So, time to time, I post something that is work related onto my personal blog just because it is something that stands out to me personally. This time, I’ve decided to start a whole new blog, because this is going to be some on going excitement. One aspect I handle at work a lot is the idea of quality lighting for aquarium keeping. As interesting as this may sound…Cause, I’m sure it sounds awesome! This part of my work can be pretty amazing. Why, cause lighting is how we perceive so much in this world. We’re so visually driven (like 75% of our brain power at one time is managing what we are taking in visually), so for this reason, when you start to understand some aspects of lighting, some amazing things can happen.
A little background. I work at American Aquarium Products of Southern Oregon. We’re a supplier of aquarium and pond products, but more importantly, we supply information on how to have the very best aquarium possible. This involves a lot of quality and experience. We push for ideas that make fish keeping, not just taking a fish and throwing it in some water, but provide an environment where the fish, plants, or corals can thrive under some of the best conditions. It sound difficult, but if it interests you to any degree, it simply fun.
We’re talking good water parameters, disease prevention, suitable environments, and visually pleasing. Let me put it this way, anyone (thank you Jesus) that looks at my tank I keep, is very impressed on how visually appealing the aquarium is. They say “it’s one of the nicest things in the house”. So, how do we achieve this degree of excellence? We’ll learn from someone who spent much of their live earning a living working with these ideas for aquarium. That’s what I do…
Long story short, I work with some of the best quality lighting there can be for fish, plants, corals, and even humans. We’re takin’ science here. This stuff is backed up by research, which has been proven for health and visual perception. These ideas I put into my little home aquarium, these are aspects and ideas, which many other people take very seriously. So, I work with some very smart professionals.
So, what is the point of this blog?
Just this past couple months, my work place had a very large inquiry of some lighting we supply, because of the excellence it provides. Let me remind anyone reading this post, we only sell what back up these high standards we set. We only sell what we have used with much success for a long period of time being in this industry. In other words, we don’t just sell what sells. We publish information based on science and facts, and back it up with an on-line store for anyone that is looking for these standards for this aquarium keeping adventure.
So, a couple months ago, we had a college university acknowledge the work we have done, and make a very large order of the aquarium light emitting diodes (LEDs) for the study of growth rates in about 120 different species of corals. This is huge! LEDs are fairly new to the aquarium hobby for lighting of an aquarium. The basic idea behind this lighting and really is going to be the future of all lighting, like around the house, is that it uses a far less amounts of energy to operate and also, a color of light or a spectrum of light can be focused on to get only this spectrum of light to be shined from the light source. Again, this is huge when you know light feed plants and corals and if you can focus on the light that feeds them, and nothing else, you can have a very useful light source to make these living things thrive.
This is what this university is focusing on and running controlled studies comparing the growth rate and health of coral species compare to older, but still very popular lighting methods (very high output fluorescence- VHO and Mental Halide- MH). This is also very exciting for human studies as well, because we know of lighting spectrum that improve human health as well (6500K daylight).
So, since this is a new aspect in health, lighting, and aquarium keeping (and others). I thought it would be very valuable to publish their experiments and track their results.
A little more background and how we go to this point. The LED lighting, which was purchase from us are called AAP AquaRay Lighting. This is a lighting brand that comes out of the UK, where much of our lighting comes over from China. The difference between these brands is that the AquaRay Lighting focus on few light sources with much more useful light energy for photosynthesis of plants and corals. Most of the current LEDs on the market for fish keeping are 120 watts each and will have something around 55 emitters in the fixture. The AquaRays LEDs, are 12-30 watts each and 6-10 emitters. With science you can prove these high PUR (useful light) fixtures can out perform any 120 watt LED and save an aquarium money in the long run. LEDs are meant to save money, that’s their kick anyways, but these AquaRays do it even better. For some reference, this college did the math and by making their switch from VHO and MH to AquaRay LEDs, they will be saving about $59,000 in just 10 years.
The 120 watt LEDs use a lot more less useful light energy emitters to make up an overall successful light to grow whatever they would like. Please don’t take me wrong when I talk about these 120 watt LEDs. They can do the job, they are just not doing it the most efficient.
So, I think enough words have been said for now. This blog is going to be a place to share the university’s results and any updates they provide to us. Hopefully at the end of all the experiments from the school year, we will have side by side evidence of how these LEDs compare to other lighting methods.
I will say that these are the only LEDs like this on the market for aquarium keeping right now. They are miles ahead of some other fixtures out there right now. They even have patients on their emitters, so this blog should prove a little about the advancement of this technology.
Enough of me talking, here is the start of the experiment, with all the information we know this far.
Here are the experiment specs.
They are interested only in growth rates.
They current coral growth facility is just over 6,000 L (1500 gal) with about twice that volume dedicated to estuarine culture facilities
Primary research organisms
Galaxia
Sarcophytons several species
Lobophytons
Coralomorphs
Zooanthids
Multiple species of Xenidea (Xenia and Anthelia primarily)
Multiple species of annelids
About 50 pounds of the green alga Chaetomorpha
Primary research
Climate change – Ocean acidification
Oil spill and cleanup
Basic chemical ecology of the organisms
System
Lighted Raceways
(3) total length 16.5m (54 ft); width 0.8m (32 in); depth 0.25m (10 in)
(1) total length 5.5m (18 ft); width 0.5m (20 in); depth 0.15m (6 in)
Dark refugia
4 @ length 1.2m (4 ft); width 0.6m (2 ft); depth 0.6 (2 ft)
Old lighting
288 48 inch Ultraviolet research VHO fluorescent lamps driven by icepacks
These deliver around 380 uM photons /m2 /sec
8 150W metal halide lights (12000K)
These lamps are vastly inferior to the VHOs in culturing shallow water corals
Researcher Information
W.I. Hatch PhD
Professor of Biology
St Mary’s College of Maryland
This research facility will be working with a total of 48 TMC AquaRay Ocean Blue 1500 LEDs.
More information to come
Marine Aquarium LED Study 