Mark Weiss Reef Light review

[Anonymous]

Welp just to check it out, we ordered a 150W Weiss-Light Reef bulb to see if it was any good.

$70 bucks from Pet Warehouse.

It's a 150W spot light. It uses a regular incandecent socket thus NO ballast. Looking at it, it seems to have a regular incandescent filament surrounding a Metal Halide glass envelope. When turned on it's VERY yellow, as it's just the incandescent filament at first. After about a minute the MH filament fires and you start to get a blue almost purple spot in the middle of the circle of light. This would be fine except the blue spot is so concentrated in the center that at about 6 feet from a surface it's only about 12" in diameter. We hung this sucker over a 40 breeder(bout 15" from the water surface) and it put a pattern on the bottom of the sand roughly 4" diameter of blue light, the rest of the tank was a sickly yellow.

This bulb also runs EXTREMELY hot it felt like a heat lamp.

All in all it's garbage, don't waste your money.

Tom


------------------
Visit Tom's Reef
http://www.bit-net.com/~tjotoole/

proud to be an associate of

Inland Reef Aquaria, Nashua, NH
http://www.inlandreef.com/

 

[Anonymous]

Hmmm...

Could this be similar to the new car headlight technology which produces that super "white" light? I'm not sure, but if it is, it seems very impractical, since headlights are designed to project light far distances.

Tom, is there any way you can change the focal point of the bulb? If you can, you may be able to spread the light out a bit more.

-Nathan

 

[Anonymous]

Negative, it's basically an outdoor floodlight that one would use on their home for security, but with a MH type filament along with the regular incandescent one.

Tom


------------------
Visit Tom's Reef
http://www.bit-net.com/~tjotoole/

proud to be an associate of

Inland Reef Aquaria, Nashua, NH
http://www.inlandreef.com/

 

[Anonymous]

Call Pet Warehouse and ask for your money back. Or Mark Weiss. Designing a light bulb properly shouldn't be THAT hard...

 

[Anonymous]

It most likely will get returned. Right now it's research project =) we wanna know who makes it. Found something similar from Philips, seems the commerical application is as an inxepensive replacement for certain halogen lighting for store displays, but the color temp is way off, even Mark Weiss should know better than a 3,000K bulb for reef lighting.

What disturbs me is that it has a "Tested by Riddle Laboratories" on the packaging. If Dana Riddle approves of this garbage then all respect for Dana has flown out the window. The packaging implies that he endorses this product.

Tom


------------------
Visit Tom's Reef
http://www.bit-net.com/~tjotoole/

proud to be an associate of

Inland Reef Aquaria, Nashua, NH
http://www.inlandreef.com/

 

[Anonymous]

Just got the new (December 99) issue of FAMA, in the Marc Weiss Reef-tank Disinformation Guide; i.e., his ad on page 107, there is an ad for this bulb.

Included is the following quote from Dana Riddle who supposedly tested it for 9 months:

"The overall performance of these lamps is superior to many metal halide lamps currently on the market...maximum PAR output rivals that of natural sunlight." -Dana Riddle.

Even if this is actually true, and I'm willing to give Dana the benefit of doubt, it might actually be possible to grow corals under this bulb. It also is actually possible that algae growth will explode under this light.

The actual usable light this bulb puts out is about a 4" diameter circle over a 40 breeder. In order to properly light this tank, we calculated in #reefs the other night that it would take 51 of these 150W bulbs to get an even blue white color distribution. Thats umm...7,650 watts folks.

I'll stick to PC's or regular MH's thanks.

Tom


------------------
Visit Tom's Reef
http://www.bit-net.com/~tjotoole/

proud to be an associate of

Inland Reef Aquaria, Nashua, NH
http://www.inlandreef.com/

 

[Anonymous]

HI:
I thought I read that this is a mercury bvapor bulb...the kind of lighting used in security.
If you read any of dana riddle recent stuff he is of the opinion that color/spectrum isn't important but intensity is the key. So this type of bulb should/could/would fit into his new train of thought/research. It is possible that this bulb does have what dana says... remember that dana tests these things in a research lab, maybe this bulb has more PAR than natural sunlight. so maybe natural sunlight on a cloudy day is 1100uEinsteins, and this new bulbs has 1200uEinsteins
my opinion
frank

 

[Anonymous]

Could very well be, and I beleive I stated that above, but just remember that maximized PAR isn't necessary for coral growth, and while color spectrum may not be important for the corals, it is EXTREMLY important for the control of algaes. Very low color temperature bulbs produce extremely detrimental algae growth.

Plus it's just plain ugly. PAR is important, but it isn't the end all be all to coral husbandry.

IMO Dana Riddle is doing an extreme disservice to the reef public by approving this bulb.

Tom

 

[Anonymous]

Maybe after the word from others gets out that it's a hunk of crap Dana may reconsider giving this his seal of approval.
What also kills me is that there are still people out there who are pretty prominenet in the hobby still endorsing Weiss products.

[This message has been edited by Ken Ben (edited 21 November 1999).]

