Plasma light

[psionicdragon]

Anyone using one or seen it in person?

 

[Tumbleweed]

The Steinhart is using one currently. That is the only one in use in the area that I know of.

 

[Matt_Wandell]

Yes, we have one. It grows coral. Any specific questions?

 

[GreshamH]

The Steinhart is using one currently. That is the only one in use in the area that I know of.

MBA has 40+ units and has had several in use for well over a year

 

[Tumbleweed]

The Steinhart is using one currently. That is the only one in use in the area that I know of.

MBA has 40+ units and has had several in use for well over a year

Really did not know that. Thanks Gresham. Do you know which tanks are using them?

 

[GreshamH]

I forgot the name of the two tanks but I suspect they have more then the two I saw in use last year now as I'm nearly positive they have the latest 40 on site all ready. I'll email one of the curators and ask

 

[Tumbleweed]

Thanks Gresham. My family and I have a season pass there, and I am curious which tanks have them, and how I missed it.

 

[GreshamH]

You can only see the fixtures from behind the scenes so it doesn't surprise me you didn't notice them. They look just like daylight.

 

[Tumbleweed]

Then I guess I will just need to get a behind the scenes look. :bigsmile:

 

[eldiablosrt8]

lol... now i wanna go on a trip....

 

[Thales]

I don't believe they have them on any coral tanks. They look good on the temperate stuff though.

 

[sfsuphysics]

any idea what type of lighting they're replacing? Simply ~4100-6500K halides?

 

[Matt_Wandell]

I don't believe they have them on any coral tanks. They look good on the temperate stuff though.

This is true.

I seem to remember David saying the 38 new ones were in the climate change exhibit that just opened, but they were NOT on the coral tank.

The older fixtures are on two temperate tanks on the second floor in the older part of the building. There's a big acrylic archway that you walk through filled with kelp--on either side of that archway are two macroalgae tanks with plasma lights on them.

 

[sfsuphysics]

sounds like I need to take a trip down to Monterey, last time I was there was when the jellyfish exhibit was there and man that was breath taking, I think I missed the seahorse one, but that's not really my thing

 

[GreshamH]

I don't believe they have them on any coral tanks. They look good on the temperate stuff though.

This is true.

I seem to remember David saying the 38 new ones were in the climate change exhibit that just opened, but they were NOT on the coral tank.

The older fixtures are on two temperate tanks on the second floor in the older part of the building. There's a big acrylic archway that you walk through filled with kelp--on either side of that archway are two macroalgae tanks with plasma lights on them.

There's more then just macro-l;age in the tanks Anemonies, fish, NPS corals, etc

The Baly's (yes, NPS) looks great under the SeaShine. Awesome color rendition.

 

[GreshamH]

I don't believe they have them on any coral tanks. They look good on the temperate stuff though.

I don't think anyone even mentioned coral before you

enough with this all ready, we know you are a skeptic and until it's on a coral tank (get going on that) you'll continue to post there is none on a coral tank :lol:

 

[Thales]

I had one over a coral tank...

 

[GreshamH]

Wahoo

 

[tuberider]

I had one over a coral tank...

Had? Does the growth study tank count?

 

[Matt_Wandell]

I had one over a coral tank...

Had? Does the growth study tank count?

Yes, we have one over a shallow tray with Acropora behind the scenes, side by side with a MH lamp.

What we are hoping to confirm is that these lights grow coral just as well as MH lights do by comparing growth rates under both light sources. The plasma bulbs certainly have fantastic looking spectra on paper, but the real acid test (for us reef geeks, anyway) is whether zooxanthellate corals actually grow under them. It looks like, at least for the Acropora sp. we are using in this study, that so far they do grow just as well under the plasma light, at least when it's at 100% intensity.

Now we're looking at lighting the coral with different intensities of the plasma light, because the spectra changes as you ramp the intensity up or down. Just last week we fragged up the same Acropora and placed frags of it under the plasma light at 50% intensity; after a few weeks we should have more growth data....stay tuned.