how to choose MH bulbs???

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KrautBurner

KrautBurner

too "edgy" for this place
Joined
Apr 19, 2008
Messages
359
Location
Bremerton, Wa
I've got a new HQI MH fixture (2x250 20,000K / 4x65w PC Actinics) over my 75gal (hopefully it will be a 90gal later this year)

when it comes time to replace my bulbs, how do I decide what heat range to go with?



doing a (very) quick search, I found:
http://www.google.com/products?hl=en&q=250 watt hqi bulb&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wf

http://www.bigalsonline.com/BigAlsU...1/cl0/coralifemetalhalide250watt10000khqilamp

Coralife:
10,000 - $79.99
14,000 - $99.99
20,000 - $89.99



is there a good scale to determine what color band is the "Best" looking/growing?
 
lvsuckerfish said:
best look and growth you might want to stay in the 12-15 range best looking 20k best growth 10k lol thats JMO.
Click to expand...

that's the kind of info I was wanting to hear.

I'm kicking around the idea of going to a 14-15,000K bulb when these are closer to the end of there life
 
yeah as for which ones I have no clue on I only used 20k or 10 k and I am going back to 10 k i have to order them this weekend I need to see which ones are best for my ballast. one day swing by and check out the tank it is all up and running now I just have to add all the reactors and lights then I am pretty much done I have the return feeding all the reactors it is off now with a ball valve. I am pretty much home in the late afternoon. call me when your on the way home if you want to swing by.
 
You really just have to experiment and see what you like. I've found 10k bulbs tended to overpower the supplemental actinic bulbs pretty substantially. Switching to 14k did more for the 'actinic' effect than running 10k and supplemental actinics, my actinics could not compete with the brightness of the 10k MH bulbs.

My supplemental actinic lighting consists of 1x96w PC 420nm and 6x14w T5 460nm on a 150g tank for reference. I'm sure having 3-4 48-60" T5HO or VHO's would be quite a bit more noticeable against the MHs than my setup. Although even then metal halides do put out substantially more light per watt and the characteristics of different spectrums all work against noticing non mh supplemental actinic light.

14k has a nice balance. If you want to grow a lot you can get away with a 10k and still have it look nice/glow a bit but I think the 14k's are the sweet spot.

I just put the new 20k Reeflux bulbs on mine which I've heard have similar par readings to 14k bulbs (even beat some). But I believe the 20k Radiums have more blue to them. I've also used ebay bulbs in the past, my recommendation there is to order one color temperature higher (ebay 14k look like name brand 10k, 20k like 14k).

If you don't have an attachment to the Coralife brand bulbs at those prices I'd really consider Reeflux/Radium/XM/etc bulbs if you haven't looked into them.
 
no attachment to coralife bulbs,
that's just what popped up when I did a quick google search.

I currently have an Oddyssea Fixure with the 20,000K bulbs it came with
it's a 2x250w 20,000K HQI DE / 4x65w Power Compact Actinics
 
I have 2X250W MH and 4X65W Compact Fluorescents.

For my bulbs, I went with the following
Compact Bulbs:
Hamilton technology (I examined the spectrum graphs, and I liked these bulbs. Heard good things about them)
I did 2 of the bulbs actenic 420's (Range from about 400 to 420, with most of the light around 420)
Then I did 2 50/50 bulbs, which were 460/420. This added in a bit more color.

For the MH bulbs, I'm using 10k bulbs, would have to check on the brand. I have 2 that I ebayed for 30 bucks each, which look good, but I'd guess the life will be short. Then I also have 2 more that I bought at Barrier Reef. I'd have to check the box for brand. They look about the same, but I bet they will last longer. I have 2 sets due to troubleshooting some faulty wiring.
 
What ballast(s) do you have driving those MH bulbs? The stock Odyssea ballasts suck a$$ as they have really low power factor and would make your bulbs very yellow.
 
Trust me on this. Replace the ballasts with better ones and you will be wowed by the difference in the light intensity as well as colouring.
 
Depends on what color you like. I have many ballast/lamp combinations and have been trying many color temperatures for years. There is simply not an end to this... :) Sometimes I like the warm and day-light look of 10000K, sometime blue crisp of 20000K. Note also that not all 20000K are the same... Recently I came across basic 250W DE 20000K Coralvue bulb (not Reeflux) at a fellow reefer's tank, which I liked how it really popped the colors of zoa's. So, I grabbed one and replaced my 400W DE 20000K setup temporarily to see how it goes. So far I like it; nice purpleish color, which some do not like (to me also indicates it has a strong 420nm wavelength component, which I experienced corals response well).

I would stay away from 14000K ones (I tried a few in the past, such as ever-so-popular Phoenix and Hamilton ones), as they tend to lack the punch of 20000K, and also lack the 420nm spike that most 10000K bulbs pack.

Having said that, best growth was with 400W/250W SE 6500K Iwasaki on PFO EYE ballast. You need about the same wattage T5/VHO Actinic to offset it's boring yellow color though...

I agree with apollothesun that ManhattanReefs site is great to get comparative charts/data for ballast/bulb combinations. Check it out for sure.
 
mimosa said:
Recently I came across basic 250W DE 20000K Coralvue bulb (not Reeflux) at a fellow reefer's tank, which I liked how it really popped the colors of zoa's. So, I grabbed one and replaced my 400W DE 20000K setup temporarily to see how it goes. So far I like it; nice purpleish color, which some do not like (to me also indicates it has a strong 420nm wavelength component, which I experienced corals response well).
Click to expand...

"Corals response well".....do you mean good growth or corals got better color. Still learning about lighting.
 
saltwaterfishes: In my experience, in general any light with a strong spike around 420-460nm gives good color perception and growth (provided water condition/flow are not variable in these setups). Check Radium and Helios for example. If you want faster growth (but not desired color perception at the same time), then you will need 6500K-10000K range bulb (again with strong 420nm spike). Check Iwasaki for example. Lower the K value, more chances that you will also have algae issues though, if you do not have nutrients under control. If you want to stop by to check the effect of light on color perception on exact same tank, let me know. By the way, the zoas we got from you are awesome. We especially like the way the orange one looks like...



saltwaterfishes said:
"Corals response well".....do you mean good growth or corals got better color. Still learning about lighting.
Click to expand...
 
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