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hid?

3K views 26 replies 15 participants last post by  mcfly84 
#1 ·
this might be a dumb question, but i'm gonna ask anyway.

could you use an automotive hid bulb to light an aquarium. i don't know how may of you have noticed, but those things are wicked bright, and you can get them in in just about any K temp you want. you could mount it like a mini MH pendant. all you'd have to get is a 12v source, ballast, and some sort of reflector...

let the debunking begin...
 
#3 ·
I googled this and the thing that stands out it that they are very expensive! So, just as you can make a good light with LED's, there is no doubt in my mind that you can also make a good light with HID lights. But, in both cases you would be spending a lot more money than a T5 light of comparable intensity would cost.
 
#6 ·
I wonder about the life of the bulb. Aquarium bulbs are on every day for 8+ hours, car headlights for most people are occasionally on. And if they're an expensive bulb, it might not be economical to replace it frequently.

But experimentation is how great discoveries are made.
 
#7 ·
xenon gas hid bulbs are designed to last the life time of the car in most cases. there is no fillament(sp?) just a pocket of gas inside the bulb. they do tend to move up in the K range after a few years though. most are rated at 3000 hours.

as far as the heat issue goes, imagine a bulb smaller than a regular headlight bulb suspended over your tank. you can also get a pair of 35w bulbs/ballasts (around 3000 lumins each) for around $100 bucks. even if you had to replace the the bulbs once a year thats only like $45 year for bulbs. how much is one new hqi bulb and how long does it last?

i have no idea here - how much light (lumins) do you get from one 150w hqi setup? and how long does it last?
 
#8 ·
I unfortunately don't have an answer to your questions, but there was an ad in on of the fish mags that had a HID lighting fixture. I'll have to look it up later today and get the URL for the site....
 
#15 ·
I'm aware of the cost differential, but when it's all said and done, it's easier and likely cheaper to just pick up a MH (I'm referring to pendants).

The balasts in automotive applications can get very hot. All do not handle moisture well. They draw LOTS of current during warmup (can reach >20A in some cases). My main concern would be finding a suitable reflector. That's a lot of light coming from a very small bulb. Getting it to diffuse over the area of a tank would be another issue.
 
#19 ·
Sorry to revive this thread but I had some information I thought might be worth adding that wouldn't be worth starting a new thread for.

FWIW I have HID foglights on my car and it uses a projector lens with a cutoff shield inside the projector to project uniform light all over the ground. It would be really, really easy to open up the projector and take out the cutoff shield. Doing so would result in light that is projected at a very wide angle and fairly uniform in a circular pattern.
The following picture isn't entirely correct, as the lens is what flips the light and they seem to have illustrated light just flipping randomly, but you can see how the cutoff shield would make a shadow at the bottom of the lens.
The lens then flips this "image" and creates a shadow at the top half of the projection, this way you aren't blinding other drivers.


Removal of the shield would make what I imagine to be quite good light dispersion, better than any reflector alone could ever create, that's why projector lenses were adapted for automotive use to begin with.

Also, in an older post someone mentioned that HID ballasts aren't good at handling moisture and get very hot.

This may be true in older technology but the majority of modern aftermarket ballasts are completely waterproof, you could even submerge them and they would work.
Most of them are internally sealed with some sort of non-conductive silicone type product, thats not to say that the seals on the casing are sealed, but rather the entire circuitry is encased in silicone.

The heat of the ballast is negligible. The heat from the bulb is comparable to MH.

For anyone interested in trying this out, as someone mentioned you are getting 2 ballasts and 2 bulbs. Ballasts should last 5+ years, if you get a faulty one it will probably break within the first year and you can swap it out via warranty. The bulbs in my car have lasted 2 years but the bulbs I had before only lasted a bit over a year, so that gives you 2-4 years of use with no bulb replacements. That is assuming that they do not get worse at growing plants over time like other bulbs do.


Also the thing that makes these burn out the quickest in cars is turning them on and off multiple times a day, so running them constantly for 8 hours a day really shouldn't shorten the life compared to automotive use. I would imagine the life to be about the same for both aquarium use and automotive use.

For anyone interested in trying this, I recommend xenithxenons.com as they have good warranty claim system, have been around for quite a while and have updated their technology multiple times over the years, the current platform is probably the best you can buy, and its ridiculously cheap. The ballasts are miniscule compared to older ballasts and replacement bulbs are fairly cheap.
You could get a universal projector foglight kit off ebay, whichever one looked the nicest to you for your budget, and just rig this up to hang from the ceiling over the tank.

