|
Post by Carl on Jan 6, 2015 18:48:14 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by Carl on Jan 23, 2015 19:17:16 GMT -5
We have added to the Aquarium Lighting article to include a picture that shows just how much light the T2 fixtures put out for just 13 watts. These actually beat in light output many of the "cheapie" LEDs sold at discounters such as Amazon, Dr. Fosters, etc. for less $$$ Reference (T2 section) www.americanaquariumproducts.com/Aquarium_Lighting.html#t2BTW, I recommend anyone who is thinking of purchasing new lights read this article in full, as in all modesty, you will not find more accurate and in depth information about aquarium lighting anywhere else. As well this is an area of aquarium keeping in recent years where poor information, or downright misleading information is unfortunately common place Carl
|
|
|
Post by Carl on Mar 23, 2015 15:58:14 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by Carl on May 6, 2015 20:10:26 GMT -5
I have once again updated the "Aquarium Lighting" article. Part of this update addresses some of the disrespectful and libelous trolls in certain forums, in particular a Facebook Planted tank forum. Here is a quote: "PUR (Photosynthetically Usable Radiation) also known as Photosynthetic Action Spectrum (PAS), or "Useful Light Energy" is what concerns us as aquarium keepers even more than PAR in providing correct lighting, although PAR is still a main starting point too. Yet there is a lot of confusion, especially when considering LED Lights as many sellers and aquarium keeping personalities such as "Mr. Saltwater Tank" will hype high PAR values while ignoring PUR/PAS.
Often terminology is confused or Red Herring" type arguments are made to confuse the subject, but regardless of what you call it by, we have had a general knowledge of Useful Light Energy, PUR, & now often called PAS for some time. A little history: since I have been in the industry on the research and aquarium system design side since 1978 (longer if you count my basic hobby years); I have called this subject "useful light energy" since at least 1985, then I read elsewhere that the more scientific term was PUR, now of late many are referring to this as PAS. All this said, the only term I personally made up to best explain to my clients that paid for my service was "useful light energy", which explained it well based on feedback from clients and others in the industry."Reference: www.americanaquariumproducts.com/Aquarium_Lighting.html#energyCarl
|
|
|
Post by Carl on Jun 7, 2015 10:44:08 GMT -5
We have further updated the "Aquarium Lighting" article A new picture/diagram was added too: Here is a snip from the article about this new diagram: "The picture to the left shows a spectrograph of two 6500K aquarium lights. One is an AquaRay GroBeam and the other is a 6500 Aquarium CFL. The LED is rated at 12 watts while the CFL is 13 watts.
While similar, it is clear to see the LED has more blue and a lower blue amount as well as more red, less green and, the same yellow.
The point this makes/demonstrates is that while both lights are rated as 6500K, they are still not the same in their light energy output. Even among LED lights we can have differences of spectrographs depending upon emitters used."Reference (from the PUR/PAS section): www.americanaquariumproducts.com/Aquarium_Lighting.html#energyCarl
|
|
|
Post by Carl on Oct 4, 2015 10:44:07 GMT -5
Several Updates were made to the "Aquarium Lighting" article. Even the overview was updated to reflect modern lighting & science better. Here is a snip from the overview section: "As a BRIEF generalization, we are first concerned with INPUT energy, then OUTPUT energy. This can be further simplistically broken down into these 6 considerations: • PAR (output energy) • PUR/Useful Light Energy/Quality of Light as per application (output energy). This is an important factor often missed by aquarium keepers • Lumens per watt (input/output energy) • Lumen focus, as well as restrike (output energy) • Wattage used (input energy) • Energy lost as heat via fans, transformers, drivers, method of controlling, etc. (input energy)"Reference: www.americanaquariumproducts.com/Aquarium_Lighting.htmlCarl
|
|
|
Post by Carl on Oct 22, 2015 10:22:25 GMT -5
I have made more updates to the "Aquarium Lighting" article. Here is just one from the Overview Section: "SOME HISTORY/COMMENTARY:
Lights as they apply to aquarium use have evolved/changed considerable since I have been in the hobby and professionally employed in aquarium set-up & design. We often used "hardware store" warm white T12 fluorescent lights, just in larger "quantities" to make up for the poor "quality" of light, even while planted freshwater could be kept, not so with ANY photosynthetic reef life. Early on lights such as the Penn Plax "Aquarilux" came out which still was heavier on the "warm" colors, it also had more blue. Later the Trichromatics and Triton lamps came out with spectrums focusing on the daylight 6500 Kelvin temperature, these made growing planted aquariums easier with less lights to do the same job as earlier lights. We also had actinic blue lights become available, these mixed with other lights made it possible in the beginning to keep some photosynthetic reef life, although initially these did not thrive. Later T6 & T5 advancements along with Metal Halide lights allowed us to not only keep delicate photosynthetic reef life, but for this life to thrive. We now have T2, SHO, and LEDs of which the later have lowered considerably the input energy for the quantity of output energy of light that we need for our aquarium keeping applications."Reference: www.americanaquariumproducts.com/Aquarium_Lighting.htmlCarl
|
|
|
Post by Carl on Nov 26, 2015 11:11:23 GMT -5
I have updated the Lighting article once again. In this updated I expanded the wording in the section about light timing to deal with more miss-information coming out of some aquarium forums. Here is a snip from this section: "Here is a summary of lighting requirements for different aquarium types. I recommend timers for any aquarium to provide good daylight/night cycles, however this is even more important with Planted Freshwater and Saltwater Reef or Nano Reef tanks. Turn the actinic lights on about one to 1/2 hour ahead of the daylight bulbs and one to 1/2 hour later in the evening. I generally have the brightest lights on for about 12 hours per day, with 1 or maybe 2 hours of less bright or "ramping" up or down of LEDs if used. Sometimes with MH I will have them in a third cycle that is on for only abut 10 hours or less.
Despite commentary in some aquarium keeping forums, there is NO evidence that ramping up and down much longer than 1 hour where strong lighting is used provides ANY benefit to plant growth, fish, or reef environments (this is not applicable where one low to moderate lighting is used and one on/off cycle is all that is needed). I have personally kept many aquariums (100s) going back to where only timers were all we had and used single time one for strong lighting, partial tank on with full lighting an hour later, and multiple timers. While have partial lights on for an hour did produce results over a strong on/off, multiple cycles made NO difference! Think of it this way; in tropical regions, there is little difference in bending of light rays from the sun much past an hour after sunrise or an hour before sunset, so thinking a ramp up/down cycle much more than this time will make a difference has no practical or scientific evidence to back this up."Reference: www.americanaquariumproducts.com/Aquarium_Lighting.html#lighttimeCarl
|
|
|
Post by Carl on Jan 27, 2016 15:05:08 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by Carl on Mar 6, 2016 11:58:52 GMT -5
I have updated the "Aquarium Lighting Article" Here is a quote from the T5 section of the article "As a final point, while the T5 is a good to excellent light, it is often pushed by some aquarium keepers that are not aware that there is also newer technology lights such as the T2, SHO, & LED. This said, there are many professionals that still recommend and use the T5 for both reef and high light requiring planted aquariums for a variety of reasons such as the sleek design, and wider output than some LED lights.
Since I have seen a wide variance in quality of build as well as quality of output similar to with LED lights, I recommend going with the best and for this I would recommend the premium Giesemann T5 lights which have unique phosphor blends that are characterized by exceptionally high output performance, long life span, consistent coloration combined with high levels of spectral stability over time. In other words both quantity (PAR) and quality (PUR) of light."Reference: www.americanaquariumproducts.com/Aquarium_Lighting.html#t5Carl
|
|