6700k Lighting From Home Depot

[tmelhiser]

I was at Home Depot earlier this evening looking at lighting for our yard.

While looking through the lights, one of the items I looked at caught my eye; 6700K coloration.

Hmmm... 27W PC bulb, already moisture resistant enclosure. This thing started to look like a good idea for under my tank in a little area I want to put together as a propagation area.

Anyone ever used one of these exterior landscape lights for under their tank?

Lights of America 27 Watt Flood Light

-t

[Brooks]

The wattage would be a bit low for growth, wouldn't it? I'm not sure if you'd get good growth out of that, despite the coloration.

[tmelhiser]

The area it's going in is only 6x11x11 (LxWxH), a little over 3 gallons, so it's not powering much space.

At 27W, that's about 9w per gallon in the right spectrum.

Will 27W reach down 11 inches? I was planning on egg crate shelves anyway, so there is the ability to raise it a bit.

Thoughts?

[Brooks]

The area it's going in is only 6x11x11 (LxWxH), a little over 3 gallons, so it's not powering much space.

At 27W, that's about 9w per gallon in the right spectrum.

Thoughts?

Ah I got'cha. It'll reach, but I'm not sure how powerful it'll be at 11"... you could get a PAR meter and measure.

What will you be propagating? SPS, LPS?

[tmelhiser]

I would like to do SPS, but probably LPS at first.

Where does one find a PAR meter?

[stoneroller]

I'd lay money it won't grow coral. I have the same light powering my fuge; haven't been too thrilled.

[JimD]

Yeah, lots of people were using thet light a few years ago, mainly to promote algae growth in the fuge. Bite the bullet and shell out for some quality T-5's if you dont want halides.

[barderer]

coral will actually grow faster under 6700K light. The question is does the bulb really produce that spectrum.

[DaJMasta]

It's not going to grow SPS in the bottom half of the tank.... at least not quickly. The dissipation as it travels through water can often be pretty steep.

Why not go all out and get a similarly spectrum'd metal halide from home depot? They sell them as outdoor security floods, and while they're a bit more than that, you can get 50W or more versions, they usually have a few, for way less than a competing aquarium products.

It also may be worth looking into the cheaper nova extreme T5 fixtures. I've got an 18" 36W fixture over my main tank that was something like $45 from lnt.com

[tmelhiser]

It's not going to grow SPS in the bottom half of the tank.... at least not quickly. The dissipation as it travels through water can often be pretty steep.

Why not go all out and get a similarly spectrum'd metal halide from home depot? They sell them as outdoor security floods, and while they're a bit more than that, you can get 50W or more versions, they usually have a few, for way less than a competing aquarium products.

It also may be worth looking into the cheaper nova extreme T5 fixtures. I've got an 18" 36W fixture over my main tank that was something like $45 from lnt.com

I really don't have room for an 18" fixture... and I don't really want to light the whole sump.

I would love to find a 12" wide light that would reach to the bottom of 11" of water.

This is the gereral layout of the sump.

[DaJMasta]

LEDs sound like a good option except for price. You need high intensity in a relatively small area... but if your frag rack is only 6" wide maybe you can light that alone with the high powered stuff? I've got a jbj nano glow that would fit the size requirements, but at only 4W it's not really enough for SPS even in that small of an area. There are some other options though, and there are a number of relatively lower color temp 8-12W LED bulbs available (look for fewer LED numbers and a big heatsink) priced under $50 which use relatively standard light fixtures.

[Toxiq Reef]

I have a 75watt 6500k flood light in a clipon light on my fuge, chaeto grows faster then it's trimmed, I'm sure coral would do well, 18bucks total on light..