Interesting article on lighting

[Bartman]

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/feb2002/Feature.htm

Anybody ever used a Home Depot Philips MH light as mentioned in the article?

[Nemo]

Thatis very interesting, I am trying to decide right now what kind of mh bulbs to use in my tank.
I would be interested as well if any one has used a home depot lamp



Robert

[Buccaneer]

Till this article there was no-one using low Kelvin bulbs afaik ... although I am running 4 X 10000K MH over my tank now I could easily switch one of the end MH to the HD 4000K brand and see what happens ... I imagine we could make up for the difference in colour with actinics as the 4000K bulbs are sure to be quite yellow or even a bit red in colour.

As far as changing out our MH bulbs every 6 to 18 months due to a shift in spectrum seems a moot point now other that for aesthetics as I cant remember reading whether the intensity decreases or not but more the spectrum. If anyone can chime in on that point would be great.

[Chin_Lee]

Till this article there was no-one using low Kelvin bulbs afaik ... although I am running 4 X 10000K MH over my tank now I could easily switch one of the end MH to the HD 4000K brand and see what happens ... I imagine we could make up for the difference in colour with actinics as the 4000K bulbs are sure to be quite yellow or even a bit red in colour.

As far as changing out our MH bulbs every 6 to 18 months due to a shift in spectrum seems a moot point now other that for aesthetics as I cant remember reading whether the intensity decreases or not but more the spectrum. If anyone can chime in on that point would be great.

good point on the changing of our bulbs. If there is a substantial decrease in intensity and depending on the degree of the decrease. will be more of a factor in our decision to change our bulbs. I have heard/read from some people that the change in kelvin will also encourage other types of unfavorable algae which may be another factor in our decision.

Hopefully we can get some more-experienced people to provide input......