MH Lights

[Wieselsport]

I have a 75g tank and on one side the corals are not looking as good so I thought I'd look into a new bulb for for that side. Its been 10 months.

So my question is what is a good spectrum to get 10K, 14K???
and what brands are good? XM, Aqualight....

This is my first round of buying new lights, I'm clueless.

 

[spongebob lover]

hmmm well if you like white white
I'd go for the 10k XM, people like them a lot and i'm gonna try them next .
if you like a little bit more blue then get the 14-15 XM.

 

[Krish]

I'm with Gabby on the XM's. I had the 20K's on my 75gal and they looked pretty nice, but were very blue. The higher the kelvin rating the bluer the spectrum. A 10K XM is said to be almost purely white. I have a 12K reeflux now that will be replaced by Tuesday with a 10K Xm, but the 12K has a tint of blue to it which some people love. IMO, it's all about what look you want. Best of luck

 

[Scooterman]

Don't buy a 15K XM, they don't have the PAR for some reason they just don't work well.
I like the XM 10K also, or Ushio 10K very high performance lamps.

http://www.cnidarianreef.com/lamps.cfm

 

[Wieselsport]

whats a reasonable price to pay for these at 150w

 

[Krish]

Hmmm...Not sure on the 150's but I payed like $65-70 per bulb on the 250w's.

 

[Elmo18]

Don't buy a 15K XM, they don't have the PAR for some reason they just don't work well.

I have to agree here. An XM15k SE 250W bulb about bleached all my rose anemones in a 27-28 gallon tank within a period of a month.

Switched back to XM10k SE 250W, and all are back in health after about 5 months. Don't you hate it when things go worst in much less time than it does to recover back!??!?!?!

I'm sure the XM15k has its place somewhere...probably zoos....or mushrooms...but for high light purposes, I'd choose a different bulb.

Best,
Ilham

 

[spongebob lover]

well in that case i'm sorry for the 15k idea .

 

[Scooterman]

well in that case i'm sorry for the 15k idea .

Hey nothing wrong with that idea but sometimes you have to find the right manufacturer, XM just makes a crappy one

 

[spongebob lover]

Hey nothing wrong with that idea but sometimes you have to find the right manufacturer, XM just makes a crappy one

well i guess i'll never buy that one in that case .
I do like my 14k Hamilton it's blueish.

 

[tmccook]

Ok I'm clueless, I've never heard of these brands!
I have VHO (2 10k, 1 white act, 1 blue act) all 110wtt bulbs. I'd like to upgrade to MH. When you suspend the fixture how do you not have light glaring from it? I've looked at Pendent style lights and I like them. How high would you hang it? Does all the light angle downward? My tank is 48 inch long. how many would I need? I've seen other MH that the fixture is 18inches wide. Again, how many? What is the difference in a 10k VHO and a 10k MH? How do I choose the wattage?

 

[tmccook]

at and buy will be online. Any good suggestions of who to choose?
Thanks

 

[Scooterman]

http://www.reeffrontiers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=16729&highlight=lighting

I would consider reading up on this more until you get a better understanding, lighting can be expensive to say the least. Do a thread search on lighting to get more ideas & opinions, it will help.


http://www.reeffrontiers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=71