My only concerns are the PAR output of HID(although you can request special colored bulbs which do not have a colored filter on the glass which would reduce lumens, but instead use a different mixture of gasses in the bulb to produce different colors, but you'd be shooting in the dark as to what colors would give you better par.)
From what I've read HID lights produce a good bit of light in the "lower chlorophyll A segment of PAR" but not as much in the infrared segment.
Although you'd have 2 projectors and 2 ballasts and 2 bulbs so you could double up if you wanted.
 
#20 ·
Bump!

WOW I wasn't logged in when typing my reply OMG that sucks time to retype it.

I'd like this to help update this thread with out starting a new one in hopes that since 2011 others have attained more knowledge to contribute to this thread once again.

So I ran across this while searching for light fixtures for my 34g solona that I'd like to use for a reef setup until I found that the seams are dry rotted but that's another topic. I'm also interested in the capabilities for freshwater planted tanks as I will be now focusing on setting up my 30g freshwater.

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=3578+3733+13822+21459&pcatid=21459

Seeing this reminded me that my buddy used to order HID kits for cars really really cheap like others have stated already. The low cost of the bulbs and ballast is really attractive and got me searching which is how I ran across this thread.

Please note that automotive HID headlamps and fog lights are MH bulbs and are called xenon because of the xenon gas that is present and used as part of the ignition process instead of argon.

Although another thing to consider marine metal Halides and automotive HID bulb compositions maybe different and probably undergo stricter quality control processes resulting in the ovbious price differences.

The guy in the link below made a great attempt at a DIY project although I think he could have been a little more creative. I still give him kudos for it though and props on using a PC powersupply.

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f11/hid-xenon-for-aquarium-lighting-120555.html

This was the first and cheapest kit I found and now that I'm re typing this at 3:30am I'm definitely not searching anymore tonight.

[Ebay Link Removed]

My only concerns are heat and PAR value of the automotive HID bulbs. Also if anyone has had a chance to test their PAR values or found articles where they have.

I've also read that the CRI rating for HID bulbs is extremely high for those who are interested.
 
#21 ·
I have two complete sets of spare 35w 4300k hids. I can't imagine running this light over my tank, it's pretty damn bright. As for ballast heat I barely get any at all with my 35w kit. With my 55w kit it does get a little warm. Only thing that gets pretty hot would be the bulb itself. Maybe I could do a diy in a desk lamp housing to compare differences vs my 15 watt 4500 cfl
 
#22 ·
One of the kits are ddmtuning.com. It has lifetime warranty however the warranty process takes very long. My other kit was purchased in 06 & is still running strong, believe it or not it was the cheap xentec kits on ebay after a week one of the bulbs started to flicker during initial start up so I emailed the seller & they sent me a brand new pair of bulbs no questions asked & i didn't have to send in the old bulbs. So if you just want to try it out I would recommend xentec. Mainly for the quick returns in warranty.
 
#24 ·
My other kit was purchased in 06 & is still running strong, believe it or not it was the cheap xentec kits on ebay after a week one of the bulbs started to flicker during initial start up so I emailed the seller & they sent me a brand new pair of bulbs no questions asked & i didn't have to send in the old bulbs. So if you just want to try it out I would recommend xentec. Mainly for the quick returns in warranty.
That was the kit I provided a link for unfortunately it was removed (guess I should go back and read posting rules again).

I think the fog lamp kits would probably me more flexible in designing presentation for the lights and enclosures.

Also I revived this to see if anyone has heard of or seen results for freshwater planted tanks. Plus if anyone has any more technical specs as far as the PAR and spectrum values are concerned for the HID lamps.
 
#25 ·
You can make a DIY 70W hqi for under 40 bucks..The bulbs on ebay are like 15-$20, they last 2 years+ depending on useage, and depending on your reflector and bulb could crank out 12000+ lumens. Also you could get a complete 70W HQI aquarium fixture for less than $150. and as far as LED goes, you can buy a complete fixture that cranks 5000 lumens for under 100 bucks.
 
#27 ·
Okay then that does help distinguish the difference between Xenon Halides(automotive grade HID) and HQI Halides(aquarium grade HID).

I read that the reason in the difference is purely environmental saftey because of the mercury gas used in other types of halide bulbs such as the HQI.

Still my main goal for reviving this is to see any real hard info on the xenon HID lights exists. I have been looking at the differences between the types of halides, but my brain is fried so I'll be updating this when I can.
 
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