# What are hanging lights?



## Lauren (Mar 18, 2006)

I have never seen hanging light units until I came here. The ones that use non florecent bulbs, are those just normal house hold halogens? What sort of light spectrum do they produce? In the long run is it more or less expensive than aquarium specific florecent lights?

Thanks for any insite.


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## Dewmazz (Sep 6, 2005)

The hanging lights are metal halide lamps made specifically to produce intense light (175 - 400W) at varying K temperatures. Basically, metal halide lamps produce much more intense light at K temperatures similar to fluorescents (6000 - 10000K). I'm not too sure about the cost in the long run, but I do know that MH lamps are more expensive to begin with. There are also "legs" that can be mounted on the MH light fixtures, but the suspension cables are a bit more aesthetically pleasing. They are excellent when it comes to growing dense mats of foreground plants like glosso, etc., or on deep aquariums. Here is a simple explanatory article: http://www.arcadia-uk.com/en/150aquarium.html

Hope this answers some questions.


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## Lauren (Mar 18, 2006)

It does, thanks for the quick reply, I had no idea what to search for to find an answre.


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## Laith (Sep 4, 2004)

You also have suspended lighting that is not MH but neons. Arcadia has those too.


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## fisherelli (Oct 22, 2005)

dewmazz : what MH lighting do you know that sits on legs? I might be interested in that.


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## Lauren (Mar 18, 2006)

What are the people with the circulur hanging lights using bulb wise? It seems like they are just normal household bulbs, but i doubt that.


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## acbaldwin (Nov 3, 2005)

Hi Lauren,
The bulbs and ballasts are both metal halide-specific. They are super bright, and super expensive.


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## Lauren (Mar 18, 2006)

I suppose it would figure that anything cool looking is expensive. I have a ugly corallife on legs now, but that beats spending a lot of money to replace them. I think I'll just switch out the ballasts to ones that can handle bulbs brighter than 65w. 

In a completely unrelated thing, I was looking at my unit last night and realised that one of my bulbs in 6700K and the other is 1000K, I must have not doing that on accident a year ago, but for the life of me, I can't remember why I did. 6700 would be closer to sunlight, but then what about the 1000K, is it an alright set up to have both going? Or is it best to stick to one temp?


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## AaronT (Apr 26, 2004)

Not all lighting that can be suspended from above are metal halide. There are also fixtures that use different typs of flourescent bulbs. Sunlight Supply makes a light fixture they call "Tek" that uses T5 HO bulbs. They are a bit pricier than power compact or normal flourescent fixtures, but the cost to run them is not any greater.


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## Dewmazz (Sep 6, 2005)

fisherelli said:


> dewmazz : what MH lighting do you know that sits on legs? I might be interested in that.


I've found some at Dr. F&S, 
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/Product/Prod_Display.cfm?pcatid=12779&N=2004+113352

And AquaBuys,
http://www.aquabuys.com/miva/mercha...t_adv_150_tm&Category_Code=d5&Product_Count=1

But That Fish Place and some of APC's other sponsors may offer similar lighting fixtures.


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## Dewmazz (Sep 6, 2005)

Lauren said:


> In a completely unrelated thing, I was looking at my unit last night and realised that one of my bulbs in 6700K and the other is 1000K, I must have not doing that on accident a year ago, but for the life of me, I can't remember why I did. 6700 would be closer to sunlight, but then what about the 1000K, is it an alright set up to have both going? Or is it best to stick to one temp?


You mean _10000K_? 10000K bulbs appear more "white." It's perfectly fine for planted aquariums, I have a 40w satellite fixture @ 6700/10000K that does a very good job. Anything between the 5000 - 10000K range is alright for plants.


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## fisherelli (Oct 22, 2005)

dewmazz : thanks for links - live in UK so can't really order from those sites! Those lights are way too bright for me anyhow!


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## Gumby (Aug 1, 2005)

Very true AaronT, I've got my AquaMedic OceanLight T5 fixture suspended from the cable system that it came with.

Fixture specs:
72" total
8x39watt 36" High Output T5 bulbs.


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