Possible SCAM/HEALTH alert: lighting

[dpatte]

First of all, I wish i could post this thread on saltwater, freshwater, and equipment as it has relevence to all of us.

I had a nice long discussion with a lighting specialist, a good friend of mine, about my aquarium lights. He Has managed the lighting for parliament hill, for example.

I mentioned that my CFs are 10000K and 12000K

When he heard this, he was shocked. You use pure ultravilet lioght on your tanks? Are they Shielded, or how do you keep from being burned by the UV and Xrays? You must mean that they are 10,000 hours.

No, I said, they where daylight bulbs, 10000K 55W CFs.

He informed me that they don't exist! He said that 7000K bulbs are made for scientific applications, but definately not 10000K, or 12000K. They would be blue and emit extreme ultraviolet and xrays, and almost no visible light.

Dentistry lights (they put in your mouth) are UV lights - they are 7000K. All lights over 7000K must be shielded, for health reasons, he said.

He said there is not ONE manufacturer of 10000K CF 55W bulbs in the world, and if I'm buying them - then they are grossly mislabled or extremely dangerous.

He the reminded me that pure sunlight is 5000K (something i remember from astronomy), and that alot of CF bulbs are made that are 5600K - but all CFs above 5600K 7000K are shielded to prevent blindness.

So what are those aquarium companies selling us, anyway? Falsely marked bulbs or serious health risks?

He has promised me two 55W TRUE 5600W CF bulbs, to compare to what I have. I'll report back.   

[dpatte]

And now you know why lighting stores dont sell '10000K' bulbs.

[bitterman]

I must be being misslead as I have a 10000k t5 in my fixture. The box clearly states 10000k on it. It is paired with an antinic.

Bruce.

[dpatte]

10000k would definately be blue not white.

i did alot of research last night and the only 10000K listed on the web is for aquariums. I suspect its misleading numbering.

I did see aftermarket '6500K' bulbs available for cars, but they are blue. Im now suspicious of those as well.

I'll surely dig into this further.

[artw]

I wonder if "10000K" actually refers to something else.

[dpatte]

Maybe it does. Maybe it refers to the 'highest' colour temperature emitted? The bulbs my friend is getting me are rated on the 'average colour temperature. He mentioned that all CFs release some UV, btw.

He also mentioned that bulbs should have lumens ratings. No point buying a bulb that is a certain colour, but has no brightness.

Another thing he mentioned is that good quality bulbs, which he can get for under $20, have a lumens half-life of over 3 years. 

[charlie]

The Hagen POWER GLO T5 has a printed reating of 18000 K, now thats interesting.

[dpatte]

Wikipedia has some interesting information on this.

if you look at this, and understand it, you will see that CCT (correlated colour temperature) is not the same as CT (colour temperature).

This all starts to make sense if you assume my friend was talking about colour temperature, whereas our aquarium bulbs are in Correlated scale, which is different.re

If you look at the chart, you will see that a 10000K CCT bulb could be pink or green, or white. Its totally uselss in specifying the colour of something. Whereas a 10000K CT bulb is only slightly blusih.

Perhaps we should insist that our bulb suppliers use a more relevent SPD plots in 2 nm gradiants in lumens (see below), showing the various colours produced, as well as infra-red as well as UV and x-ray.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_temperature#Correlated_color_temperature

[freshwater]

These ratings should be the 'correlated color temperature' (it's compared w/ a 'black body' with emissivity of 1, which dose exist), the true color temperature of any light source on this earth does not exceed 10,000K.....yet. These rating r there largely for advertising purpose.

[dpatte]

so a good quality cool white 5600K CCT bulb may very well be whiter or bluer than a poor quality '12000K' CCT bulb.

[artw]

BigDaddy was telling me about lumens and stuff a while back, maybe he can shed some Light on this subject when he reads this thread.

..sorry, the bad jokes are supposed to only come from groan.

[darkdep]

Very interesting.

A reminder of how a Fluorescent bulb works.  They contain mercury which, when electrically charged, emits massive amounts of UV.  The UV hits the tube which has a special coating that glows when hit with UV, and this is where the visible light comes from.  Some UV escapes from all fluorescent bulbs.  If you want to see proof of this, go to Shoppers Drug Mart where they have these little UV detector cards for free that are designed to tell you the UV rating outside.  You can hold one close to any fluorescent bulb and see the card change colours right away.

[beowulf]

Guess I am going to have to start using sunscreen when working on my tanks....

[BigDaddy]

Lumens is just a measurement of light visible to the human eye.  Two bulbs can have vastly different lumen ratings, and yet emit the same amount of light energy.  Plants and corals don't care about lumen values, they care about the wavelengths of light they require to grow.

I would simply say that corporations making millions of dollars on the HUGE market that is aquaria-related would not sell products that are an extreme health risk.  Especially with the US legal system, we would have seen a multitude of class action law suits by now.

Case in point - Marineland no long carries/supports diatom filters.  Diatomaceous earth is a known carcinogen.  So even providing disclaimers about its use was not enough for Marineland.  Rather than the potential for liability, they yanked any mention of diatom filtration from their product line.

[darkdep]

(And well they should; IMHO Diatom Filters aren't worth the health risk )

[BigDaddy]

Burning toast produces carcinogens... I have yet to throw out my toaster. 

[beowulf]

Burning toast produces carcinogens... I have yet to throw out my toaster. 

Tons of things do....in this day and age we are surrounded by carcinogens sucks but meh. 

[mseguin]

The sun is a carcinogen

[artw]

you know Sean... if you smell burnt toast, that may be a sign of other things...

[beowulf]

The sun is a carcinogen

Big one now that the Ozone is going bye bye faster and faster....I think I am going to move underground or to Mars or somethings.