Survey for "Updating the WPG rule (theory)"

[crazyred]

volume: 29 gal.
dimensions: 30"L x 12"W x 18"H
light: NO 40 watts (2 tubes @ 20 w ea.) both bulbs 6700 k
level: low-med. low

Currently growing with sucess: anacharis, bacopa, amazon sword, java fern, several crypts, several anubias, banana plant, aponogeton sp., nyphaea lillies

 

[workfortheman]

volume: 29 g
dimensions: 30LX12Wx18H
light: 2x55 watts CF (6700K)
Level: very high

volume: 29 g
dimensions: 30LX12Wx18H
light: 2x20 watts NOF (6700K)
Level: low(+)
note: grows (asian) ambulia very well, ludwigia repens grows okay as does rotala rotundifolia and sunset hygro.

 

[Wizzard~Of~Ozz]

I'll be adding more detail to the results, just have to figure out a layout, then code it, I think I'm at about 400 lines of code so far... Takes a bit of time to produce.

 

[Purrbox]

Any plans to add option to select tank shape (ie standard or hex)? Just wondering if I should wait to enter my hex tank, or figure out how to fudge the numbers so it comes out approximately the same for square inches.

 

[Wizzard~Of~Ozz]

Never thought about hex or Bowfronts.. I'ld have to work out the numbers to figure out the Sq. Inches..

Rough results are available now. Just click on the light level, it will show you the range it was guesstimating on, and what level was claimed. Once there is more information available I can use the information to Refine the light level, so don't be too concerned if it said your tank is "sub low light" when you think it's low light etc..

 

[Jchillin]

I guess I guessed right.

 

[Wizzard~Of~Ozz]

Yeah, you're almost pushing moderate light.. close to borderline.

 

[czcz]

Here's my calcs for the survey.

Corrections: had ringfingers 29gal at 96watts instead of 97.5w earlier. From the wattage ratings and his final calcs, I believe Travis has 30w T12 and 56w T8. Since all calcs assume all the bulb's light hits the tank, I do not know how we factor in screw-in CF's common restrike problem (call it 40%?) so omitted them. Please correct me

          Eq T12 wpg  Lumens   Lumens/sq in   Lighting level
czcz_8_old     4.38   2064.4   13.23          med-high
czcz_8_now     6.88   3242.4   20.78          very high
czcz_20        1.5    1767      4.91          low
rich311K       4.87  10322     28.67          high-very high
Purrbox       14.02   2064.4   28.67          high-very high
Blazer_6       2.35    832      3.48          low
Blazer_10      3.5    2064.4   10.32          med+
gfink_10       3      1767      8.84          med
gfink_29       1.24   2120.4    5.89          low
Jchillin       1.98   8734      8.66          low
fish_old       1.5     883.5    4.42          very low
fish_now       4      2356     11.78          med
CGGorman       3.7   15244.8   14.44          med-high
Ozz            3.7   16372.8   18.95          high
LoneWolf       9.35  41288     47.79          high-very high
ringfinger_29  4.53   7741.5   21.5           high-very high
ringfinger_20  2.19   2580.5    7.17          low
ringfinger_10  1.5     883.5    4.42          low
travis         5.33  39254     30.29          very high
crazyred       1.38   2356      6.54          low-med low
WFTM_29high    5.11   8734     24.26          very high
WFTM_29low     1.38   2356      6.54          low+

Just going to wait for Ozz's results instead of continuing. Thank you!

 

[Purrbox]

I'm kinda wondering how much light you actually loose with the screwin flourescents? The 10Watts over my 5 Gallon Hex acts solidly Low - Medium Light, which is also right where Ozz's figures put my tank. Of course the screwin that I have is a standard double U as apposed to the spirals, if that makes any difference.

 

[Wizzard~Of~Ozz]

czcz, have you looked at http://woo.gotdns.com/Aquarium/ShowResults.php ?

You can view in depth results for each tank, comparisons of what the estimated light level is compared to what is calculated.

I'll take a bit of time tomorrow hopefully and enter in what's been posted in this thread.. but it will record everything.

Of course the screwin that I have is a standard double U as apposed to the spirals, if that makes any difference.

Yes that makes a bit of a difference..

 

[czcz]

Heh, I hadn't clicked around. Sweet.

 

[Lonewolfblue]

Made a change to my setup. Now running 130W in the back, 130W in the front, and 130W Actinic in the middle. Not sure if I'm going to like the actinic, as it makes the fish too blue.

