Are lights brighter than they look?

[Esabasard]

I have a current outer orbit light, 2x150 Hqi and 4x54 t5ho actinic and changed the hqi bulbs to reeflux 10K and they honestly don't look as bright as the current-usa bulbs that came with it, but the color is much better. My question is, is it possible that they are brighter (more par) than the current bulbs since they have caused some zoas near the top to bleach and the old bulbs didn't do that in 3 months?

[RobbyG]

The Human eye is most sensitive to color in the 550nm region, so Green/Blue light will appear brighter than any other. If your bulbs emit more 550nm light they will appear brighter than bulbs that emit more in another spectrum.