Why not Halogen or Mercury?

[lyjo]

I took a gamble and put a Halogen bulk on my tank for 2 - 3 hours / day. within 2 days my corals purked up and started growing...
( I have sense stopped the test...)

Someone please tell me why we cant use the less expensive Halogen or possibly the Mercury bulbs to supliment normal Fluorescent bulbs??

I'm a DIY man and always look to save....

[Doug1]

Well technically the Iwasaki 250/400 are mercury vapr bulbs, that just happen to work nearly the same on a standard metal halide ballast. These are popular because they have 6500K color temp, and produce very high PAR ratings compared to a lot of the higher Kelvin(K) bulbs . The down side is they tend to be seen as having a yellowish cast that is usually offset with strong actinic lighting. IMO if someone has VHO or PC lights as begining lighting then moves up to more challenging light loving corals or clams adding these to the existing lighting gives excellent bang for the buck.

[Geoff]

Welcome to TRT!!



like doug said it can be done, but is generally to yellow to be pleasant to our eyes. certain corals will thrive under that spectrum, but some of the deeper water ones will not. the other HID lights do not seem to have spectrum choices on the bulbs. they tend to burn a particular gas. that gas has a specific spectrum, there is not a whole lot that can be done to change it.

G~

[Casey]

Welcome to TRT

[Doug1]

Oops, WELCOME
Anyway now that I gave you the rundown on mercury vapor lights, let me add that the Iwasakis are about $65 as Opposed to $100 for some of the more exotic 10-20K bulbs specific to the aquarium trade. There are cheaper MV bulbs available but they are usually in the 4300K range, fine for Hydroponic gardening but , most people who have tried them found they REALLY promote the unwanted algae growth, tho I would try them on a remote macro algae,mangrove or turtle grass tank in an Airborne second
As far as the Halogen lights, like the 500 watt work lights and similar they are really bad spectumwise and focus a ton of heat, more so I believe then a well setup MH system in a ventilated canopy.
The one thing I know is after 5 years of reading reef bulletin boards like this, if there was a cheap, reliable way of providing a ton of light, everyone would be all over it. HTH