 

[Wizzard~Of~Ozz]

Guess it was a bit too much to manage? I figured it was going to be like driving an indy car with a stuck pedal through a windy course..

Hopefully I can get the figures plugged in. it should prove most efficient to be able to automate some research rather then plugging everything into a calculator.

 

[Lonewolfblue]

I just didn't have everything in sync yet, and haven't got used to the dosing yet. I'm using flourish products for now, til my dry fert comes in. Then I'll use the Chuck's calculator for my 75G to calculate the dosages. And even at the lower lighting, the tank was really pearling tonight, and once and a while, my XP3 would gurgle and spit out a little O2. And when you look into the tank, it's like winter snow, but with bubbles everywhere.

Tonight I also did a 50+% PWC and got my nitrate down to 20ppm. My phosphate right now is sitting at about 1.5ppm. So I'm pretty close to being where I want to be. Will do 1 more small PWC tomorrow, maybe 20%, and will see where my nitrates are. Then will get everything in sync. Hopefully, lol. I must not have been paying close attention to dosing the Flourish Nitrogen. All it took was the 1 day for the algae to just explode.

 

[czcz]

Ozz,
Do you want to split the data entry? I'll take half if you want.

it should prove most efficient to be able to automate some research rather then plugging everything into a calculator.

Yeah, definitely. You're probably already familiar with sort seeing you're running Unix on your server, but often I prefer doing this at the shell with simple text files.

I just keep the above as lumenssqin.txt

[cz@monk aa]$ cat lumenssqin.txt
          Eq T12 wpg  Lumens   Lumens/sq in   Lighting level
czcz_8_old     4.38   2064.4   13.23          med-high
czcz_8_now     6.88   3242.4   20.78          very high
czcz_20        1.5    1767      4.91          low
rich311K       4.87  10322     28.67          high-very high
Purrbox       14.02   2064.4   28.67          high-very high
Blazer_6       2.35    832      3.48          low
Blazer_10      3.5    2064.4   10.32          med+
gfink_10       3      1767      8.84          med
gfink_29       1.24   2120.4    5.89          low
Jchillin       1.98   8734      8.66          low
fish_old       1.5     883.5    4.42          very low
fish_now       4      2356     11.78          med
CGGorman       3.7   15244.8   14.44          med-high
Ozz            3.7   16372.8   18.95          high
LoneWolf       9.35  41288     47.79          high-very high
ringfinger_29  4.53   7741.5   21.5           high-very high
ringfinger_20  2.19   2580.5    7.17          low
ringfinger_10  1.5     883.5    4.42          low
travis         5.33  39254     30.29          very high
crazyred       1.38   2356      6.54          low-med low
WFTM_29high    5.11   8734     24.26          very high
WFTM_29low     1.38   2356      6.54          low+

Sorting by lumens/sq in

[cz@monk aa]$ sort +3 -n lumenssqin.txt
          Eq T12 wpg  Lumens   Lumens/sq in   Lighting level
Blazer_6       2.35    832      3.48          low
fish_old       1.5     883.5    4.42          very low
ringfinger_10  1.5     883.5    4.42          low
czcz_20        1.5    1767      4.91          low
gfink_29       1.24   2120.4    5.89          low
crazyred       1.38   2356      6.54          low-med low
WFTM_29low     1.38   2356      6.54          low+
ringfinger_20  2.19   2580.5    7.17          low
Jchillin       1.98   8734      8.66          low
gfink_10       3      1767      8.84          med
Blazer_10      3.5    2064.4   10.32          med+
fish_now       4      2356     11.78          med
czcz_8_old     4.38   2064.4   13.23          med-high
CGGorman       3.7   15244.8   14.44          med-high
Ozz            3.7   16372.8   18.95          high
czcz_8_now     6.88   3242.4   20.78          very high
ringfinger_29  4.53   7741.5   21.5           high-very high
WFTM_29high    5.11   8734     24.26          very high
Purrbox       14.02   2064.4   28.67          high-very high
rich311K       4.87  10322     28.67          high-very high
travis         5.33  39254     30.29          very high
LoneWolf       9.35  41288     47.79          high-very high

Sorting by equiv wpg, redirecting to and creating equivT12wpg.txt, then verifying by displaying the new file.

