metal halide bulb choices

[Mrs. Slide_Ice]

Hey, I was wondering what everyone's opinion are on different metal halide bulbs. I am not very happy with my hamilton 10k's, they seem slightly yellow and I want a crisp white look. I don't really want an overtone of blue either, just crisp white, with absolutely no yellow tints.

I have my eye on the Reeflux 12K's cause they seem like they would have a little more blue in the spectrum, but hopefully not too much.

Just wondering, what are your thoughts, and what are your favorite bulb choices?

Thanks,
Jenny

[Goalie66]

I've got the 10K reeflux bulbs and like them but they are pretty white. I was thinking about trying the 12Ks the next go around but that is about 8 months away.

Tom

[Shooter7]

If you'd like, I could arrange sometime for you to come by and check out my Reeflux 12k's.

[Mrs. Slide_Ice]

That sounds great, it would be wonderful to actually see them in action. PMed

Jenny

[dphins]

The reeflux 12k's are much bluer then the 10k. Just a FYI.

[DrBDC]

How many watt mh's do you use?
If 175 and you want high par there are some Iwasaki 14 or 15,000K ones out now that have higher par than their 10,000K bulbs which "were" the highest par bulb out there.

[Slide_Ice]

We have 3 250 on are 5 foot tank. We also have VHO antic 03.
but the ham are way to yellow they where nice until they burned in.

We are looking for a pure white look.

[Arsenal11]

slide i have phoenix 14k's welcome to come by & check out, i don't think that they are that blue when i have the t5's off.

[DrBDC]

Go to Sanjays web page and use the 2 bulb comparison spectral plots. To some degree you can compare where the color spikes are. If you're not sure which number correlates with a color, pick a bulb that you saw and liked, then you can look at it's chart and see where the chart peaks at. Then you can find one that peaks in the same general area's but go for the highest ppfd if you want the best growth. And you can ask around if anyone is running that bulb. Remember the ballasts make a big diffence on the spectral output.

[Shooter7]

Unfortunately, unless there has been a very recent update of his site, there hasn't been a testing done of the Reeflux 250 watt 12k's over there yet. He has done the 10k's, I believe.

[DrBDC]

No on that one you would have to take thier 10,000K specs and reduce them approx. 20% for a ppfd estimate but you wouldn't be able to do a direct comparison. That will give you a growth indicator using ppfd but not the color spike.

[Shooter7]

Really? Where does the 20% number come from?

[Shooter7]

Ok, by using Doc's suggestion of the 20% off the 10k to get the PPFD value for the 12k's, I get 69.

The Phoenix 14k's get a 73, but they'd have to switch to a double-ended setup to do them.

The Iwasaki 14k's get an 86, but you'd have to switch from 250's to 175's.

I used Icecap electronic ballasts for all the comparisons.

Also, given the 14k status, I'd think those two would be more blue than the 12k's.

[DrBDC]

The 20% was just a guess. Take a couple other bulbs and see the approx drop as the K goes up. I haven't plugged numbers but it's about a guess. One that I know doesn't follow that rule is the XM15,000 k's because thier 15 is lower than thier 20 and is a completely useless bulb for growth. Not just bad ppfd, terrible. I don't know what they did or were thinking.

[Lost His Marbles Name]

I have 3-400watt 10k AB's and there white as white can get. You can come see. I was the crazy person sitting next to your wife flinging costers at Greg and Dave.

[Mrs. Slide_Ice]

lol...I know who you are now :D That would be great to see them in action, PMed.

Thanks
Jenny

[Mrs. Slide_Ice]

DrBDC- how do I get to that website? Todd was trying to find a website that showed a picture of all the different bulbs in action, maybe that one is it.

Arsenal- I've seen the phoenix 14Ks in action and they are a little too blue for what I'm looking for, but I would love to see your tank some time and the "sohal tang".

[Shooter7]

I think the site we were talking about the comparisons is Sanjay's site here, where you can plug different bulbs and ballasts and such in to find out info on them:

http://www.reeflightinginfo.arvixe.com/

[DrBDC]

That's the one for the bulb to bulb raw data and graphs. Here is one that has a picture of some of the bulbs and some data. I think the basic data is on Sanjay's page but there may be some data different. Remember the pictures are for a comparison to each other and not necessarily what it looks like in person. Just like most photos. Even the monitor can change the look. I wish it was as easy as turning a tuning know on the mh's!

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

When you are looking at this, look at how pathetic the XM15,000K bulbs are. Too bad they actually look good to the eye, just no par. I guess if you had a situation where you didn't need growth anymore,,,,,

[Lost His Marbles Name]

The AB lamps that I have should last almost a year with out replacement un like other bulbs but that's just what they say.

[kentrob11]

I'm also running Reeflux 12K and love them. I started with the 10K but they had a pink hue to them that I just couldn't get used to. One thing to consider is that water quality can make a difference in the appearance of the light. Running Ozone or a decent amount of carbon will clear the water column and give you a true rendition on the bulbs actual appearance. I've seen regular 10K bulbs actually look whiter after running a bunch of carbon for a week!

[DrBDC]

10,000K "shouldn't" have ANY yellow look unless they are in a bad bulb/ballast relationship or the water is yellowed and what kentrob said will correct the later. 5500 give or take a little is what you see outside (IIRC it's 5200K). If you are on a magnetic ballast it will drive the bulbs at a higher wattage than the rated and it could shift the spectrum but that would be dependant upon which bulb it was and how it reacts to being overdriven I guess but with electronic you should get the rated color output. Some bulbs are just plain mislabeled too.

[Mrs. Slide_Ice]

Thanks for the website links, I checked them out and I like the CV 10K's the best but they don't have quite the par level as the Sun10K's, so I'm not sure what I'll do. I like how the blue and pink in the corals really pop with the CV 10Ks.

Does anybody know what kind of ballast is in the Hamilton setup? (without me having Todd take the whole thing apart) I do know we have the electronic ballast from Hamilton and not the magnetic, but we don't know anything beyond that.

We run carbon 24/7 and UV 24/7 and when we get a controller some day we'll hook up the ozone. I think our water clarity is pretty good :) We hold a white piece of paper up at one end and look through the other end, 5 ft down, and the paper looks very white. I think I'm just really picky about not having any yellow undertones.

Thanks
Jenny

[Shooter7]

Definitely no yellow with the 12k's.

[Letmegrow]

I think it's a M80's.

[DrBDC]

The coralview 12,000K bulbs were tested on that second link:

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

Funny thing is they did the worst on thier own ballast!

[DrBDC]

Never mind, when you click on the bulb it shows a graph and it dropped way down with the coralview ballast, but after looking again they didn't test it on that ballast so the graph drops to 0.

[Shooter7]

Well....they're obviously not the best, not horrible either. The color is perfect for me, not sure how I'd achieve it using any other kinds of light.

[Lost His Marbles Name]

Well if you put the right bulb with a not so good ballast you get poopy light. If you put a bad bulb with good ballast you might get poopy light. If you put good bulb and good ballast you get good light. There are pulse start, probe start. HQI, and electronic ballast on the market. Choose wisely my young grasshopper.