New CHEAP MH bulb

[MEC]

I found this here at a Sutherlands store in Columbus Ohio. It is manufactured by The Desingers Edge 11730 N.E. 12th ST. Bellevue , WA. 98005. Fax # {425} 637-9603. Its made in China. Its a Metal Halide/Mercury Vapor bulb that appears close to a 10000K bulb. It gives a white light with a slight greanish cast. Should work very well with a couple of NO actinics. My LFS has tried them out and reports that his corals did fine under them. I changed out my 1 year old 12000 K bulbs yesterday for these and feel they will do fine by them selves, but will definately look better with actinics, as soon as I can afford to modify my hood. Now the bad news, they only come in 175 watt or small sizes. But the good news is they only cost $8.00 !!!!! [img]/ubb/smile.gif[/img] [img]/ubb/smile.gif[/img] Has anyone else found similar bulbs??? ..... Mike

[Ninong]

Moved to Lighting forum.

[Ironreef]

i don't belive it ? By my house and I didn't even know

[Ltspd]

I would love to know more about them. I would switch to them in a heartbeat and run them with elec ballast. If I send you 8.00 plus shipping will you send me one? Email if so. I will compare it to the 10kk ushio 175w I will be running soon. (thats if I get through the plumbing stage, [img]/ubb/lol.gif[/img] )

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Paul C
Things should be made as simple as possible, but not any simpler.
Einstein

[Bruce]

MEC,

Since I'm from Columbus as well, which LFS has tried them out?

[SKRIZ]

ooh, I am very interested in this setup. do you know the color temp for sure yet? this sounds very promising for only $8!

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[Bruce]

MEC,

I'm glad to hear its Dennis at Fish Junction you take advice from, and not those clowns over at Aquarium Adventure! Anyways, next time I go over there, I'll ask him about it.

[icemark]

From Dana Stigall, Customer Service, The Designers Edge:

Or you could order the bulb directly from us here. Our model # on that bulb is L-789, they are $11.95 ea + $2.50 shipping when you buy just one at a time or $10.95 ea + $2.50 shipping when you buy two or more at a time. We do accept VISA, MC, Discover or checks mailed to: The Designers Edge 11730 NE 12th St., Bellevue, WA 98005

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Mark

Play Well

[MEC]

Skirz, It looks alright by itself. Right now all I have on my tank are 2 of these bulbs. I am sure it would look better with actinics, butt.....Its definatly not as yellow as the 6500Ks, and I have not really seen a 10K bulb.
Hey Mark thanks for the additional info .[img]/ubb/smile.gif[/img]
Bruce, yea evan the guys at AA go to Dennis shop. [img]/ubb/biggrin.gif[/img] I buy most of my fish there, They are almost always better than the ones at the other stores. And I would never think of getting corals anywhere else [img]/ubb/rolleyes.gif[/img] >>>>Mike

[Ltspd]

Mike, what is your honest opinion of these bulbs? I am seriously considering going with these. I have yet ot get my hood together and havent wired up my PFO 250w dual yet. I would purchase these and run them with a electroinc ballast. What type of a setup do you have? Mine would be on a 27" deep tank minus the 5" sand bed and I think they would work fine. I have nothing in the tank yet, [img]/ubb/lol.gif[/img]


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Paul C
Things should be made as simple as possible, but not any simpler.
Einstein

[jlazo]

Can you post a picture of your tank with these bulbs running? Sounds very interesting...almost too good to be true!

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Jeffrey
"We learn wisdom by seeing the misfortune of others"
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Check out my website!
http://www.reeflovers.org/~jlazo

[MEC]

I'm still forming an opinion on them, but so far I think I like what I am seeing. Remember I am using them without actinics ,so they arent blue like my 12K bulbs were. I think that if you like a white light looking tank you will like them, they are definately better than the 6500ks in color. And for the price it doesent hurt to try them out [img]/ubb/biggrin.gif[/img]. I run them on a standard 55 gallon tank with a 4-5 inch sand bed. The ballasts I an using are the old fashin tar ballasts, and they sit about 5 inches above the water. Also I think the price they are charging for the mail order is probably fair, I doubt I could do any better myself. (last thing I sent cost me 11 bucks through the mail) Besids if you order with a card it will cover the remote possibility of them arriving broken. (although I would probably tend to overpack them so a football player could kick them arround if he wanted to) [img]/ubb/biggrin.gif[/img]
Jlazo , I wish I could, a picture is worth a1000 words, you know. But I dont have a digital camera or a web page [img]/ubb/frown.gif[/img] sorry.......Mike

[MEC]

BRUCE talk to Dennis at Fish Junction, I got mine from him. Paul no problem. will have to check if they are in stock again, all us locals bought what were in store lately. I might have to have them order some more. ....Mike

[icemark]

link to the company: http://www.designersedge.com/index.html

The bulb comes in thier product: L-1699-175W-MV.


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Mark

Play Well

[SciGuy2]

Does anyone have the Spectral Energy Distribution for the bulb?

As most of you know, color temperature doesn't give the whole story about the effectiveness of a bulb for a reef tank. Most traditional mercury vapor (M/V) bulbs have a color temperature in the 4000 to 6000 degree K range. While the color temperature looks fairly good, the bulbs concentrate their energy almost exclusively in the UV, green and yellow wavelengths. Some energy is in the violet-blue range, but not much.

I've been tinkering with M/V for a while as a suplimental light source, but the jury is out on my experiments as of right now. I experienced an algae bloom coincident with the start of using M/V, but I can't definitely attribute the bloom to it.

In addition to color temperature we really need the "Spectral Energy Distribution" for the lamps to acess their theoretical usefulness.

Perhaps this is a new bulb other than the old "Bright White Deluxe M/V lamps" that have been around for a while. Can you imagine a world of $20 ballasts and $10 bulbs? <grin>

Forgive my rambling,
-Lee

[SKRIZ]

the color temperature of this bulb is 3700k. this is from one of their reps via email. maybe we can get asanjay to test these for us [img]/ubb/smile.gif[/img]

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[Elmo18]

Wow, that is really low. How is it really white? I live in WA state, and would like tot ry one of these guys.

Thanks,
Ilham

[MEC]

I've seen 3500k 4000k bulbs, and this looks nothing like those. Are we sure they are talking about the same bulb? I guess the best test will be the long term use on my aquarium. Can someone come up with a spectrim tester [img]/ubb/biggrin.gif[/img] ..
Hey my first 2 pager!!! [img]/ubb/biggrin.gif[/img] ...Mike

[SciGuy2]

I just heard from Dana Stigall, Customer Service for The Designers Edge, the bulb's supplier like the rest of you. It appears to be a standard M/V daylight bulb. Not well suited for reef use. Here are the details that they sent me.

L-789 - 175watt mogul base mercury vapor bulb
approx. lumens initial 7700, mean 6850
CRI 45 and approx kelvin is 3700

From the data I've looked at for other M/V bulbs I'd rather use the old, clear M/V bulb - it has a color temp of 5600 degrees K. Ususally the daylight M/V bulbs rob some of the blue and UV light to manufacture orange and red light.

I guess you get what you pay for.

Of course there are those that say that it's light quantity, not quality that counts for our critters...

Sorry, no sale here.
-Lee

[Ltspd]

Glad I didnt jump to soon [img]/ubb/smile.gif[/img]

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Paul C
Things should be made as simple as possible, but not any simpler.
Einstein