Halogen pot lights

[chili is hot]

Hi
i found 6 halogen pot lights in my basement a couple days ago. i was just wondering if they are any good for growing plants or if they are just useless. i have 6 each one is 20watt. i was planing to put them over my 36gal tank. right now i have a 20 wat NO florescent bulb. i have a bunch of sword plats that are in the tank but they grow real slow so i want to try some different lights.

Thanks
sean

 

[travis simonson]

I'm guessing they're probably fairly low kelvin rating lamps so they may not be as good as a 6500K HQI MH lamp but they will probably do the trick. It's a great experiment in any case. If you do try them out, let us know

 

[chili is hot]

hey yah i decided to try it out since it probably wont hurt considering how little watt per gal i had before. i'll build the thing tomorrow. I just hope algea doesn't get out of hand.

 

[azn_fishy55]

well then you'll have to either add CO2 or dose Flourish Excel to prevent algae from growing.

 

[An t-iasg]

Monitor your water temperature -- the halogens are likely to add quite a bit of heat.

 

[chili is hot]

hi
i put the 6 lights on a pice of wood and put it across the top of the tank. suprisingly enough the new lights look better than my old lights from the top eavin though they arnt coverd or anything. the lights give off a much better light, its brighter but softer on the eyes. i dicided to hook up two DIY Co2 bottles too just incase of an algea problem. this tank is starting to look like a monster(canister filter for my new tank, Co2 line). Oh i also just realised my kribs layed egs

 

[travis simonson]

This is going to be a great thread to watch. Halogens provide point-source light (unlike fluorescents) and can cast really wicked shadows. The pics you've posted show those shadows. Very cool my man

 

[chili is hot]

thanks, i only wish i could get some decent pics. i have to learn how to compres and stuff

 

[malkore]

I was once told that halogen's simply didn't provide a good spectrum for plant growth. I had no trouble growing very healthy java ferns anachris and some crypts with a single 20w halogen over a 15gallon tall.

So this will be interesting to watch develop. Keep us updated.

 

[chili is hot]

Ok the halogen lights are off. I had trouble setting up the Co2 for the first couple of days and after about 5 days the whole thing was covered in algea. They made very nice shadows and spot lights but aren't good for a fish tank.in the last couple of days i got many different types of algea. The algea took over my large drift wood, mt rocks and my plants, the plants were looking especially bad. i'm sorta bummed out because my tank was practically algea free for the last year and my swords were multiplying. but at least other people will learn from this.

i have some realygood pics of the spot lights but they arnt on this computer but i might put them up some time.
thanks

 

[BlazerFRS]

Seems you were getting a good amount of light to the tank tho, with all that algea you got.

I would just leave them off until I got the CO2 set up and going-light like that (especially when it was basically FREE) is too good to resist!

What size tank do you have; looks like maybe a 29G?