I need some willing readers to give me some helpful feedback.....

[Physh1]

I wrote a tech article on lighting to help clarify lighting types, terminology, etc and would like a little helpful feedback on anything that I forgot to mention, any information that is incorrect, or anything that will simply make it better.

 

You can read the article on my webpage here http://www.californiareefs.com/tanktechlighting.htm and let me know what you guys think. It's still kinda a work in progress.....

 

Cameron

[Dave ESPI]

well done.. perhaps I shal use it fer referance ! A worthwhile read fer beginners and the basics. Clear and easy to follow.

[NanoReefer53]

WoW ! very nice article. so now if a newbie asks for lighting references, we can link them there maybe Chris can use this article too.

[Physh1]

Cool. Thanks guys. I am going to add a little more on flourescent lighting (mainly the T designations) but other than that I guess i'm good.

 

Thanks for taking the time to read through it.

 

Cameron

[printerdown01]

Very cool! Another tid bit: the degrees K (or temp of the bulb) is the same color for all bulbs of that temperature. The temperature ratings are actually ratings of stars (like the sun 6,400 or 6,700 I don't remember which). The sun is a little yellow due to the fact that that it is not hot enough to be white (it has a "red-shift"). And a star that burns @ 20,000 K is pretty close to blue... -Wow the "black body radiation curves lecture" from my Astronomy course was actually useful ! Thus, the temperature rating is nothing more that saying that the spectrum that the bulb is the same or close to the spectrum of a "black body" a.k.a. a star of a given temperature... -this is a little more in depth than I think people require though

[ross76053]

Physh1,

 

or anything that will simply make it better

Great article! As a new guy, I can attest to it being very good information. The only comments I have are:

 

- might want to change the background with the white type - I found it sort of hard on the eyes. (disregard if I'm the only one to comment on this)

 

- in your range of PC Wattages, didn't know if you were trying to cover all the possibilities - if so, I've got 36W bulbs that aren't in the table

 

Thanks for taking the time to write the article.

 

Ross

[printerdown01]

*by the way I put that page in my favorites list!!! -It is going out to ANYONE who is looking to get info on lighing, wheter they be newbies, or just someone who has never had to deal with a compact lighting source (as is needed with nanos)!! Once again, as everyone else stated, thanks for creating this!! It is creations like these that make the world of difference for people!! OOH oooh IDEA, I'm going to put a link from my site to it (from my lighting page -totally differnet information covered, it will be the perfect supplement!)

[MKramer]

printerdown:

 

Actually, while a color temperature may mean consistent colors for incandescent bulbs, that isn't true for flourescents. Because of the nature of spectral output of flourescent bulbs, the color temperature is little more than an average of its peaks. It's a conveinent way to label bulbs, but it's not a very scientific measurement of them.

 

As for red-shift.... Usually that's used to refer to the lengthening of a star's wavelenths due to 1) gravity and 2) travelling away from us. From our vantage point here on Earth, we have no detectable red-shift when viewing the Sun, as far as I know. We are moving with it, so no velocity issues, and it's a rather gravitationally-weak star. The sun is just yellow because it's at that stage in its life (ie, because of its size and helium/hydrogren composition).

[MKramer]

Hey printerdown,

 

Sorry, I hope I didn't come off as nagging you there. I'm having a ####y morning.

[MKramer]

And not to completely take over this thread with short, useless posts, but it looks great to me, Cameron. The only thing I found was the incomplete color availability table for PC bulbs. But I think you'd be lucky to get all the colors. You can find a 6500K in just about every size (including 9W and 13W), as well as some form of actinic. I have 7100K and 6500K 13W and 9W bulbs.

 

Also, you may wish to calrify the units for Kelvin. Ie, that a "6.5k" bulb really refers to 6500K. The appropriate labelling would be more like 6.5kK, but that jsut looks messy. So maybe you'd want to explain in the Color Temperature definition that you use k to mean thousands of Kelvins in your sight, and that the K (Kelvin unit) is implied. People tend to get really confused over the K unit, assuming it means thousands.

[Crakeur]

Very informative and very easy to understand (for the non-technical folk such as mahself). One thing you might want to consider would be images of the different types of lighting and wattage. Just a thought.

[Sahin]

Nice and easy article, very good for the beginners to reefing.

 

One thing you might want to include is a rough guide for what type of lighting can be used for various tank sizes. I think many newbies would want this too.

 

I also 2nd the comment about the colours; to me the colours are readable, but the white against the background messes with the eyes a little, and the red against the background isnt too nice on the eyes.

 

But otherwise a very good article.

I shall be linking to it hopefully very soon.

Thanks.

[Physh1]

Thanks a lot. I will take it all and in some way work it in.

 

--I will work on the color .....sorry for the hard on the eyes feel.

 

--All the PC bulbs would make a huge list and may complicate things when we start getting into the 2 types of pin configurations but if I can make an easy way to view them I will expand it.

 

--A few other pics and a type of lighting to various tanks sizes is a great idea.

 

I will have an update soon.....

 

Thanks again guys....very helpful.

 

Cameron

[nano neophyte]

What a great idea physh! Thanks for putting that together. I especially appreciate the pictures.

 

I wonder if you could add a section on actinic supplementation. As a newbie this has always been a confusing subject .. purpose .. use with halides ... 03 verses that other option, etc.

 

Thanks again ... this is definitely going into my favorites!