15,000k or 20,000k?

[Xx YOZER xX]

Ordering new halide bulbs today, and I'm not sure what kelvin rating I should get. I was thinking the 15,000k because I have T5's for supplemental lighting. Any thoughts?

 

[Desisto941]

I have a 15K bulb on my 30g and my corals love it. I would stick with 15K the 20K would be if you didn't have the atninic t5

 

[northbay-reefer]

Cory what's the wattage? I have some radium 20k you can try

 

[Xx YOZER xX]

They are 150w double ended bulbs. I went ahead and ordered the 20k, and I'm going to change out 2 out of 4 T5's to white instead of blue plus. Thinking that will give me a real good mixture of light geared toward color.

 

[northbay-reefer]

I have a 10k bulb 150 watt double ends lightly used. You can have it if you like

 

[Danny Luu]

let me know how that 20K looks with all the blue t5s! that's what im planning on doing. the four blues with 10K halides looked waaaaaaaaaaaay too white for my liking.

 

[Grant W]

Cory, you may want to look into something in the 420 nm range on the T5s if you are doing this setup for color. The more purple portion of the spectrum has worked for me.

 

[Xx YOZER xX]

Danny I'll let you know. The bulbs will be here on Friday. The bulbs I have now are 20k but they are old. I like the color with them mixed with 2 blue plus and 2 actinic t5s. My sps colors are dull so we'll see what happens when I get the new bulbs.

Grant, thanks for the input. I think my actinic t5s are rated at 420.

 

[Xx YOZER xX]

Thanks for the offer Tom. Very generous of you sir.

 

[Danny Luu]

hows the new bulb lookin? what brand did you go with

 

[Xx YOZER xX]

The new bulbs are great! Nice color. I bought the XM bulbs from BRS. They got the best reviews. I had no Idea that changing your bulbs was so important. I had cyano all over the sand on one side of my tank, and all of my nutrients have been at almost 0 for months now. Changed the bulbs, and my sand is white again. Not even a sign of cyano. Also, I had a really nice Acro piece that almost completely bleached out from the old bulbs. Pretty bummed about it. I can already see the colors in my Valida getting more intense.

 

[Danny Luu]

im stoked for my radiums tomorrow! so sick of the 10ks i have.. i forgot how expensive halides were. holy ****!!!!!!!

 

[Grant W]

I hear that Danny, At least its only once a year.

 

[Xx YOZER xX]

Danny, what color temp did you order?

 

[Danny Luu]

Radium 20Ks. I absolute love them. I'm running 2 ati actinic 2 ati blue plus and 2 radium 150 double ended 20ks ad it looks pretty nice. not too blue in my opinion.