10K versus 14K bulb
- Thread starter zigrat88
- Start date
hahnmeister
In Memoriam
Depends...
14,000Ks are a mixed bunch. With almost every 10,000K, you have a very nice flat line of output from the purple through red spectrums (all visible wavelengths)... okay, its not a flat line, its a bunch of little peaks... but they are rather flat.
With 20,000Ks, you get a small peak in the purple/actinic spectrums, then a huuuge peak... larger than any other bulb, in the 450nm/blue spectrum... then you see a huge drop in output as you go from the green through red spectrums... sometimes a small spike in the green or yellow spectrums... but thats it.
I say 14,000Ks are a mixed bag because they vary more. There is no 'standard' output curve like with 10,000Ks and 20,000Ks.
Some bulbs, like the pheonix 14,000K, are pretty much identical to a 20,000K, only with the actinic/purple peak removed.
Others, like the UShio 14,000K, are more like a 10,000K. The Ushio looks alot like a 10,000K, but like someone took its spectral output graph and tilted it 10 degrees to the right... slightly less red, and slightly more purple... but no huge blue spike like with the pheonix.
So there is not good response for that question. You should start with which bulb you are looking at and go from there.
To add more to the confusion, other companies have come up with other K ratings that are even more out of whack. The CoralVue 12,000K, the Giesemann 13,000K and 14,500K. There are 15,000K and even a 16,000K bulb by Aqualine out there.
The only way you can get a good idea of what they look like is try to find a spectral graph and read it.
14,000Ks are a mixed bunch. With almost every 10,000K, you have a very nice flat line of output from the purple through red spectrums (all visible wavelengths)... okay, its not a flat line, its a bunch of little peaks... but they are rather flat.
With 20,000Ks, you get a small peak in the purple/actinic spectrums, then a huuuge peak... larger than any other bulb, in the 450nm/blue spectrum... then you see a huge drop in output as you go from the green through red spectrums... sometimes a small spike in the green or yellow spectrums... but thats it.
I say 14,000Ks are a mixed bag because they vary more. There is no 'standard' output curve like with 10,000Ks and 20,000Ks.
Some bulbs, like the pheonix 14,000K, are pretty much identical to a 20,000K, only with the actinic/purple peak removed.
Others, like the UShio 14,000K, are more like a 10,000K. The Ushio looks alot like a 10,000K, but like someone took its spectral output graph and tilted it 10 degrees to the right... slightly less red, and slightly more purple... but no huge blue spike like with the pheonix.
So there is not good response for that question. You should start with which bulb you are looking at and go from there.
To add more to the confusion, other companies have come up with other K ratings that are even more out of whack. The CoralVue 12,000K, the Giesemann 13,000K and 14,500K. There are 15,000K and even a 16,000K bulb by Aqualine out there.
The only way you can get a good idea of what they look like is try to find a spectral graph and read it.
hahnmeister
In Memoriam
What size tank?
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