Anyone use halogen lighting?

E

ErrorS

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Dec 29, 2006
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Ok, dont' yell at me, just hear me out.

has anyone used Halogen lighting in their tanks? I don't mean for a main source of light, i know it gets too hot to be that useful over PC or HO Fluorescent but looking at the bulbs today, it would really make things easy for me.

What about a couple of 100s or 50s?

I have my reasons.

1. Halogen lighting is dirt cheap
2. It's the best Lumen per square inch lighting source I know of
3. The light looks good AND provides natural full spectrum light. The only bulbs I know that can match it are some of the MHs or *some* Incandescent
4. I can fit 2-3 of any wattage inside my hood with little trouble, without taking up hardly any space where I couldn't fit anything else.
5. It is MUCH easier to direct than fluorescent. A lot of the light coming out of my bulbs is being wasted with a decent reflector. I can buy a spotlight type halogen that puts light out at a 35-55 degree angle for about $4 at any wattage I want, one small enough I can fit it into my hood.
6. I can almost guarantee lux at any given point would be about 1/2 per watt of any of fluorescents I use now.. especially with a stronger quartz halogen (they're more efficient the more wattage, 500W are only about 75 to 80% the efficiency of a NO fluorescent)

I have a hood that fits over the rear end of my 55, (about 8'' wide). It was originally a single CF fixture. I was able to fit two 48'' T8s in here and have enough space for 2 or maybe 3 halogens of any wattage. So I currently have a total wattage of 178 or (according to manufacturers) about 14,000 lumens of light (actual is less, of course). A single 300W halogen will put out about 5500 Lumens (actual) in the space of 1'', or about two and a half 55W power compacts.
.. but all of it will be better directed and with a better spectrum than the fluorescents I'm using now.

a single 500W puts out more than 8000 Lumens, they're T3 sized and only a couple of inches long. I can't see how I could have so much under a hood though, I doubt a MH style pendant could handle it.

I don't have a problem with my aquarium overheating, I keep my house cool.. but 300-600W of Halogen might change that. I'd like a bit more UV in my aquarium and a small bit of extra lighting wont hurt.

Within the next month I'll have a full wooden canopy. By then it wont be a question of "is it safe?", I know I can handle two 200W halogens in a wooden canopy as I had four 100W incandescents in the canopy for my reef..

but what do you think the realistic limit is to the amount I can put under this single strip light? heatwise.. and don't say 'nothing' because I know I can fit a couple of 20s in here (not worth the effort though.. at about 200 lumens)
 
Lumens is an inaccurate measure of beneficial light for plant growth and halogens are a perfect example why. Someone had measured the PAR (photosynthetically active radiation) output of a halogen light and it is 4 times less efficient than the average NO fluorescent bulb.
 
well, lumen output is 1/3rd to 1/4th as much, lumen per watt, as a NO fluorescent.

the 500W Quartz halogens are about 1/3 Lumen per watt.. but take up far, far far much less space than a NO bulb.

they produce light at all ranges on the spectrum, that's why lumen output is so low (i've been reading). They do convert a lot of their energy to light output but most of it is not in the visible spectrum.. but sunlight is the same way. Using an Incandescent or Halogen (halogen in some cases) is like being able to use pure sunlight, sadly it's far too inefficient to be practical for use in an aquarium.

Reading some stories I saw that someone with a 90G tried a 500W halogen in a fixture that was lifted 1' off of the aquarium. He said it rose his tank temperate by 2-3C.. in a 55G I'm sure it would be much worse, that's just too much to manage, even with a fan.

I'm sorta scared of high pressure bulbs now.. even with a cover. That includes metal halide, I think I'll just stick with fluorescent for the time being.. T5 HOs look pretty awesome
 
ErrorS said:
a single 500W puts out more than 8000 Lumens, they're T3 sized and only a couple of inches long. I can't see how I could have so much under a hood though, I doubt a MH style pendant could handle it.
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500W and only 8,000 lumens? Now I know why we dont see em often.
The 400W horticulture MH bulbs are up around 40,000 lumens for 100W less power. I think the higher K ones found in aquarium are around 25-30,000 lumens typically.

I havent heard of anyone using these bulbs on a large tank... for one thing you might actually notice the difference on the elctric bill if they are that less effecient. Its been discussed in the past that the perfect combination of light would be a higher-K MH and supplemented with HPS (high pressure sodium) to give lots of light in the red spectrum. HPS and halogen just dont look good to most, so its pretty rare.

BTW 400W HPS bulbs are typically rated at 50,000-60,000 lumens - thats almost 10X more lumens per watt that halgoen. But again the lumen rating isnt the best measuremtn to go by.

As far as the metal halide pendant not being able to handle it I am not sure what you mean. They can handle just about anything? Perhaps an additional fan might be needed if its too enclosed, but I would think MH is going to be cooler per watt than halogen. Your 500W halogen will be the equivelent of less than a 150W MH, and its pretty normal to stuff several 150W metal hallides in a fixture.

It be interesting to try as an experiment, but if you want to get what you know will work good I'd go the MH route. They say you get what you pay for, and if your a good diy'er you can do MH alot cheaper than the commercially avialble units.
 
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Actual on most HiDs are really around 20-30K depending on the quality, a 500W can easily reach 8000Lumens actual. of course, they're still pretty inefficient compared to fluorescents and MHs.

I meant a 500W Halogen in a MH style Pendant. A 500W Halogen puts out as much (or more) heat than 2000W(!) of Metal Halide.

I've been looking around, MH isn't as expensive as I had thought. You can find shoplights with 500W MH bulbs for $50-100 on eBay and Lowes sells 500W MH bulbs for $25.

but you said something that sparked my interest. You think it would be safe having two 150W MHs in my hood?
 
Well I cant say that for sure, not knowing anyhting of your hood. What i was getting at was they make fixtures that have multiple MH bulbs all in one, and even with other lighting like CF in there too. I am sure you probably know this since I miss interpreted what you were saying about the MH pendant not being able to withstand the heat. Nice highle effecient MH lights can be made DIY for almost half the price you can buy them for if its going inside a canopy and you forgo the 'pendant' or housing or whatever you call it. Just get a spider reflector with socket, a mogul MH bulb, and even with an icecap ballast I think you can put it together for under 200, and it will be better than the little hanging pendants that dont have good reflectors. Its still not cheap, and the cost obviously doubles if you want another one. If you doing a planted tank, lighting is one of the most imprtant things youll need to do though. I have done it cheap with overdriven T8 and T6's, my next tank is going to have overdriven T5 (alot more expensive). I debated MH myself, but think I have settled for T5.
 
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