10k or 20k???

[jfinneyi]

Just put 2 175w MHs on my tank and put Reefmax 10k and seems to make my tank yellowish. Dont want a yellowish look, Should I switch to 20ks??

 

[gflat65]

Or find some 14K's to try out first. 14K Ushio's give a nice blend of par and blue. I still supplement with VHO's (soon to be T5's), though. Supplementation is another option. Ushio's won't run well on an M57 ballast, though (check your ballast before buying).

 

[jfinneyi]

Well I have some USHIO 10ks. I have a bunch of bulbs here some 10ks and 20ks. The ones that are on are Reefmax 10ks and just makes the whole tank look yellow. The coral seems to be taking to it good but dont want a yellow tank. Should the 20ks change that??

 

[Crazyfist]

yes - 20s give best color, but 10's give best growth - try a 14 to split the diff and see what you think...

 

[Tomoko Schum]

You don't have any actinic lamps in your fixture or is the actinic lamps too weak? My actinic PC's were too weak against my Ushio 10K and everything looked washed out.

In my current set up, I have 14K MH lamps with no actinic supplement. The tank looks very good to me.

When I used to use 20K lamps, my tank looked almost too blue for a month or so. Then the bulb lost some of its blue spectrum and looked more like 14K.

I like both 20K and 14K lamps. I don't need any actinic supplement with them. Less lamps mean less heat as well. The only thing I miss is the dawn and dusk effect that you can create with actinic lamps.

Tomoko

 

[jfinneyi]

I dont have any suplimental lighitng. I put on 2 20ks and its 2 diffrent colors. Im gonna go with the bluer color. Like the way it looks on the coral.

 

[jrthomas40]

i like the phoenix 14ks....nice bluce and everything is growing VERY quickly