[cz@monk aa]$ sort +1 -n lumenssqin.txt > equivT12wpg.txt && cat equivT12wpg.txt
          Eq T12 wpg  Lumens   Lumens/sq in   Lighting level
gfink_29       1.24   2120.4    5.89          low
crazyred       1.38   2356      6.54          low-med low
WFTM_29low     1.38   2356      6.54          low+
czcz_20        1.5    1767      4.91          low
fish_old       1.5     883.5    4.42          very low
ringfinger_10  1.5     883.5    4.42          low
Jchillin       1.98   8734      8.66          low
ringfinger_20  2.19   2580.5    7.17          low
Blazer_6       2.35    832      3.48          low
gfink_10       3      1767      8.84          med
Blazer_10      3.5    2064.4   10.32          med+
CGGorman       3.7   15244.8   14.44          med-high
Ozz            3.7   16372.8   18.95          high
fish_now       4      2356     11.78          med
czcz_8_old     4.38   2064.4   13.23          med-high
ringfinger_29  4.53   7741.5   21.5           high-very high
rich311K       4.87  10322     28.67          high-very high
WFTM_29high    5.11   8734     24.26          very high
travis         5.33  39254     30.29          very high
czcz_8_now     6.88   3242.4   20.78          very high
LoneWolf       9.35  41288     47.79          high-very high
Purrbox       14.02   2064.4   28.67          high-very high

All tanks near or past high light, sorted by lumens/sq in.

[cz@monk aa]$ grep high lumenssqin.txt | sort +3 -n
czcz_8_old     4.38   2064.4   13.23          med-high
CGGorman       3.7   15244.8   14.44          med-high
Ozz            3.7   16372.8   18.95          high
czcz_8_now     6.88   3242.4   20.78          very high
ringfinger_29  4.53   7741.5   21.5           high-very high
WFTM_29high    5.11   8734     24.26          very high
Purrbox       14.02   2064.4   28.67          high-very high
rich311K       4.87  10322     28.67          high-very high
travis         5.33  39254     30.29          very high
LoneWolf       9.35  41288     47.79          high-very high

Anyway, if anyone prefers to sort data locally, I'll probably have files you can start with. Might get unweildy when/if Ozz's page takes off, though.

 

[Lonewolfblue]

Mine's now changed, if you want to change it in your work there...
75G
260W CF
130W Actinic CF

 

[czcz]

          Eq T12 wpg  Lumens   Lumens/sq in
Lonewolfblue   4.67  20644     23.89

Purrbox,

I'm kinda wondering how much light you actually loose with the screwin flourescents?

FWIW, this is 2*23w spiral screw-in CF, painted white hood. This is 2*13w AHSupply bright kit. Light in the sump is the same in both pics (23w spiral CF), for reference. I don't think even half the wattage of the spiral screw-in CFs were in the tank. I think spiral bulb shape and reflector quality has a big part in this, of course, but it was not a bad reflector.

I was hoping restrike loss could be guestimated by just getting 40% of rated wattage or something, but your experience makes me think more investigation is necessary, probably by someone better at this than me Part of the reason the current numbers are solid s because we ran quick and dirty deviation on several samples for lumens/watt by bulb type, and so to do screw-in CFL we really should do the same, as well as standardize the difference between spiral and double U-tube bulb shape (and both to normal CF) if possible. Up for trying later if no one collects ratings or runs the current data first, but low on the personal interest list.

 

[Wizzard~Of~Ozz]

Sure, I don't mind data entry of 20-30, it's when you are asked to enter the phone book.. (actually my company asked me to enter in over 3500 Customers into a database for a program I wrote. Of course I automated it and used some existing databases.)

I learn on a need to know basis for Linux. I have 3 machines running it (Mail server, Apache/Mysql on a dual XP2200/2Gb ecc, 1 spare). I know enough to get by, but not all the in's and outs of commands.

I was going to write up some information on reflectors. I also wrote a quick program that will show the effectiveness of a reflector, it's amazing how much lost light you can scavange. (It's also interesting that AHSupply's reflector promotes restrike for their compact fluorescent fixtures, the design is right, but the bulb placement is wrong.) (Their fixture looks like it was more designed for a T5 bulb, then had too wide a bulb thrown into it)

But I'll post more on that later on.

 

[czcz]

Don't enter anything for a few minutes. I'll see what I can enter now.

 

[Wizzard~Of~Ozz]

bad time to tell you you have the length and width reversed? I can fix the dimensions automatically (I love SQL)