MH HQI Bulb Break in Period

[ROLLINS]

So I changed my stock generic 15K 250W HQI bulbs with some 10K Ushio's about 3 weeks ago. My goal was to sacrifice some nice blue/white viewing pleasure to obtain extra coral growth. I was really disappointed with the color of the bulbs at first, very yellow. Today, one of the bulbs basically changed color, to a very pleasing white/blue color. The other bulb still maintains its original yellow color. My question is do bulbs take this long to break in? If so, I cant wait until the other bulbs changes color. Or, is there something going on with the cheap ballasts that came with this fixture. Thank you in advance,

Rollins

 

[Scooterman]

That may be a normal thing for a Ushio. My Reeflux 10K's took a couple weeks to true in their color.

 

[Herefishyfishy]

I have never had HQI bulbs but have read Ushio can take up to 100 hours to blue up as Radiums take time to whiten up. Give it a little more time before digging into the spendier potential solution of the ballasts. Keep in mind that if you are used to 15K, that 10K will look much whiter (yellower?)

6500 K to me looks yellow though it is closer to natural sunlight. Most 10K is fairly white but this is all relative. I always ran 10K reeflux single ended and felt they were as blue as 14K XM. Blue is in the eye of the beholder.

 

[jezzeaepi]

Maybe there something wrong with my 10k reeflux because I dont thik they in any way look even remotely blue lol. They are yellow/pinkish =\ I would not recomend them ime.

 

[ROLLINS]

Here is a few pictures to help give a visual to the drastic difference. I swapped the ballasts, and the results are the same.

 

[ROLLINS]

Trying again to post pics.