Digital projector bulbs.

[havoc1010]

These bulbs have a almost 10k rating on them and they are quite small. The require 250watts. Anyone think this would be a problem to use on a small tank. I know the price would be outragous on this, but i have a source that gets slightly used bulbs.

[smcdonn]

What about a ballast to run them? Also the reflector for them, how is it set up

[mr pink floyd]

its not about watts, its about PAR

[havoc1010]

They have a built in reflector. It is like a mini pendant light.

Par, i would have to try them out to measure it.

[H20ENG]

I have a few of those lamps to play with some day:)

[tekknoschtev]

All i know is that even used, I haven't been able to find any to replace the one in our projector. The cheapest I have found, per bulb, is about $390, and given that a brand new one goes for $450ish, I'd rather spring for the new one and KNOW its new.

That said, I dont think these exactly have the best reef applications, partially due to their cost, but also due to their size. The "built in" reflector is designed to focus the light over a very small space (think about it, it wouldnt make sense to have a bulb with a larger spread than is necessary in the body of the projector only to have it cut out or reflected back down through the lense.

That said, I think it'd be interesting to find the PAR ratings on these, but right now I have no means of doing so. College kid with tuition/classes/car payments/work/etc leaves me pretty broke and limited on time (I should be finishing a paper thats due tomorrow right now :p).

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7866432#post7866432 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by havoc1010
These bulbs have a almost 10k rating on them and they are quite small. The require 250watts. Anyone think this would be a problem to use on a small tank. I know the price would be outragous on this, but i have a source that gets slightly used bulbs.

Feel like sharing a source? Or is it not that kind of source?

[havoc1010]

Well I will give it a try this weekend sometime. And feed back my results.

[Ken668]

Another concern I see here would be the useful life of these lamps. A lamp rated at 2000 hours that is ran for 12 hours/day is only going to last 6 months. That's half of what a typical MH lamp is rated for.

I have access to plenty of used lamps. I'll try to get some par readings off my apogee meter later.

Havoc1010, your best bet is to sell the used projo lamps on e-bay and take the money to buy new lamps for your lighting setup. I personally know you can get a pretty penny for gently used lamps on there. The money you get from a single used lamp can get you 2-5 brand new aquarium lamps.

[Ken668]

Well I was thinking about how I would measure PAR from one of these lamps. And without completely disassembling a projo to get access to just the lamp, I decided to keep the unit together and simply measure approximately 6" away from the lens of a standard 1000 ANSI Lumen DLP projo. I put up a solid white test signal to attempt to allow maximum light through the unit. Although I'm sure some light is filtered out by the DLP color wheel and glass lens, I was still able to measure around 600 at this distance. Not too bad, but this is still an expensive route to take compared to conventional lighting. Without the projo housing and lens, I'm sure this number will drop as the light will not be focused onto such a small area.