# mercury vapour



## dorse (Mar 17, 2004)

hi. your going to have to excuse my ignorance about these things cos i new to plants, ive always used fluorescent tubes over my tanks, but ive found a website that is selling mercury vapour lighting kits for a very reasonable price, there is a 125w version which i thought i could use two of alonside my two 58w fluorescent tubes. the qestions are, will this work, will the watage be 366w, is this good for plant growth, and will they work with an electronic timer, so i can auto turn on and off? if you want to have a look at the webpage to see the one i mean its http://www.pwbelg.clara.net/mercury/sets/index.html, sorry for all the questions, and thanks in advance for any replies.
james


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## FiberCon (May 22, 2004)

I'm not sure about the heat of a mercury vapor lamp, or any of the light intensity characteristics, but I know one thing; It will make everything in your tank a nasty orange color. Mercury vapor lamps are most commonly seen in street lamps, and the MV ones are the orange variety (vs the blue/white variety.) 

In the end, I'll be surprised here if anyone recommends MV lamps for an aquarium.


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## malkore (Nov 3, 2003)

I don't think mercury vapor lights put off the same spectrum as metal halide (but for all I know about MH, the two are the same thing). If i'm thinking right, mercury vapor is very orangey/yellow light, while metal halide is more of a white color, maybe a hint of greenishness.
What I can tell you is that MH type bulbs run in a special hood with a good reflector, or a pendant hanging over the tank. Their intensity diminishes greated after 2 feet, so ideally you want them in a hood on the tank to minimize loss. However the bulbs get extremely warm (too hot to touch) as do the ballasts...hence most MH has a fan on each end of the hood. This keeps you from cooking your fish and plants.
It would work fine with a timer.
I don't know if 366w is enough because you never mentioned your tank size. I doubt you'll be able to run the 2 58w bulbs with these other lights, as the fixture for the fluor. tubes will block the light from the mecury/MH fixture. Besides the purpose of paying so much money for monster size lighting is so you can have one fixture.


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## dorse (Mar 17, 2004)

thanks for your replys, i have a 110g tank, the kits i have seen dont have any kind of fixture, they are basically a ballast that would go under the tank, and a wire running up to a lamp holder, so i dont think they are very large, the reason i was thinking of having two mv bulbs was to spread it accress the tank better, as its a 6foot long tank, but if they are of a more orange colour then idont thinkim interested cos, i prefer the look of a white light tank, i think it brings the colours out better, again thanks for the info

james


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## MarkyMark (May 27, 2004)

It would seem unlikely that a moth trapping light would be optimised for growing aquatic plants, however, MV lamps are which are designed for aquaria are an excellent source of light, and among my favourite lights. I always prefer to use pendant lighting where possible. I'm about to set up a mini 16" cube in our living room, and I'm planning to use this pendant:

http://www.giesemann.de/en/suesswasserbeleuchtung/wega.php

MV lamps do need to be housed in a reflector specifically designed to focus the light to penetrate aquaria - this will usually be a tall parabolic reflecter (as used in the WEGA lamps above).

You'd be better off looking at aqauarium suppliers for MV lights for your tanks, rather than moth attracters.


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## rkundla (Mar 25, 2004)

FiberCon said:


> I'm not sure about the heat of a mercury vapor lamp, or any of the light intensity characteristics, but I know one thing; It will make everything in your tank a nasty orange color. Mercury vapor lamps are most commonly seen in street lamps, and the MV ones are the orange variety (vs the blue/white variety.)
> 
> In the end, I'll be surprised here if anyone recommends MV lamps for an aquarium.


Just an FYI...

Mercury Vapor lamps are the bluish-white ones.
High Pressure Sodium lamps are the orange ones.

Ron


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## fishwife (Apr 11, 2004)

I've been considering the wega system for a 20-gallon hex I've been thinking about setting up. I'm curious MarkyMark -- did you get yours set up yet? Also, I don't see anything on that website about the color temp of these lights. I'm wondering how good they'll be for plants (v. algae) if they're really on the blue end.


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## MarkyMark (May 27, 2004)

No, I haven't even got the unit yet :icon_frow 

On giesemann's website they're being sold as suitable for plants, and pictured over a tank that looks straight out of ADA - although that doesn't mean anything - who else gets annoyed by packaging or advertising for one or two gallon "aquariums" with a suprimposed picture of three discus, or six goldfish on it?

The last tank I used MV lighting for (ten years ago, with a rather unsuitable lamp designed for growing land plants) I had reasonable success, so I would hope that after another decade lighting technology would have improved - especially from a German firm.

Mark


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## hipchack (Apr 12, 2003)

I've used mercury vapor before. They put out an intense light like metal halides. However, whereas metal halides have many different spectrums, mercury vapor is limited to somwhere around 4500k I think. It has a yellowish tinge to it and not nearly as white as 10000k metal halides. Mercury vapor creates intense light at a fairly economical price, which is why many plant wholesalers (ie jermack) use the light to grow their plants. I have specifically used the giesemann light. Be careful of the heat it produces. It burns to the touch.


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## FiberCon (May 22, 2004)

rkundla said:


> Just an FYI...
> 
> Mercury Vapor lamps are the bluish-white ones.
> High Pressure Sodium lamps are the orange ones.
> ...


Yea... I hate it when I'm wrong about something.


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