lights ?

[johnfaas]

I was in the auto parts store today and was looking at thoes new super bright head light bulbs(the bluish bright ones)and noticed the color temp of thies lights are between 5500 and 10000 K.Has anyone or can they be used on a nano ?

[printerdown01]

Are they by chance the light emitting diode headlights? -never mind I scrolled down and answered my own question... sorry for not reading carefully... I would say that the 10,000K light emitting diodes -those really bright blue headlights you are describing- MIGHT even be safer than PC bulbs. Here is why: TO MY KNOWLEDGE l.e.d. light sources do not have a spectrum shift that is nearly as sever (if any at all) as the PC bulbs. The 5500 bulbs are DEF out!! But there might be some serious usage of LED lighting systems in reeftanks in the near future. Currently a LOT of people are using them in things like the Eclipse and Alife filter boxes (LEDs can be really small). There is also some talk about LEDs being the future of aquarium lighting... do I think this is far fetched....? NO!! Not by any means. From what I can gather LEDs are a superior light source to anything we currently and have ever used in the trade. There has been some serious discussion on this subject on this board in the past...

 

Here is my question to you... Do you know of a way, or a "box" (you can tell I'm not an electriction), that you can use to convert the electricity from a wall socket to match that of a car battery, in order to use these lights? Or do they make a socket that they will currently fit into that will plug into a wall socket? The reason that I'm asking is that I would be MORE than happy to try it out for y'all. I have been itching to get my hands on an LED source (a cheap LED source with the right spectrum). How much were they? Is there anyone out there that can estimate full set-up cost of lighting using this (not including suspended hood)...?

[SteveC]

Having gone caving a few times with an LED headlamp, I'm not sure what I think of the idea of using LEDs to light a tank. I mean, on the surface it's a great idea, because LEDs use a tiny fraction of the electricity of other light sources and stay very cool. However, I don't know how "full spectrum" LEDs are, or what the limits are on their color rendering.

 

In caves everything looks fairly washed out with LEDs compared to regular incandescent, halogen, or carbide lamps (hmmm, lighting a nano with carbide... ). This may be partly because the particular LEDs used are bluer, but even so the colors are definitely not rendered very well compared to, say, a 10000K or 20000K full spectrum flouro bulb.

[chvynva916]

From what I know about LEDS (I'm a physics major), it would seem that the spectrum would not be broad enough.

[ross76053]

Hmmmm....Printerdown, I'm with you. I'd love to try it as well. I'm needing to make a new hood anyway for my 10-gal (to incorporate a fan), and I need a holiday project. If we can find out which type head light bulb it is, I've got a friend who's an electrician.... I could let you know what he thinks...