Lighting upgrade possible?

[TJDeMars]

I have a Corallife Aqualight Pro with 3-150watt HQI bulbs, and 4-96watt PC bulbs. A couple questions:

1. Can I replace the 150's with 250's?
2. Will the ballasts fire them, they are the stock Corallife ballasts?
3. Would I have to upgrade the ballasts?
4. Who makes a good 14,000k bulb? I have seen the thread on the Coralvue Reeflux bulbs and they are quite impressive but do not seem to be widely available. Hamilton I thought made the better bulbs?
5. Who makes the better actinic 03 PC bulbs. I'm not real impressed with theCorallife bulbs that came with the light.

Well that's quite a few questions. :D I should have gone with the 250's to begin with as my tank is 29" deep. If I can't upgrade the fixture that would be a bummer as a new light would be spendy.

[dakar]

I have a Corallife Aqualight Pro with 3-150watt HQI bulbs, and 4-96watt PC bulbs. A couple questions:

1. Can I replace the 150's with 250's?
sure but see #2


2. Will the ballasts fire them, they are the stock Corallife ballasts?Nope, need ballasts designed to for 250w bulbs


3. Would I have to upgrade the ballasts? see #3


4. Who makes a good 14,000k bulb? I have seen the thread on the Coralvue Reeflux bulbs and they are quite impressive but do not seem to be widely available. Hamilton I thought made the better bulbs? I'll leave for others to chime in, I'm partial to 6500K halides.


5. Who makes the better actinic 03 PC bulbs. I'm not real impressed with theCorallife bulbs that came with the light.I like the Sunpaq tubes, however there are two different colorings for actinic's, one that peaks at 420nm (the purplish color) and the other at 460nm (much more blue), mixing them can produce some really cool coloring results. Just something to consider, depending on your daylight bulb temps.


Well that's quite a few questions. :D I should have gone with the 250's to begin with as my tank is 29" deep. If I can't upgrade the fixture that would be a bummer as a new light would be spendy.

Upgrades can be a never ending battle.... sometimes it pays to go big or just stay home, and others....just leave your wallet empty twice. :)

[TJDeMars]

6500k Halides? wouldn't those be rather yellow?

[lReef lKeeper]

i personally like the corallife reeflux 14000K bulbs. But as Dakar said, the ballasts will need to be upgraded also. you should check with Eric on the bulbs at www.myreefshop.com !!

[dakar]

6500k Halides? wouldn't those be rather yellow?


With Iwasaki bulbs, not quite but almost a touch of yellow, but when paired up with 460nm blue actinics the result is the brightest white.... I'll have to find some pics of our 180g when we had her going full bore.. 3x400w 6500K halides with 6x65w 460nm blue actinics... IMO the most closely matched lighting compared to natural sunlight for both spectrum and intensity (compared to sunlight at roughly 8-10 meters NSW)...

*end hijack