15000 k xm bulbs

[jeff Ferguson]

Anyone using these at this time? Just purchased 2 250 watt 15000 xm bulbs...

[DrBDC]

I had them for a brief period until the output tests came out. I loved the color but they don't have much par. Hardly any actually. But on a 30 gallon tank you'll probably be happy.

[jeff Ferguson]

thanks DRbdc for the input ..
I had 140000 k evc's and the just went out

[jeff Ferguson]

just put a new pic of the tank...

[DrBDC]

Looks nice. What type of ballast are you running?

[kdblove_99]

Yeah the PAR on the 15K is awful. the XM 20K has better Par

[jeff Ferguson]

I'm running ice cap ballast

[jeff Ferguson]

wish i would have known that last night put the order in at 7:00 last night light bulbs was at my door this afternoon.Talking about service.!!! So i guess I'll be running the xm 15000 k's for a year..Then I'll move up to the 20000 k's

[jeff Ferguson]

I've learned one thing the xm 15000 k bulbs are not near as blue as the evc 14000 k's

[DrBDC]

Here's a list of bulbs with thier output strength (ppfd) and the color (cct). If it doesn't register on the cct then it's probably too blue for a good measurement. Many 14,000k bulbs are really a lot higher in color. I think the readings show zero most the time over about 15,000k or so. The XM20,000k has pitiful output on electronic ballasts also. They're really meant for magnetic ballasts.

http://www.reeflightinginfo.arvixe.com/tabular-ballast-data.php?Watts=250&BallastType=Electronic&BallastManuf=Icecap&BallastName=6&shield=N&Submit=Submit

[jeff Ferguson]

thanks for the input drbdc nice tank pics..

[DrBDC]

Thanks, I think those are 2 tanks ago in my gallery before I started using photobucket. Here's my tank build thread but it will be updated soon I'm almost done adding a 75 gallon onto the system.

http://archive.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1101199