 

[Anonymous]

Sorry I have been out of reefing for about 3 years. Is this the same Dana Riddle who wrote for Marine Fish Monthly? I remember reading an article by Dana Riddle about giant clams. I can’t say anything good about anything I read in MFM, so I wont say anything. However I’m in the process of getting my feet wet again and am wondering who is a good source of information. More specifically are Dana Riddle, Bob Goemans, John Tullock, and other former MFM writer now a good source of information? I was just kind of shocked to see adds quoting “endorsed by Bob Goemans/Dana Riddle”, when all I can really remember is their tanks in MFM sure were good “algae filters”. But things change and people learn new things. I need to learn which systems/ideas now work. Flipping though the dec. FAMA (first mag I have seen in a few years) there were no full tank pictures, in any of these authors articles. Anyone happen to know if they have websites? It is good to know the new 10k bulb maybe isn’t something to go after, because it sure is priced well. I would like to hear some others who have tried it before deciding, maybe just a bad bulb or something.
Thanx,
fred

 

[Anonymous]

This is a good reminder to keep thinking on our own. The bigshots say a lot of stuff that is very pertinent but can make mistakes like everyone else.

Also, everyone has their own special set of circumstances in reef keeping. Some things will work great for some and not for others. We cant hang on every word they say becuase each system is different. Its like comparing apples and oranges.

That is what makes this and other message boards such and asset. We get up to the second knowledge on what works well with what. Id just like to know the specific set of circumstances that Riddle used this light in. If there isn't one it really lowers his credibility.

 

[Anonymous]

Fred,

Currently the person whose articles I ALWAYS read are Dr. Ron Shimek's. I've yet to see any Class A bullshit spew from his keyboard or mouth that I've seen from many others in this hobby. Hell sometimes one needs to don the hipboots when I start talking =)

Rob Toonen also has some good insights as well.

Dana Riddle has done some interesting work with lighting but he's looking at Trees instead of the Forest, he's permanently attached to that PAR meter of his and seems to forget that beauty and Color Rendering is just as important to a reeftank owner.

Tom

 

[Anonymous]

I've read with great interest the recent posts regarding the Marc Weiss bulb, and would like to clarify any questions by going on record with the following:

About a year ago, Marc Weiss approached Riddle Aquatic Laboratories with his idea of marketing an inexpensive, self-ballasted, mercury vapor lamp as an alternative to the traditional metal halide lamp. Over the course of a year we tested dozens of lamps and worked closely with the manufacturer's engineers to attain their goals. When testing was completed we submitted a technical report.

It should be noted here (and has been publicly announced many times) that any manufacturer who utilizes our testing services is permitted to display our logo in its advertising. The presentation of the logo is not an endorsement and simply means that the public is encouraged to contact Riddle Aquatic Laboratories for any of the testing data obtained. Many companies who use our services elect NOT to display the logo, for whatever reason.

The quotations used in Marc Weiss' advertisment were excerpts from the technical report we provided. Here's the scoop:

"Rivals natural sunlight" True. Natural sunlight's photon count is 2000 micro Einsteins. When the lamp is placed 9" above the water's surface PAR values were slightly lower than natural sunlight. Any placement closer to the water will exceed that of sunlight (>2000 micro Einsteins).

"Violet-Blue portion of the spectrum exceeds that of natural sunlight" True.

"The overall performance of these lamps is superior to many metal halide lamps currently on the market" True. Riddle Aquatic Laboratories has tested most of the metal halides available to the aquarium industry.

"Reef Lamp" Our bioassays involved freshwater plants only, and as such, we are unable to comment on the use of this bulb as a "Reef Lamp".

"7,500 hours of use" Riddle Aquatic Laboratories was not involved in the testing of lamp longevity.

We commend Marc Weiss for taking the time and committing to the expense of unbiased product testing. Many manufacturers do not, and of those that do, many do not permit us to make their results available to the public.

"Permanently attached to his PAR meter" False. It was recently surgically removed at the request of my jealous girlfriend <G>.

As always, when you see our logo in the future, you may contact us at [email protected] for complete testing data.

------------------
Dana Riddle
Riddle Aquatic Laboratories

 

[Anonymous]

Thank you Dana for commenting. I was hoping you would as this clears up alot.

Unfortunately not everyone who will buy this bulb has access to this medium or will read this thread.

I would suggest that you start at least a webpage where people can look up your test data. When I saw the "Tested by Riddle Laboratories" on the package and in the ad, I did multiple websearches for some type of contact info and could not find anything other than a couple of articles on various forums, neither of which posted contact info for Riddle Labs. I don't write down every email I see, and I'm sure most consumers don't either.

Maybe thats in the works, but without the means to look up the actual assay, and no real web presence the "Tested by" comes off as an approval which after your post is hardly the case at all. Remember the people buying this bulb are more than likely going to be first time reef light buyers, doubtful they've ever even heard of Riddle Aquatic Labs, or reefs.org

Course one really just needs to disregard everything the Marc Weiss says IMO.

Good to see the operation went well <g>

Tom O'Toole


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Visit Tom's Reef
http://www.bit-net.com/~tjotoole/

proud to be an associate of

Inland Reef Aquaria, Nashua, NH
http://www.inlandreef.com/