Hydroponic lighting in marine aquaria

[Davo]

Has anyone had any experience using Hydroponic lighting in marine
aquaria? In Australia the MH lighting equipment used for Hydroponics
are approximately half the price they are in aquarium shops and I
expect that this is largely due to the higher sales volumes. On the
face of it they are trying to recreate natural sunlight similar to
aqauria needs so they should be similar.

Apart from Metal Halides they also use HP Sodium lamps particularly
the Son T Agro variety which they claim are better than MH ( at least
for plants anyway) and have a balanced red/blue spectrum mix.

Has anyone had any experience with these?
Are the MH lamps used similar to the marine types? I can't discover
what colour temperature they are.
Are the HP Sodiums a good alternative, particularly Son T Agro?

[Jeff Cahill]

David I bought my halide ballast's from the hydroponics shop in Canberra
and they also got me some 10,000 Kelvin globes as well . Don't use HPS
globes in a aquarium .
Jeff

[John Rice]

Davo wrote:
>
> Has anyone had any experience using Hydroponic lighting in marine
> aquaria?

Yes. I use them for the fauna/flora sump. One 250W HPS
combined with one 5500K MH.

I would not use this combination over the display tank
of course.

Happy Reefing,
John

[Steve Wolfe]

> don't think you would want those on a reef tank. The MH light ballast
> are exactly the same except the color temps for the bulbs are lower
> i.e. 4500k as compared to reef light which is 6500k or higher.

No, a metal halide ballast is *NOT* the same as the ballast for an HPS
bulb, an LPS bulb, an MV bulb, or any other kind of HID bulb. Use the
correct ballast, avoid everything from premature lamp failure to
explosions.

steve

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[Steve Wolfe]

> He asked if MH for growing and MH ballast for reef keeping were the
> same, that's what I was answering.
>
> What I meant was that the MH ballast for plant growing and the
> aquarium are the same.
>
> No I would not want to be around when someone tried to put a LPS bulb
> in a MH ballast. Sorry for the confusion, some times I type faster
> than I think or think faster ............

Ah... I apologize for getting it wrong!

[Rob See]

Where are you in Aust? I would like to know where some hydroponics shops
that sell MH stuff are at!

Davo wrote:

> Has anyone had any experience using Hydroponic lighting in marine