Question about VHA Lighting
- Thread starter misty7850
- Start date
lennon
Member
Originally Posted by Bang Guy
Magnetic VHO ballasts get very hot. Electronic ballasts typically do not. I use IceCap660's and they are normally barely war
Spectral Aluminum.
It depends, what animals are you planning to keep?
Sorry to interfere...but Bang, what kind of lights are those considered? I am getting a 55 gallon and didnt want to use MH due to heat and not having space for the fans. do you still use fans with your icecaps? And will I be able to have a reef tank with some corals and anemones with these icecaps?
I love the idea of them being "barely warm"
Thanks in advance for your advice!!!
Magnetic VHO ballasts get very hot. Electronic ballasts typically do not. I use IceCap660's and they are normally barely war
Spectral Aluminum.
It depends, what animals are you planning to keep?
Sorry to interfere...but Bang, what kind of lights are those considered? I am getting a 55 gallon and didnt want to use MH due to heat and not having space for the fans. do you still use fans with your icecaps? And will I be able to have a reef tank with some corals and anemones with these icecaps?
I love the idea of them being "barely warm"
Thanks in advance for your advice!!!
bang guy
Moderator
Originally Posted by Lennon
Sorry to interfere...but Bang, what kind of lights are those considered? I am getting a 55 gallon and didnt want to use MH due to heat and not having space for the fans. do you still use fans with your icecaps? And will I be able to have a reef tank with some corals and anemones with these icecaps?
I love the idea of them being "barely warm"
Thanks in advance for your advice!!!
There are 4 major contributors to the temperature of the tank water in this order:
Heaters
Ambient room temp
The light that actually penetrates the water and isn't reflected out.
Waterflow
The type of lighting is pretty much irrelevant in my experience. It's the amount of light that enters the water that heats the tank, not how hot the bulb gets.
500 watts of VHO is going to heat the water almost the same as 500 watts of MH lighting.
When I said "barely warm" I was referring to an electonic flourescent ballast, not the bulbs.
Sorry to interfere...but Bang, what kind of lights are those considered? I am getting a 55 gallon and didnt want to use MH due to heat and not having space for the fans. do you still use fans with your icecaps? And will I be able to have a reef tank with some corals and anemones with these icecaps?
I love the idea of them being "barely warm"
Thanks in advance for your advice!!!
There are 4 major contributors to the temperature of the tank water in this order:
Heaters
Ambient room temp
The light that actually penetrates the water and isn't reflected out.
Waterflow
The type of lighting is pretty much irrelevant in my experience. It's the amount of light that enters the water that heats the tank, not how hot the bulb gets.
500 watts of VHO is going to heat the water almost the same as 500 watts of MH lighting.
When I said "barely warm" I was referring to an electonic flourescent ballast, not the bulbs.
lennon
Member
Originally Posted by ebsOCHIN
Bang Guy- Okay I see your point. I wasn't thinking along the lines of cooling the water temp, more along the lines of cooling the fixture/bulbs. I think the reason I placed mine the way I have them is because the temp inside the lighting fixture was getting to hot and cracking the low-e glass I have enclosing the canopy to shield from the UV radiation. Just wanted to clarify.
Hi Ebs..just a quick question about the e-glass...how did you put that glass in. I am new so I am unsure..but read alot about being careful abou the uvradiation. Is it on top of tank? does it avoid the lighting getting water splash..sorry if questions are dumb...I am just a newbie girl here...lol
Bang Guy- Okay I see your point. I wasn't thinking along the lines of cooling the water temp, more along the lines of cooling the fixture/bulbs. I think the reason I placed mine the way I have them is because the temp inside the lighting fixture was getting to hot and cracking the low-e glass I have enclosing the canopy to shield from the UV radiation. Just wanted to clarify.
Hi Ebs..just a quick question about the e-glass...how did you put that glass in. I am new so I am unsure..but read alot about being careful abou the uvradiation. Is it on top of tank? does it avoid the lighting getting water splash..sorry if questions are dumb...I am just a newbie girl here...lol
lennon
Member
Originally Posted by Bang Guy
There are 4 major contributors to the temperature of the tank water in this order:
Heaters
Ambient room temp
The light that actually penetrates the water and isn't reflected out.
Waterflow
The type of lighting is pretty much irrelevant in my experience. It's the amount of light that enters the water that heats the tank, not how hot the bulb gets.
