When talking about halides, most of the bulb manufacturers speak about the bulbs and CRI, which can be kind of deceiving.



For example when looking at the bubl output for a reef aquarium, many of the bulb manufacturers use CRI or Lux for the output of the bulb, however these measurements are designed around the human eye, and the colors that we can perceive.



When talking about metal hailde output in regards to plants (i.e. corals that harbor zooxanthellae algae to gather simple sugars from via photosynthesis) we use the value of PAR which stands for photosynthetically available radiation, or the light produced that is available to plants to begin the production of simple sugars. Therefor, in a reef environment you dont want the bulb with the highest lux, you want the bulb with the highest PAR. It would be interesting to test the UVB production of these bulbs (which do in fact produce Ultraviolet radiation of all types, and has been proven to be of no harm/nor help to corals) and correlate their output to the health of reptiles and herps in general.



I might just have to go speak with my professor who deals with herps and see if we can put together an experiment! Great discussion everyone! Sorry if i started to ramble, i get excited about science!



cheers~!

jon

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