nano reef lighting

[endomorphious]

Hi all,

My first nano reef tank is now up running for a week. It's in an Azoo 3 liter bowfront tank. Will show some pics when I can find a digital cam i can borrow.

My question is for an electrician or smart handyman. Would it be possible to adapt those xenon halide car headlamp lights for a pico/nano reef? If so, how?

Oh a second question. I have an old Coralife 175watt reefsun... i bought it because i love the built in ramp up timer. I would like to use this on a 10 gallon I have in the planning stage. The question is can i loose the pendant and socket and replace with another 175watt socket and bulb combo. Further, would it be possible to run 2 70 watt 20k double ended bulbs off of the Reefsun ballast?


Thanks,

love this forum

 

[Anonymous]

Hi

I'm not much of an electrician, but I think the first thing you'd want to check about the car bulb would be if it produces a spectrum and K rating of light that is favorable to reef critters n' corals.

After that, you could go to an auto parts store and read the packaging on a xenon bulb and find the electrical specs for it. From there it's a simple task of creating a power source device which can be plugged in to the wall and modify an house hold 120vAC current to fit the bulb

You'd also need projectors / cowls because those bulbs actually shine out to the sides and the projector reflector in the headline redirects and focuses the light beam.

Good luck and post some pix!

 

[ricky1414]

Normal HID is around 6-7k. Reef lighting produces much better kelvin ratings than that. Too expensive, IMO. (you can get a retro 70watt for about 140 bucks, give or take. I wouldn't mess around with converters and the like when you can get a retro for cheaper. Less risk of fire than a DIY dealeo. I thnk that you would get too much of a spot light effect if you used a car's HID lighting.

As for your second question, the reefsun ballast in all likelyhood would not power 2 70w de bulbs. I wouldn't even try it.