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[APD] Re: halogen lighting for aquarium




[snip]
I've also used external halogen lamps for photographing aquariums. I
mounted them temporarily to the front and side so that there were no
reflections and so that "invisible" scratches in the glass don't show
up. There's no reason a display tank cannot also use lights mounted in
unusual positions. Lighting serves two purposes: a) for the plants to
grow b) for seeing or photographing the plants.

I find it hard to believe that nobody else has tried this!

Steve

I have tried this, just not for photography. I used several small 10-20 watt halogen lights as "accents" to get the water-ripple effects and spotlight a few particular plants. They *did* create the ripple effect, but the fluorescent primary light washed most of it out. I also had problems with the little halogens melting parts of the hood. I wrote about this in a post some time back, and I think the lighting effects just aren't worth the trouble. In a small tank where MH lighting isn't really practical there are some optical effects that are just too much trouble to try to create, IMHO. For larger tanks, it is much easier/more efficient/safer/nicer to just use MH lighting and get all the benefits of a great plant light AND a point source light.


I can't say much about the photography aspect of the lights since I haven't played with that much, but for temporary use I don't see why halogens couldn't be used -- I just wouldn't want to use them in a permanent setup as a primary light source.

-Bill


***************************** Waveform Technology UNIX Systems Administrator

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