GaryL July 30, 2009 Share July 30, 2009 Too much light, I disconnected one of the bulbs, so now there are 4. Those are in addition to the 50/50 40 watt PC bulb in the Current USA fixture. I may have to disconnect another one if stuff doesn't start looking better. Some stuff in the tank enjoys the stronger light, but I have a little colt coral frag that has scrunched up (there was not enough light for it before, but now too much or too much all at once). i guess one point that was missed is that when you amp up the lighting then you should acclimate to the lighting or some critters get burnt like a sunburn. you could start with one light on then like every few days fire the next light up untill you have them all lit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sam75 July 30, 2009 Share July 30, 2009 Forest - Interesting project. What do you think about swapping out a few bulbs for the blue PC party bulbs they started selling at home depot? Obviously they wouldn't be as effective as actinics, but it would cool down the appearance a bit and probably provides at least a bit more blue light. Also think of the options for the holidays... Halloween - black light and orange St Patrick's Day - green Christmas - red and green April 15th - red the possibilities are endless! -S Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
treesprite July 31, 2009 Author Share July 31, 2009 (edited) Hmmm, I think I'll skip the holiday decorating! All I really want is to be able to put stuff in the lower half of the tank, like mushrooms, palys, and xenia. I have had frogspawn in there for a really long time at the highest rock point, and it was grows well at that height under the combo of 2 of 36" NOs (way too long for tank) plus 2 of 20" T-5s, but things can't grow on the bottom (mushrooms don't expand and xenia struggles... briarium did fine until the crab burried it where I couldn't find it in time). Given that this is just the clown tank, I don't want to invest a lot of money in it and am trying to use what is either already or easily and cheaply available. I might put together a mishmash hood of the PCs & T-5s, plus one or 2 of these spiral 26w 65Ks in the back of the hood where they would be above the macros that are behind the acrylic panel in the hex, rather than directly over corals. The one PC ballast would be out of the 65g's fuge fixture, but I have a 24" NO flo. fixture in the closet that might be ok for a fuge light (the spiral bulbs are probably too bulky for the location). The other PC ballast would be the one in the PC fixture currently on top of the hex (other one is apparently bad). Then I have the T-5 ballasts in the 20" fixture that I can use (they are single-bulb ballasts, hence 2 of them). No time to do all that work.... HERE IS MY SUMMARY: This household PC bulb project was a practically idiot-proof quickie project that took very little effort and was very cheap. There were no wiring or switches to deal with in using these spirals w/ the plug-in light sockets and adapters on a surge power strip that has a switch on it - the only special electrical knowledge required was that of electrical safety. It is also environmentally sensitive in that when the spectrum shifts the bulbs can be recycled for household lamp use, rather than having to be disposed of as typical aquarium bulbs have to be for lack of secondary application in the typical home. I believe that the project has some good salt or freshwater hobby applications, with adaptions that can be made and with re-finement of enclosures. This might include, but not be limited to: * Temporary or emergency lighting * Freshwater planted aquarium lighting * Refugium lighting * Part of a mixed-bulb hood that includes bulbs of other spectrums Things I Learned: * These spiral bulbs are very delicate. I lost $9.-something because I broke a couple of them just handling them the way I would straight bulbs. * (Taking members' words for it) too much of this spectrum can/will cause a lot of algae growth - it would be good for refugium light * There IS such a thing as too much light in an aquarium Edited July 31, 2009 by treesprite Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
treesprite August 15, 2009 Author Share August 15, 2009 FYI: I ended up taking this down. Too much light and too much of that spectrum for this tank. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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