From: putzolu@toadflax.cs.ucdavis.edu (David Putzolu)
Newsgroups: rec.aquaria,alt.aquaria
Subject: [M] [R] Lighting
Date: 2 Sep 92 04:19:28 GMT
Followup-To: rec.aquaria
Organization: Department of Computer Science, University of California, Davis

This is a summary of the many replies I received via email and
the news to a question I posed about lighting for a reef tank.

I am converting my marine tank to a semi/full reef tank soon,
and began looking for a better lighting system. The systems
shown in the mail order places I looked at (MOPS & TFP) seemed
exorbitantly priced, so I posted to the net asking about the
possibility of using 4' shop fluorescents (or at least stripping them
for parts for a DIY hood) at $8-$12 instead of the $80+ systems
available in dedicated fish stores.

At the most basic level, these shop lights WILL power a set
of standard aquarium bulbs. These include all the major brands,
and types, including actinics, ultralumes, Triton's, Coralife's,
supertwist, etc. Most shoplights will also run off of a run-of-
the-mill timer you buy at the hardware store. Shop light-strips
will NOT run HO (high output) or VHO (guess what this means)
lights, for which a special ballast is necessary. One person
mentioned that the type of ballast necessary was also used for
street signs, so this may be a potential lead to a cheap source
of VHO ballasts.

In terms of safety a shop light leaves a LOT to be desired. For
starters, there is ofter a cardboard backing holding the metal
parts that connect to the pins of your lights. At least one
person mentioned salt creep having shorted this, causing smoke,
a five day lack of light, and some quite unhappy invertebrates.
The solution to this weakness is to silicon the exposed cardboard -
this will prevent any water from softening/shorting it. Shop lights
are also not in any way fuse protected or ventilated - they can
get hot (for a fluorescent)! Workaround: Install a fan! If you
are making your own hood and using the shoplight for parts many
people mentioned that installing a fan was definitely the way to go.
It keeps the lamps and your tank cooler (although perhaps a wee
bit noisier as well). 

At least one person mentioned bad experiences with shop lights in
terms of their effect on bulbs - apparently he found that bulbs
lasted significantly SHORTER when used in a cheapo shop strip
instead of in a high quality aquarium fixture. A further problem
with cheapoes is the fact that they have no waterproof endcap -
leading to possible shorting problems again. Other notable
weaknesses of a cheapo include lesser efficiency (mentioned by
more than one person) and lack of a high quality reflective backing.
The latter seems unimportant to me, since I plan on buying bulbs
with built in backings.

Don't be mistaken, several people said they had no problems
whatsoever with the shoplights they had used (although many
agreed that they were ugly). The price is an order of magnitude
less than that of specialty fixtures, and most people seemed to
feel positive about them. I plan on going the shop-light
stripped for parts route, with the possible addition of
waterproof endcaps, all installed into a nice DIY fan cooled
hood.

General lighting notes: Most people said the upper limit on
lighting was infinity or an overheated tank, whichever came
first. A few practical souls (what are they doing here!?) mentioned
cost as a possible factor. One general rule I heard for the
lower limit of lighting was 4 watts of lighting per gallon
of water. One person mentioned mercury vapor and quartz halogen 
as a substitute for metal halide, although I have read that
mercury vapor is missing some vital parts of the spectrum 
(see the Tetra guide to Invertebrates, an excellent book 
that was recommended to me). 

The following people were gracious enough to actually answer
most questions (haven't had enough yet, have you?) and I'd like
to thank them (and anyone I've forgotten - sorry!) for it:

Carl ? (SH240031@WVNVAXA.WVNET.EDU)
Christopher Bekins (Christopher.Bekins@Forsythe.Stanford.EDU)
Kevin N. Carpenter (kncarp@nicsnl.monsanto.com)
Thomas D. Gasser (THOMASG@epx.cis.umn.edu)
Erik D. Olson (erik@marge.phys.washington.edu)
Nageshwara Rao Vempaty (vnrao@teja.cs.ucf.edu)

There! Phew! Enough summaries for now. If I have missed anything
or if anyone wants more specific info (or questions on this
topic that I might know, feel free to email me.)

| David M. A. Putzolu               | putzolu@cs.ucdavis.edu              |
| Senior Undergraduate              | op disclaimer(opinion : ptr mine)   |
| Computer Science and Psychology   |      Money? Who needs money?        |
| University of California at Davis |          I've got fish!             |