HID Xenon for Aquarium Lighting.

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Generalx5

Aquarium Advice Regular
Joined
Sep 2, 2009
Messages
54
Location
Vancouver British Columbia
Hey guys...I can't afford a Metal Halide system...So I went all out custom:rolleyes:

[img=http://img34.imageshack.us/img34/8246/70477040.jpg]




Heres a look at the Light spectrum from the 2 HID Xenon lights as seen above.



Mounted the HID lights in place of a 400W halogen tube lamp. Removed sockets and drilled holes.



Fan in the back to cool the al enclosure, side holes drilled for wire, and soldered in place. A ballast is seen in the back with zip straps and heat sink.


Shimmering effect is produced, and lights up your room with 10K lighting.


Heres a ballast....


New Tank setup on my desk. Two ballasts on the side and light on top.


Total cost:
$19.99 CAD for the complete halogen outdoor lighting fixture from Home Depot =D.
$49.99 USD for the HID Xenon 10,000K conversion kit from Ebay.
$4.00 CAD Maybe 4 dollars worth of heat shrink tubing and solder and rubber gasket.

Power source is a 12V 400W computer power supply SLIM Drive Bay version with custom on off switch.
Each Lamp rated at 35Watts 3200 Lumens each so total 70 Watts at 6400 lumens.
 
Wow, good job. What was the end cost of the project. Nice setup with the live rock by the way.
 
Hey guys...I can't afford a Metal Halide system
Should have checked Ebay. You can get a 175w ballast for about $30 and a bulb for as low as $10.

I would be very interested in seeing what kind of PAR (Photosynthetically Active Radiation) those put out. I wonder about UV output too...??? Lumens really have no value in guaging the effectiveness of the bulb in a reef tank setting. Any chance you have access to an Apogee Quantum light meter? ;)
 
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According to my research, the HID lights do produce UV-A and most of the UV-B is blocked as that is harmful.

I do not have access to a light meter, Ill just have to wait and see. So far its been okay. As I have see no decrease nor increase in Coraline algae but a significant increase in green algae.

Again this is a new setup so it needs to cycle. There is only one true piece of live rock in the tank, the rest of the rocks were white when I had it setup, they used to be live..... trying to revive it now.
 

Heres my fav fish everrrrr!


Some good green algae


The green rock in the back and very left used to be all white like the round piece in the front right.


Unknown growth...


The only piece of live rock.
 
Kind of.....

The water im using comes from my reef only tank which has already been cycled. I replace the water every weekend and do a 75% water change directly from the Reef tank. In doing so, I hope to jumpstart the white rocks on making them Live again.
 
Hmmm, while the frequent PWCs are a good idea and can keep the ammonia down, keep in mind, the beneficial bacteria resides mainly on the rock, substrate and other surfaces, not the water column.
I would definitely be interested in the PAR rating as well. Nice clean DIY lighting system, by the way!
 
I had this tank setup since August 16th, and was using a 50/50 10,000K / Actinic CFL until August 28th.

The green growth on the white rocks were slow, it has only been the last few days up till now that I notice the rocks being super green. If you look at the first post, the last picture showed the same rock being all white, and that had been the first day I started using the HID lights. And today, you can see the white rock is very green.

Coralline algae also seems to be doing well on the only piece of live rock. No sign of retreating =D hopefully 3 months from now Ill have the other green pieces covered with coralline algae.

My puffer is essentially a water condition indicator for me. His white belly will show black spots or turn black if it feels stressed, and if water quality was off, the belly would turn completely black. Even so, when it sleeps at night, its belly turns completely white. So it gives me a visual warning if somethings wrong with my water chemistry.

How do I get access to a light meter?
 
WOW! Can I get an update? This is exactly what I am trying to do. The cost of lights is SUPERDUMB! Good luck, by the way my whole tank is DIY except the lights!
 
WOW! Can I get an update? This is exactly what I am trying to do. The cost of lights is SUPERDUMB! Good luck, by the way my whole tank is DIY except the lights!


Heyyy! yeah it works well. The only thing is there seems to be less 420nm (purple) waves in the car HID bulbs than the metal halides. This promotes green algae growth on the live rocks, Since my last modification (October 20th) a few days ago, The rocks were live with growth, this means there are coraline algae growing on them. The very back piece has a huge purple patch full of small colonies of coraline algae growing. The polyps I had on the rock had already more than doubled in size, I counted 13 round heads growing initially, and now theres about 35 heads or so.

Ive decided to go with a final mod of 96watt 50/50 power compact as that gave more wattage than the dual HIDS at 35 watts each. The other contributing factor that made me change my setup was that the way the light was mounted blocked my view out the window, and trying to open and close the window was rather difficult with the shelf in the way (the shelf was used so I could mount the HID lights onto it).

Another factor was that the HID ballast produced a high frequency hum, this hum was equally loud as the fans on the oceanic biocube.

Anyways, if I were to do this again, I would find a quiet ballast, and a slimmer housing for the HIDS, BTW, any plastic near the HID Bulbs will melt, so you need to use glass.

Best of luck!
 
I am going to try the 12000K lights or maybe even the 15 or 20000K, that should take care of the need for supplimental lighting. They sell the lights only on amazon for $40 per pair of any temp you want. Gool luck to you too and I will post pics of my DIY also.
 
I am going to try the 12000K lights or maybe even the 15 or 20000K, that should take care of the need for supplimental lighting. They sell the lights only on amazon for $40 per pair of any temp you want. Gool luck to you too and I will post pics of my DIY also.


That higher color temperature sounds like a good idea. That should provide some extra lighting near the 450nm waves, but as you go higher the lumens go down, a 6000K would have 3200lumens while a 10,000k lamp only at 2400 lumens. I dont know what the rating is for a 20,000k but you probably would need to go to a 55watt lamp and ballast combo to get more intensity.

Oh, and your going to love the reflective effects it has just like the metal halides do...
 
I saw a website where a guy built a whole hood out of BMW headlights and LEDs, it was pretty cool I wish I could remember the name.
 
Just saw your post, I will look for it. It looked awesome, he put the leds inside short lenghts of pvc to reduce light pollution in his room.
 
I figure that if I just make two lamps with two sets of 35w lights that will give me 140w of light for my 30 gallon tank. A 150W mh light from my lfs is $389. Why are aquarium light companies gouging the average joe just because their light goes over an aquarium. In comparison, I can go to sams and buy a gallon of salsa for $7, but if I go and buy a pint of salsa at walmart that is intended for dip I am gonna pay $3.50. Just a thought, enjoy the site.
 
Wow! Hahaha thats better than I imagined. 9 bulbs of various color temperatures sure does the job! Now only if I could have enough space for a larger tank... Oh btw, Im using the HIDS now in a fuge down on the floor, and beside the fuge is another 10 Gallon tank which contains the pump and skimmer and external mechanical in/out connectors. So in total I would have about 30 gallons with a 10 gallon main tank, and 10 gallon refugeium and a 10 gallon misc filtration skimmer pump tank. Yeap! overflow drain is used on main tank, with 700 gallon pump at 0 head pressure doing 400gallon/hour flow from floor to top main tank. Mechanical filter unit takes water from the fuge and pumps it out to the pump/skimmer tank. A 1 inch ID U tube is linked from the pump/skimmer tank to the fuge to close the loop.

Awesome idea eh?
 
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