500 watts of VHO is going to heat the water almost the same as 500 watts of MH lighting.
When I said "barely warm" I was referring to an electonic flourescent ballast, not the bulbs.
I see. thanks.
I am not thinking so much about the water temp right now. I just wanted to avoid lights that get too hot. I am paranoid about fires and burns...so I want to avoid MH.
The LFS had lights on a tank that were barely warm and they had corals in there too. So I was not sure what they used..
thanks for the info
:cheer:
There are 4 major contributors to the temperature of the tank water in this order:
Heaters
Ambient room temp
The light that actually penetrates the water and isn't reflected out.
Waterflow
The type of lighting is pretty much irrelevant in my experience. It's the amount of light that enters the water that heats the tank, not how hot the bulb gets.
500 watts of VHO is going to heat the water almost the same as 500 watts of MH lighting.
When I said "barely warm" I was referring to an electonic flourescent ballast, not the bulbs.
I see. thanks.
I am not thinking so much about the water temp right now. I just wanted to avoid lights that get too hot. I am paranoid about fires and burns...so I want to avoid MH.
The LFS had lights on a tank that were barely warm and they had corals in there too. So I was not sure what they used..
thanks for the info
:cheer:
ebsochin
Member
Hi Ebs..just a quick question about the e-glass...how did you put that glass in. I am new so I am unsure..but read alot about being careful abou the uvradiation. Is it on top of tank? does it avoid the lighting getting water splash..sorry if questions are dumb...I am just a newbie girl here...lol
Lennon- Not a problem, no stupid question as far as I'm concerned. The low-e glass is just a type of glass that is manufactured that doesn't allow penetration of uv rays. It is probably in most of your house windows/car windows etc. You can have a piece cut to whatever dimensions you need and it isn't too expensive. Most glass stores carry it. But before I get into how to install it, first do you have MH bulbs? If you do then are they double ended, i.e. not a single mogul screw in type bulb? The only time you will need this type of glass is if you have the double ended type MH bulbs as they do not have the uv glass built into the bulb. The single mogul type base bulbs already have the protection built into the bulb. So, if you have the double ended bulbs then you will need some sort of uv protection. I had a piece cut for the length and width of my canopy and the class covers the entire bottom of the canopy. The bottom edges of the canopy fold over to allow the glass to slide in from the sides and there is a middle brace to ensure the glass doesn't fall out. I wouldn't recommend placing the glass on top of the tank like tank lids because of trapped heat and no way for gasses to escape from the tank. Instead I would attatch the glass to your canopy. My canopy hangs from the ceiling about 8 inches from the top of the tank. I'll include a picture for you.
Another way to install the class is to enclose the bulb with the glass. Basically instead of enclosing the whole canopy, just enclose where the bulb is located. This might block some light because of parts necessary to attatch the glass.
To answer your last question, it does help in keeping water from splashing onto the fixture. Hope all this helped.
The second pictue is a diagram I drew for a previous thread on how to hold the glass to the canopy.
Lennon- Not a problem, no stupid question as far as I'm concerned. The low-e glass is just a type of glass that is manufactured that doesn't allow penetration of uv rays. It is probably in most of your house windows/car windows etc. You can have a piece cut to whatever dimensions you need and it isn't too expensive. Most glass stores carry it. But before I get into how to install it, first do you have MH bulbs? If you do then are they double ended, i.e. not a single mogul screw in type bulb? The only time you will need this type of glass is if you have the double ended type MH bulbs as they do not have the uv glass built into the bulb. The single mogul type base bulbs already have the protection built into the bulb. So, if you have the double ended bulbs then you will need some sort of uv protection. I had a piece cut for the length and width of my canopy and the class covers the entire bottom of the canopy. The bottom edges of the canopy fold over to allow the glass to slide in from the sides and there is a middle brace to ensure the glass doesn't fall out. I wouldn't recommend placing the glass on top of the tank like tank lids because of trapped heat and no way for gasses to escape from the tank. Instead I would attatch the glass to your canopy. My canopy hangs from the ceiling about 8 inches from the top of the tank. I'll include a picture for you.
Another way to install the class is to enclose the bulb with the glass. Basically instead of enclosing the whole canopy, just enclose where the bulb is located. This might block some light because of parts necessary to attatch the glass.
To answer your last question, it does help in keeping water from splashing onto the fixture. Hope all this helped.
The second pictue is a diagram I drew for a previous thread on how to hold the glass to the canopy.
