamp. Back in the "good old days" of 5K Venture MH people used actinics, or bilirubin lamps to help even out the color. But I don't know many people that use them as their main light source.

I use a broad spectrum emitter as my main lighting source because I think that is the closest thing you can get to real sunlight. In my case, adding 15w CFL's to my hood won't have any effect on coral growth compared to the 1000W of MH that I already have in there. What I do think they will do is add a nice accent and hopefully a bit of fluorescence.

If someone can point me to a link for where I can get 120w of T5 actinic (including the lamp) over my tank for a good price please do - I can still cancel my order for the little CFL's. Thanks for posting your link John, but I can't figure out how to get the 120w worth for $125. The 24" 54w fixtures are $89 and I'd need two of those, plus lamps. What am I missing?

Cheers
James

 

[Petsolutions]

Lol, the good old days of 5k, brings back memories. I remember wiring a parking lot metal halide fixture with a 5,500k bulb in it to a 4x4 post and using a huge metal bracket to hang the thing over a 58 gallon Oceanic tank I had back in the day. That was only probably 15 or 20 years ago or so. Good grief, things have changed so much since then. Point well taken on the wattage, I certainly don't know of a fixture off the top of my head that will produce 100 watts of T5 for less than $100 including bulbs.

 

[jamesw]

Yep - I made one of those too I got an old "chocolate bar" MH ballast for like $40 and an outdoor light fixture and went to town lol. I started reefing in '94 and there weren't a lot of choices.

Thanks for the heads up.

Cheers
James

 

[Anonymous]

To further add to what Gresham stated not all black lights are made the same... in fact while actinic lights are a type of black light.. they're ones that peak at 420nm, looking at the manufactures part number on that it has a BLB in it which means it peaks at 350nm. Now I'm sure corals will fluoresce at that, however I don't know how well they'll do for any length of time under that, and would also be very weary of using it.

 

[jamesw]

These blue LED's are also quite nice and would be easy to rig up in small under-cabinet kitchen fixtures. You could easily get a lot of them into your hood:

http://www.plasmaled.com/mr16_led_light_bulb.htm

Cheers
James

 

[Anonymous]

Thats great James - I have been using them for about 2 months at home. Really nice light.

 

[jamesw]

Thales: which ones, the CFL or the Blue LED's? The LED's look like they put out a pretty tight spot of light.

Cheers
James

 

[Anonymous]

The blue cfl 'ecobulb party bulb' its a nice moonlight - not too bright, but a nice general wash from a clamplight.