lighting idea?
 

"Richard Sexton" wrote in message
...
mylar and urethane glue it to the inside of the canopy.

Thanks for the link. I'm resurrecting an old 120g and I'll probably
build a new canopy for it. I can have something made out of stainless
steel, so shape is not an issue. The tank top is 60" x 18". I usually
order glass plates to cover the top and then install the lighting in a
sliding or fixed canopy, in this case, four 4' fluorescent lamps would
be
my typical approach. On my last canopy, I used the following:
2 Philips F40-DX Daylight CRI 85, 6500K $3cdn each (Home Depot)
1 Sylvania F40/GRO/AQ/WS Gro-Lux $7.50cdn (Home Hardware)
1 GE F40C50 Chroma 50 Sunshine CRI 90, 5000K $7cdn (Canadian Tire)
..which provided a wide bright spectrum.

With your experience with these screw-in fluorescents, do you think it
is
worthwhile investigating their use, or do you think I should stick with
my garden-variety and inexpensive approach using multiple inexpensive
lamps?

If it's all you have, screwins are ok. Just. But you're not gonna
light up a 120 with them unless you want the moral equivalent of
LED moonlighting.

We've oulived the T12 era and I'd only consuider compact flourescent,
T5 or T8. T8's you can get a in a pinch at green home recycling
centers,
only buy ones with reaaly good angled polished aluminum reflectors,
pass
on any that have white reflectors. T5's I'd be surprised if you could
find in places like this, but I did find a bunch of CF twin 40W
fixtures
last year (woo hoo!) so it could happen.

I looked into halogen spot lighting, but their efficiency is not much
better than incandescent, though I may still use it for accents (I want
that shadow ripple across the bottom of the tank for the evening
transition), and for helping certain plants.

Yeah, I do that too.

I have the feeling that if I can wait long enough, there will be a
solution available using LEDs. Now that would be interesting,
especially
is I could dim them, and turn on different banks for changes in hue (a
slight blue tinge in an open area, red-brown hue over the plants).

Crappy tire sells a cheap 35 or 70W HPS(1) fixture and bulb. And an
even
cheaper mercury one. I'm just sayin..

Chose something that uses cheap (ie theres lots of them made) tubes.
Color
is personal taste - warm whiteif you prefer red, daylight if you prefer
blue. I like the look of C50's and grolux but I'm not convinced they
have
any effect on plant growth whatsoever.

(1) 12000 lumens from 70W or something like that. A 40W tube is about
3000 lumens.
T8 or T12 or CF.
--
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At 190 lumens/watt, the Luxeons rival the intensity of the fluorescent,
so this will be something I'm going to gather some data sheets on (CRI,
MTBF, efficiency etc). By the time I'm ready to purchase them, they
might even be affordable, otherwise I've been known to occasionally spend
too much on this hobby ;~).

Alternately, the T8 route would probably be the right way to go, thanks.
--
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