It seemed like I might have learned enough by now to tackle Sanjay's new article that just appeared in Advanced Aquarist. (Up until now, I've always skipped them because I didn't understand). So, I gave it a shot, and I'd like to focus just on the chart for Coralvue 10000k with this question. I couldn't remember what CCT was so I went back to the first lecture and studied the Chromacity Diagram chart on page 16. My question is, can I tell anything about how this lamp will look to me from the CCT numbers for it? With the HQI ballast, the CCT is 7900. With the EVC, the the CCT is 8928. Both are in the range that looks white on the Chromacity Diagram. Would this difference of 1000 CCT between the two ballasts be discernable to the human eye? Even if the light itself didn't look different, would the corals look different? Thanks for any 'light' you can shed on this!
CCT
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- State College. PA
Good question.
I am sure your eye will be able to tell the difference between 8000 CCT and 9000 CCT if you were to compare the lamps side by side. Without a side by side comparison I doubt it. I would not get too hung up about a CCT differnece of 1000. You also have to factor in that these tests I did only used one lamp. There may be differences between lamps of the same make, although one would hope the differences are within some reasonable range, say 10% or so.
With the chromaticity diagram, you have a better shot at prediciting which lamp will appear bluer, especially since the CCT ratings assigned by the aquarium lamp industry is often meaningless and random. As for what the corals will look like and what pigments will develop and be visible is not easy to predict.
sanjay.
I am sure your eye will be able to tell the difference between 8000 CCT and 9000 CCT if you were to compare the lamps side by side. Without a side by side comparison I doubt it. I would not get too hung up about a CCT differnece of 1000. You also have to factor in that these tests I did only used one lamp. There may be differences between lamps of the same make, although one would hope the differences are within some reasonable range, say 10% or so.
With the chromaticity diagram, you have a better shot at prediciting which lamp will appear bluer, especially since the CCT ratings assigned by the aquarium lamp industry is often meaningless and random. As for what the corals will look like and what pigments will develop and be visible is not easy to predict.
sanjay.
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