20K XM lights from Hello Lights

[Jake]

Just got these bulbs 11 days ago. They were very blue to begin with. Whitened up nicely since. Look great without actinic VHO supplementation a little blue with the 200 watts of actinic. Anyways the color that is popping out of my corals is impressive! lots of blues and purples are coming out ove rthe last couple of days. I also have seen a growth spurt since switching to the bulb and I was switching from an old 10k and a new Iwasaki! I have no idea why the sudden growth spurt but it was noticible to my wife and even non reefer friends have all commented on the tank looking so much better with the new lights.

Only down side is a pink milli acro has not maintianed its hot pink coloration with it. Every thing else has maintained or gotten better. Even my purple tipped montipora frag has gone all violet in color. Now I wish I had not gotten rid of the mother colony!Hope the improvements continue over the next couple of weeks. Really like the lights espically for the price.

Just sharing my experience

Jake


P.S.-Brian at Hello Lights told me to keep an eye on them as they are going to have something nice coming out at the end of the summer.

[kentrob11]

Yeah I noticed the same thing. I replaced my bulbs on my 90 with a pair of 400watt XM's and have seen a growth spurt as well and exellent colaration. Funny you noticed the purple montipora cuz That same coral in my tank went from a toned down purple to a really bright indigo blue color- very cool!

[RobboT]

If my memory serves me these are similar to the Xanium Bulbs that Hellolights had for a while. I have two 400W Xaniums that are marketed as 15,000Ks that I absolutely love.

I got them from Marco67 along with a 10,000K Ushio and I have found that I get better growth on my acros and monitpora cap. with the Xanium. I like the look better than the Ushio as well, they look whiter than the Ushio.

[Jake]

XM and Xaniums are both exclusive brands that Hello Lights sold. They have different manufacturers though. I ran the Xaniums as well and I liked them better tthan ushio 400w bulbs but the colors that has come out of these corals in the last 10 days I never saw close to that with the Xaniums altho the xaniums color was the most pleasing to the eye that I have seen with any bulb IMO.

[howman]

i have the 20K radiums, how would you compare the XM"s with the radiums....

howard

[kentrob11]

I felt they looked pretty much the same. Jury's still out on growth though. I've only had the bulbs for 2 weeks. So far I'm impressed tho.....

[Jake]

bulb color of the XM on a standard M59 ballast was very similar to the color of Radiums on a Blueline eballast. I have never seen radiums on the Sun Aggro 430W ballast (AKA PFO HQI Ballast). Hello lights says they expect 1 year usablye life out of the XM. When you first run them the XM's are a very crisp blue like the sunburts 14k bulb but it whitened up significantly since I first screwed them in. It has actually been 13 days. If you have the HQI ballast I am not sure how these bulbs will respond to being overdriven. I am thinking about changing my VHO's to one 10k and one VHO. Or just running them at dawn and dusk as the unsupplemented color of the bulb is really nice.

-Jake

[Scuba_Dave]

Great more bulbs, more decisions/options....now wada ido?:lol:
I thought the 20k bulbs slowed growth?