Tropical Fish Forums
Aquarium fishkeeping around the world!
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Psyfalcon
Advisors
Joined: 14 Feb 2003
Location: Oregon
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 Posted: 2006.08.19(Sat)19:36 Post subject: Lighting a 10 |
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I think I finally want to do some corals, but that brings some lighting questions. My current 15watt light isnt going to work (well.. maybe those non photosynthetic corals... but I won't go there!)
How much would I need? I would like some Zoas, Mushrooms... and an open brain. Since the baby brain will be on the sand bed, and requires the most light, this is what I want to do the light for.
MH seems excessive for what I want. Although a 70w K2 Viper looks nice, a chiller is not in the budget.
The Coralife 96w can be had for $90 or so... not the most efficient light either it seems.
The 80w Orbit is gorgeous.. but expensive. The 40 watt Current fixtures seem like they won't be good enough for the Brain? Similarly, a pair of 20w screw in CF bulbs seem like they won't be enough for a brain. |
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unissuh
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Joined: 29 Mar 2005
Location: Melbourne, Australia
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| Posted: 2006.08.20(Sun)4:15 Post subject: |
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Just in case this impacts your choice...
| Psyfalcon wrote: | | MH seems excessive for what I want. Although a 70w K2 Viper looks nice, a chiller is not in the budget. |
Light itself generates heat due to the interaction of light waves and particles. If the lamps run at the same color and intensity, heat generated will be the same.
The efficiency of MH lighting and fluoro (or CF) lighting is roughly about the same, that is the light output per watt is roughly comparable (actually I think MH bulbs put out more lumens per watt than fluoro tubes). Following on from this, the amount wasted as heat is roughly the same as well. Although the overall heat generation may be about the same, it's more concentrated in a MH bulb than a fluoro tube (size matters!) making a difference in the temperature.
On the other hand, I think MH ballasts are slightly less efficient than fluoro ballasts, the extra electricity drawn is all converted to heat (which will only matter assuming we don't mount the ballasts remotely).
I guess what I'm getting at is that going with a MH light doesn't necessarily mean that you will get more heat. Theoretically a MH could be easier to cool because of the smaller volume of air required to be moved, although in practice this might not be so.
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Fishing in the Rivers of Light |
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Fishboy86
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Joined: 14 Feb 2006
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| Posted: 2006.08.25(Fri)2:26 Post subject: |
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Hey  Psyfalcon well I would recomend the coralife one I have one running my 15 gallon nano reef and it works great mostly I could keep almost any coral that I want and the ones that I don't, They simply go in my 55gallon I also have had any heat issues with it altought they get very hot. |
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