halide bulb color question

[grandp10]

I have two halide bulbs of the same brand, Aquaconnects 14 k 250 watt, one with 50+ hours ran and one only about 5 hours. They do not light up the same color. My question is, is this because of the burn in that halides go through until they reach their true colors after a little while of running them? Should they end up being the same color? Thanks a lot for the help.

[reefnetworth]

i have found different brands do present diff. colors. my preference is Ushio 14K ive been through 3 of them and everyone seems to be the same, without variation in color.
the old saying: "you get what you pay for" holds true when it comes to MH. spend another $10.00 and get the better bulb. JME.

[grandp10]

Actually these bulbs are $115.00 a piece.

[jade2122]

I have the same problem, bought my first 250 20kwatt coralvue halide fixture in may and my second 250 watt 20k coralvue halide fixture in july. You can see a very distinct difference between the color in them. One side looks very blue the other side very white..why is this?

[wife no likey]

there is a definite color shift over time. .give it a week or two :)

[GatorWPB]

I think the burn in period is around 80-100 hours. So youll need to give that one bulb sometime and it will catch up with the other in color.

[oct2274]

if they are SE bulbs, make sure the nipple on the bulb is facing up, makes a big difference in color and some in output as well

[Steve973]

The aquaconnect bulb is very similar to the phoenix bulb, so you can compare prices and get basically the same result. An Ushio 14000K bulb is going to be much whiter in comparison to the aquaconnect or the phoenix bulb, so keep that in mind. I'm not sure if there is any PAR/PPFD data on the 14000K Ushio yet, so there might be less interesting color *and* less intensity for the corals. So, there's definitely color shift going on. Don't let people mislead you into thinking that the bulb is of lower quality.

[grandp10]

The thing is I got two Aquaconnect bulbs at the same time they were originally the same color then after about a week one of them went white while the other is still blue. So I got a replacement bulb and this one is white with a slight blue color, not nearly as blue as the bulb that I have ran 50 + hours. I can only assume the new bulb that is white with some blue will probably only get whiter as it burns in. So it looks as if these bulbs are only about 10 k, with only one of them out of three holding the 14k spectrum. Thanks for all the help everyone.

[jjmcat]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10969551#post10969551 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by oct2274
if they are SE bulbs, make sure the nipple on the bulb is facing up, makes a big difference in color and some in output as well
I was told to keep the nipple at 90 degrees by ocean encounters where I USED to get evc bulbs.

[jjmcat]

I also belive you.I have never had 2 evc bulbs have the same color.My tank was three shades of blue.

[Steve973]

grandp10, I just realized that you didn't describe your setup with very much detail. What ballasts are running these bulbs? Do you have IDENTICAL ballasts for both of them?

[grandp10]

Yes, they are identical ballasts. I am running 2 250 watt electronic Coralvue ballasts. I also noticed for some reason it seemed like I got about 400 better par with the nipples at 90 deg. I am not sure if this has any relation to where that white plastic rod runs down the side of the arc tube. Is that plastic rod always supposed to be in a certain place for better par as compared to where the nipples are? Thanks a lot.