Re: [AGA-Member] tank lighting--light pipes?

["S. Hieber" <shieber@yahoo.com>]

--- Heather J Gladney <hgladney@comcast.net> wrote:

> . . . I understand that LEDs would be cooler, more 
> efficient &
> durable than 
> either MH or CFs, which makes them less toxic than lots
> of replacement 
> bulbs, but of course you're still putting in electrical
> energy.  I'm 
> only seeing very tiny ones, such as hoods with moonlight
> bulbs.

The kind of LEDs that you'd probably use - the ultrabright
or superbright kind that come in a variety of colors
including white - are actually a kind of fluorescent lamp.
But not quite the same as your standard glass tube
fluorsecent lamp. In the glas tube fluorescent, electrons
traveling through a plasma of vaporized mercury, generate
UV photons that cause phosphorescent paint to fluoresce.
With the LEDs, the photons emitted from the diode cause
material on the specially treated diode to fluoresce. The
gross energy efficiency is no better than MHs or PCs and
the effective efficiency (amount of usable light per input
energy) might be worse given that the LEDs usually do not
have a very "dispersal" of light. So there wouldn't be a
heat or energy cost advantage. If run at the correct
voltage, they would last longer than MHs and probably
longer than PCs.

Some day, someone with lots of time and solder will
assemble a huge array of suprebright LEDs for their
aquarium. By then, PCs or T5HOs or both probably will have
come down in price significantly as mas production drives
down the marginal costs.

Let there be light, and aquatic plants to use it,
Scott H.

Plants and DVDs for sale at the AGA table at the ACA 2005 Annual Convention, Fort Worth, Texas on July 21-24, 2005. 
ACA Convention Details at 

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