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T-8 Lighting construction

On Wed, 19 Feb 1997 15:39:02 -0500, you wrote:

Well I have built my hood many times over in my head but I thought I'd throw out
a few ideas here and see what the collective thought about them:

Reflectors - I read someone's idea on the net of using PVC pipe.  What about
thin wall 8" PVC cut lengthwise so that three sections would fit into a 24"
hood.  They would then be lined with reflective mylar and each bay would hold 3
each T-8 bulbs.  Comments or suggestions?

Amount of illumination - I have calculated that 9ea NO 5ft T-8 SPX50 tubes
would, after a 10% dropoff, give about the max number of lumens suggested in
"The Optimum Aquarium" for a 180 gal tank.  How many people have had a tank lit
this brightly?  is it better to shoot for a ouput more near the middle of the
recommendations versus either extreme of the range?

Color temp - after reading and some personal correspondence it seems that the
4100k bulbs may be better for plant growth, while the 5000k and 6100k bulbs
would be better for color rendition.  Any suggestions on mixing bulbs?
  My knee jerk response is to start with 2/3 4100k bulbs and 1/3 6100k bulbs to
get a strong amount of light farther down in the red and a few high temperature
bulbs for sheer appearance to he human eye.  Does:

((4100*6)+(6100*3)/9)=4766.6_

or does the temp of the color not average out that way?

*Mike Roberts - mike at microspan_com
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