time to replace MH bulbs

[Sea~Horse~Whisperer]

I currently have 3 - 250w 20k lamps on my 125 reef. I'm not sure if I want to keep the 20k's. They are VERY blue. The coral growth is also very slow with the 20k's. ( I do NOT have any actinic lamps on the tank. )

I would love to go with 10k bulbs for the coral growth (SPS) but I don't want to have to buy another lighting set up for the actinics that I will have to have then.


If I switch to 14k bulbs, will I still have to add actinic lamps or is there enough blue in them to overcome the yellow tint? Does anyone use 14k's without actinics on their tanks? How do you like the color? What brands are good ?

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Angie

[perpetual98]

I've got Hamilton 14,000K bulbs over my tank. I like them, but I don't have much to compare them to. I also think that they run better on certain ballasts, so you might want to check that out too. I'd check out Sanjays tests/comparisons.

Eric

[Reptoreef]

Ditto... I hear well of a few with phoenix being an appearant favotrite... BTW, double end or single end??? I even like the AB20k, but par is not super.

[davejnz]

What kind of ballasts are you using?The new CV10k Reeflux(not CV10k) is an awesome bulb IMO.Its white w/ a touch of blue(depends on the ballast).It has a 450nm spike like the 14k+ bulbs do which brings out some nice colors.On e-ballasts like IceCaps,its color is closer to a 15k but on magnetics its about 11-12k.Definately not your typical 10k bulb.

[Sea~Horse~Whisperer]

They are single ended bulbs. I think I'm going to get the 14k's then. Now which ones, lol. Thanks everyone.

Angie

[Reptoreef]

10k AB's(actual 13k), hamilton 14k(a bit too blue for me), and the reeflux.

[Sea~Horse~Whisperer]

The ballast I'm running is M59 magnetic ballast

[davejnz]

I'd go with the CVReeflux,its a nice white w/ a touch of blue.Looks great as a stand alone bulb IMO.My friend uses them,he got to test out the prototype because this is a newly developed bulb.I could aske him to send me a pic if you would like to see one in action.

BTW,That bulb has higher PAR than the Phoenix and most all of the 14k's as well,especially on the mag-ballast

[davejnz]

I juse checked out the spectral analysis of all the 14kbulbs,the reeflux has higher PAR than all of them.On your M58 mag ballast,it actually will look like a 14k bulb too.

If your interested,here's the link to the analysis charts http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2005/5/aafeature

[davejnz]

for some reason,i cant edit the post.I had mad a mistake earlier when is said that this bulb looks like closer to an 11k on a mag ballast.That is what it looks like on a M80.On that ballast,it has a PAR value that would =l most of the 10k bulbs on the market.