150 watt DE MH lamps compared

[saltyseaman]

Thanx Unsped :thumbsup:

Scott, will you be testing these?

 

[aquariumclown]

Unsped,

What ballast and pendant are you using? Also, I didn't know they made a ac1400 in 150w DE version. Who sells them, where can I get one?

Leo

 

[traveller7]

Thanx Unsped :thumbsup:

Scott, will you be testing these?

Don't have an aquaconnect in the lot, yet ;>)

fwiw: still tracking a giesmann ballast, aromat ballast, a sylvania 10K, as well.

fwiw2: I have lots of bulbs that come in boxes with different names but are obviously the "same". Interesting to see the variance between lots.

 

[triggerman71]

Thanks

Thanks

I appreciate the help Upsped and Traveller, from the pic's posted the Iwaskis seem to bring out the color more in all the inverts. The ac1400 seems too blue and looks like everything in the tank is blue. Oh, by the way I have the magnetic ballasts on my aqua fixture if that makes any difference. Are the pic's posted with magnetic or electronic ballasts? Upsed?

 

[triggerman71]

I ment to say that it seems to bring out the color in the corals more. The Iwaskis.

 

[unsped]

ive got to say just the opposite.

with the iwasaki absolutely nothing flouresces, zoos look drab, and nothing really stands out. the ac1400's are the opposite make corals flouresce even more than 20k. the ac1400's are a bit less blue in person and actually very nice, whenever i walk by the tank i think "damn those are great bulbs" (this coming from a guy who has bought 10+ bulbs trying to find the right one).

also my bulbs are brand new, as they burn in they will whiten up a bit.

im not a 10k hater, but i just really dont like the 50k bulbs ... i really like the ac1400's and blv10k almost equally. the ac1400 really is more of an iceblue and very appealing, i myself dont care for straight 20k bulbs because of the blue. if you dont like the blue get a blv10k which is a brilliant white. i just wouldn't go iwasaki.

if you want to go iwasaki PM me and ill sell you my bulb for reasonably cheap.

btw my ballast are pfo hqi magnetic.

 

[Seth]

hi unsped, nice pictures there

I agree with the 20k bulbs. I'm using the blv 20k and they are too blue and too dim.

I also have a arcadia 14k bulb but I can't compare it with anyone so I dunno how it compares.


Where do you buy your ac1400 or blv 10k bulbs?

 

[unsped]

i got my ac1400 from premium aquatics although the price seems to have gone up. blv10k can be purchased from reefgeek.com

its wierd, i purchased 2 'ushio' 20k bulbs, but both had different markings, one clearly a blv bulb. one was very very dim the other was brighter but dim .... that was really annoying.

 

[Seth]

Thanks
I have one more question.
Can you tell me which bulb is the brightest?

BLV10k or Ushio10k or AC1400 (i'm guessing the ac won't be the brightest)

 

[Seth]

and has anyone tried the coralvue 10k?

 

[aquariumclown]

My sakis

My sakis

Here's a picture of my tank with Iwasaki 50ks. There are 2 150w pendants in this tank. All run by SLS ballast and pendants.

I do see that it's a redder than say your ac1400s, I do have quite a bit of reddish stuff, including a lot of pink coraline algae and orange monti caps. Before this I always thought the tank is very white. But I disagree with the florescence. You can see from my picture that the star polyps are the pretty bright green. I've yet to see them as bright in other tanks with other bulbs. Aside from that all other things also florescent, Green carpet anomone for example. I'm interested in how blue the ac1400s will look in my tank. Thanks for everyone's input.

Leo

 

[unsped]

coralvue supposidly has a huge red spike, and corals react very poorly to it. some people even say thier corals get burnt within a day, granted they could be using poor acclimation.

aquariumclown, ill have to take a pic of my gsp's under the ac1400 they look radioactive.

 

[aquariumclown]

Wow, just checked the price of those bulbs on PremiumAquatics, $94.95 is pretty steep. Up there with all the imports.

 

[unsped]

im pretty sure the bulbs are imported, check www.aquaconnect.de to get to their real site.

 

[Seth]

Here's my contribution:

1. BLV20k

2. Arcadia 14k

3. Both Together

 

[comeon22222]

seth and aquariumclown. What size are yoru tanks and how deep are they? What kind of growth/coloration do you get with te 14/20K bulbs?

 

[Seth]

Mine's only a 20 gallon tank, around 40cm high.

I dont like 20k 150w bulbs. Too dim = bad coloration for sps. They tend to go brown on the 20k side. Growth is slow too

14k is alright, ok color and ok growth.

I havn't used 10k bulbs before so I can't compare it.

 

[traveller7]

coralvue supposidly has a huge red spike, and corals react very poorly to it. some people even say thier corals get burnt within a day, granted they could be using poor acclimation.

I have not seen reports or had that personal experience in regard to the CV10K 150's, yet.

 

[aquariumclown]

seth and aquariumclown. What size are yoru tanks and how deep are they? What kind of growth/coloration do you get with te 14/20K bulbs?

50gal tank, 20" deep. I have good growth rates. Very good coloration when I lower my lights to 3-4 inches above the water. Currently it's about 6-7 inches above the water.

 

[unsped]

Mine's only a 20 gallon tank, around 40cm high.

I dont like 20k 150w bulbs. Too dim = bad coloration for sps. They tend to go brown on the 20k side. Growth is slow too

14k is alright, ok color and ok growth.

I havn't used 10k bulbs before so I can't compare it.

just remember bright "visually" and bright "spectrally" are 2 different things, the reason firetrucks are yellow and the reason 6500k bulbs look bright is because our eyes are tuned to seeing that particular spectrum. if our eyes were tuned to see blue we would probably think 20k bulbs were bright and 10k dim.

there are some reefkeeping articles stating that photosynthesis of zoox is not impeded by bulb color temp ... so ideas like coloration and growth might be more personal opinion that anything else. what causes coral pigmentation? thats a 50 year research experiment in itself, many people say different things.

just a thought. im not saying whats right or wrong, just saying that its not as clear cut as some people think.