[Svennovitch]

Originally Posted by PJAN

Hello Sven,

Thanks a lot !

Yes, I have two computers.

I bought the Aquacontroler to control the dosing pumps ( on/off) and the pH.
But it couldn't control the dimmable T5 lamps, so I had to buy the GHL Profilux ( old first type ) also
The newer types of the Profilux can also control the Ph etc etc.
So, two boxes and now I can buy just one for all the functions. That's the price you pay for being the first.

Hmm, I thought the aquacontroller only could control light and temperature? Does that mean that the Aquacontroller only controls T8 and not T5?

Yep, I noticed you had the older type of Profilux. I bought the Profilux Plus II a few weeks ago, that's where my interest comes from
I am not yet dimming my light (haven't got dimmable ballasts yet, but soon, very soon ) but everything else works perfect, even the moonlight and other gadgets.

My "ideal" parameters :
KH 4
GH 5
uS 190
pH 6.5
NO3 10 -15 - 20
PO4 0.5 - 1.0

CO2 is about 30 mg/l.
Tapwater is very soft overhere and contains no NO3 or PO4.

I have never measured the conductivity of my tankwater, but I just recently read that it has to be at least 200 uS for the pH electrode. Do you have a special one or does it work with 190uS too, because it is so close to 200uS.

Yep. Very good spotted
I'm using rather old T5 lamps ( 2 years ) for the pendant. I tried to figur out what kelvin-rate ( 3000 kelvin - 6500 kelvin ) was best for plant growth.
So I bought a good bunch of lamps and tested them all.
To be short : it made no difference and I could have saved me the money.

I preferred the cooler ones so that's what I'm using in the contest-photo's and under normal circumstances.
But one after another the lamps got broken. Maybe of age, maybe because I dimm them two 2% in the evening.
I had to replace them by "old testing" lamps like the 3000 kelvin etc.
And it just happened the day after taking the contest photo's...when I wanted to take also some shots of the surface.
Right now, my pendant has mix of all kind of colors ( 3000 - 6500 Kelvin).

Were the 6000k lamps the older ones? What brand are they? I always read that OSRAM lights have to be used at full power for a small period of time (eg. 100 houres) before you may dim them. Is that correct?

I will not replace them right now, I'm saving my money for the new 965 -T5 lamps. The old were 860 lamps.
The first figure 8 is color reproduction = good
9 = very good
10 = sun - nature (technically cannot be achieved)
The 60 or 65 figure stands for 6000 or 6500 Kelvin.
A 830 has an eight for color reproduction and is 3000 kelvin ( yellow-warm ).
The brand new 965 has a NINE for color reproduction and is 6500 Kelvin.
It should be very good ... I hope.

Regards, Jan

Are you really going to use the 9-series? Don't they have a much lower output (lumen) then the 8-series? Aren't you worried you'll have a smaller amount of light over your tank? But maybe you think you can have a little less light, because you have a real bomb now

One other question:
you say you have 69000 lux above your tank. Did you measure this value? Because if we calculate it: 6*4100 lumen ~ 25000 lumen.
But your area is: 0.72 m²

Lux is lumen per m². This means 25000/0.72 ~ 35.000 lux...

Did I do something wrong?

Thanks for your answers!!
Sven