fluoro/t5 reflectors

[jetskisteve]

I wish I had a buck for every time u reffered to HFF

[Brianemone]

i doubt HHFF sell anything as good as DE lighting does, and also the prices are far better.

[reef]

doubt HHFF sell anything as good as DE lighting does

What makes DE bulbs so good?? How much cheaper are the DE T5s bulbs compared to Sylvania?? That is landed cost after GST and Freight.

[chimera]

DE lighting is the company

[reef]

WHO sell Aquaz bulbs.

[jetskisteve]

DE bulbs are the ones I sell for $65 Chim you are running two on your tank

[Brianemone]

and reef the thread was about reflectors not sure who brought up bulbs.

the DE reflectors look really good compared to the silly little arcadia ones

[reef]

You made a statement to say that De bulbs were better and cheaper. so waiting to see how you back it up.

[Brianemone]

i doubt HHFF sell anything as good as DE lighting does, and also the prices are far better.

nope this is what i said, nothing about bulbs in there.

interested to hear why you thought i mentioned bulbs????

[chimera]

:roll: again, why i posted "DE Lighting" is the company - NOT as in "double ended" bulbs

[chimera]

Chim you are running two on your tank

yeah, 2 x 14k's - awesome bang for buck (not literally!!!). ever since the 150's went in i definately have noticed sps colours are coming out more (assisted by zeovit and lowering of the lights of course ) the 14k's are an awesome blue (but not oversaturated which i like) now i just cant wait to get the t5's are wired up!

[Snowman]

You could always try PMing Niloc and see what it would cost for him to fold up some stainless, could have them custom made for shape and size, not sure how it would work cost wise but would look great :lol:

[Brianemone]

youd be hard pressed to find the material for less than DE's pricing.

plus the plastic clips are a great feature

[Guest Anonymous]

if u guys have enough order, maybe i can help alittle on the freight charge.

Now, we even have 5ft T5 reflectors... :lol:

[Seth]

Random question exuse me if its stupid

I have one 150 watt halide 10000k over my small tank I noticed every one else combines 10000k halides with some sort of fluro blue lighting as well

Is this just a personal preference thing I.e making the water bluer making it look nicer

Or do 10000 K bulbs not have quite the spectrum that is needed for most corals and does the blue lighting supply that extra needed part of the spectrum.

???

[reef]

Is this just a personal preference thing I.e making the water bluer making it look nicer

yes, most ratings on bulbs are rubbish anyway. as no 10ks look the same.

some bulbs claim 20k etc. but who knows if they are.

[Seth]

Thanks reef Have been wanting to ask that question for ages but felt too dumb

[lduncan]

The only dumb question is the one which is never asked.

[wasp]

I'm no expert but the way I understand it is most bulbs put out a range of colours, in fact with some bulbs you will get on paper with it just how much of each it puts out.

So the manufacturer draws a line basically in the middle somewhere and claims that as the colour, ie 10,000k, or whatever.

So there is room for some bulbs that are rated the same, to actually appear different, just because of how the manufacturer decided to rate it.

But in general, bulbs rated 10,000k give the ideal light that corals need. But a bluer look is more pleasing to our eye. So a good system is to run 10,000k bulbs, and add some 20,000k (blue) floro tubes, but the blue is just for appearance, not for the corals.

I've got 2 x 150 watt 10,000k halides, and 2 x 18 watt floro blue tubes. Many people would like it bluer than me, and have a higher ratio of blue.

Also, if you go a higher k bulb, you get less light that is useful to a coral. I read that a 14,000k bulb only puts out 1/2 as much useable light for the coral, as a 10,000k does.

[lduncan]

I'm no expert but the way I understand it is most bulbs put out a range of colours, in fact with some bulbs you will get on paper with it just how much of each it puts out.

Yip, I wish more bulbs came with that information. It's called a power spectral density (PSD) it tells you the quantity of light emitted at every frequency (colour). I find it easier to judge the colour of the bulb from that plot, rather than a number which may only be loosely related to the visible colour.

Kelvin ratings can be pretty random sometimes.

[DiverJohn]

from:

http://www.osram.com/pdf/service_corner/white_light.pdf

(this file is 2.5Mb)

Light colour

The light colour of a lamp depends on its spectral power distribution in the visible range. However, it is difficult to compare different lamps on the basis of their spectral power distribution. It is much easier to use their colour temperatures and colour rendering properties.

Colour temperature

The colour temperature of a light source is defined as the light colour that corresponds to the temperature of a standard radiator (black body radiator). It is expressed in kelvin (K). The colour temperature of a lamp gives us an idea of its light colour. The light colours or colour temperatures of fluorescent lamps are determined by the composition of the phosphor coating on the inside of the tubes. It is possible

to produce white light with very different colour nuances:

HTH

[wasp]

Another thing about halide bulbs is they slowly lose their brightness, a study I read suggested a roughly 30% loss in brightness over a 12 month period, this varied with the make. So we are advised to change bulbs each 10 or 12 months.

BUT, here's the interesting part, after the 12 months, many of the bulbs did not loose much more brightness. So if you are prepared to accept the initial loss of brightness, should be possible to run the bulbs for two + years.

Think I saw somewhere that Bomber is running 3 year old bulbs.

here's the article http://www.personal.psu.edu/faculty/s/b ... Lamps2.htm

[reef]

Another thing about halide bulbs is they slowly lose their brightness, a study I read suggested a roughly 30% loss in brightness over a 12 month period

You could use the bulbs much longer but the problem is the spectrum shift. over time the bulbs will shift to more red/green spectrum which could fuel algae growth.

That is why buying cheap bulbs is not a good option as they will shift spectrum much quicker than quality bulbs.

[lduncan]

Think I saw somewhere that Bomber is running 3 year old bulbs.

Some of that may also be because he only has them running around 2 hours a day too.