Good Lighting Read

If you've got some free time, this is a GREAT "article" to read. It's a very long, but very informative, write up on aquarium lighting. Since starting my LED build, I've been reading it over and over in my free time and thought I would share!
http://www.americanaquariumproducts.com/Aquarium_Lighting.html

 

Some cool things I'd like to mention: Most lights look a lot brighter then the usable light they produce, there is a TON of wasted light energy. LEDs(designed for reef use, of course) have almost no "wasted" light energy, the article talks about this more. This is why people look at LED tanks and say, "That doesn't look that bright, how could it be as bright as my good old halides?" Well, they produce all the usable light in the right spectrum for our corals that humans eyes cannot easily detect. It's also been proven that red slime algae(cyanobacteria) only grow from the wasted yellow and green wave lengths, LEDs don't have any of this light, so LED light tanks *never* have red slime algae(again, the article talks more in depth on this).

Even if you don't care much, this article is worth reading at least once. This article will finally put to rest the useless "required watts per gallon" saying once and for all!

 

HAHA, I can definitely relate to that!
I'm in the computer lab on UNI's campus between classes and I think I'm going to print them out, making them easier to read. 23 pages, I swear it's school related!