Reef Lighting for People

After extensive reading about circadian rhythm and how important blue light is to it, several months ago I built a cluster of 6500K compact fluorescents for my live/work space. It uses Y-splitters to accomodate 17 23W compact fluorescents in one ceiling socket

The specs are 391W total, and with each CFL shining 1600 lumens, the total light output is 27,200 lumens. It lights up the whole room with a color that is almost as blue as the real daylight that streams thru my large window.

The effects have been amazing. My brain works way clearer and I stay super awake all day. I use it to extend the winter daylength until about 7.00p - 8.00p depending on the season.

Being greedy and all, now I want more. The light just isn't blue enough - it has that 6500K yellow tinge. So I bought a cheap generic 400W 10,000K metal halide bulb and already have a socket with cable. Next month is the ballast, then I'll remove the CFL cluster and try the halide hanging vertical in the center of the room. Unshielded, so hope it doesn't explode, but I like living dangerously

I've also been looking at the Ushio 400W 10K CWA bulb. It has excellent color rendering at 90CRI. Here's the specs for the entire Ushio Aqualite series (high CCT for aquariums). They're expensive though.

Bright blue-white light has an amazing effect on the human as well as aquarium species. It is a very strong drug and often more powerful than caffeine without the side effects. I've got tons of studies if anyone wants more info on how important bright daylight is, and how useless low-CCT lamps are. Not just useless but counterproductive - recent research finds that yellow light opposes blue light's ability to suppress melatonin and maintain alertness.

 

Ahhhh...Basking in The Blue Glow

 

....actually an interesting topic to me because i deal with that winter sunlight deficiency issue as do other members of my family. (i live in Western NY state).

I was also diagnosed with a rather severe vitamin D deficiency which is related to the amount of proper sunlight one gets in the course of a day. This ties in with moods, energy and sleep patterns as well.

I was not joking when i announced to my family in the fall of 09 (upon deciding to start a saltwater tank) that it was going to be my new "happy light" since last winter did a terrible number on me sunlight wise.

Hats off to you for taking notice of this. I am starting to see more residential room lamps / fixtures / bulbs with labels like "full light spectrum" and "true daylight".

Just dont burn the place down in the course of your experiments!

 

Vitamin D is super important for brain function too. Bones are just the beginning. I take 10,000 IU per day in flaxoil micro-gelcaps.

Here's a photo of the older 12-bulb setup (July 2009):



Even 17 of these units only brings the brightness up to about 66% of a cloudy day outdoors. It takes a lot of light to be healthy. A CFL cluster is cheap and easy to make, and can be incrementally upgraded by adding Y-splitters, but the socket must have a real metal shell and the splitters have to be zip-stripped together to hold the weight if using more than about 8 CFLs.

And its successor!



The idea is to start with a cheap $90 magnetic ballast and if I like the spectrum and lumenosity I'll buy a more expensive electronic one to eliminate 120Hz. flicker.

The key with all high-CCT metal halides is the Indium iodide. It produces the strong bright blue emission that makes all aquarium HIDs possible. When cold, the indium iodide is a purple color: Wikipedia: 'InI is a deep red purple crystalline solid'.

 

Holy moly!

the lightbulb equivalent of going from huge room-sized mainframe computers to microchips.

That first shot is a total hoot! Looks like a growth of some sort coming out of your ceiling socket.

good luck and i for one will be interested in hearing how this all works out for you.

(yeah i am on a D regimen as well.)

 

The biggest problem with the CFL 'Spiral Galaxy' is that beyond about 17 bulbs they block each others' light {mutual occlusion}. Adding more just makes more heat and shortens their little lives

The neighbors or apartment manager can complain after dark, so it's advised to use good curtains to avoid outdoor light pollution.

20,000K metal halides make good streetlights too!​

 

I would shield it with some glass... Halides put out a lot of UVA, B, and C... Although it will help increase your vitamin D, the UVB and C can also be harmful.

 

Ah. I'm most worried about explosion & the fires that come after. Has anyone suffered the horror of their MH bulb blowing up? How often does it happen?

BTW. Indium halides operate at lower temperature than 'generic' sodium-iodide MH lamps. Indium iodide melts at only 359°C while sodium iodide melts at 661°C. Also, sodium iodide corrodes the arc tube while indium iodide does not.

That's why high-CCT MH lamps don't have metal oxide sprayed on the outer ends of the arc tube. That's the white powder that standard general-illumination MH bulbs have. It reflects IR and visible light back into the tube to keep the ends at a very high temperature so as to keep the sodium iodide vaporized.