250w 15K XM bulb, low output

[belgian_waffleman]

Hello,

I was able to purchase a 4 month old Hamilton fixture with a 250W ARO ballast. The Reefsun fixture came with a 15K XM bulb.

I've ran this (4month old) bulb for about 6hrs a couple of days, and I'm quite disappointed with the output. The pendant hangs at 12" above the rim of the tank(29Gallon).
There is not a lot of light at all. my PC's put out a lot more.

Now I'm looking on JB's website and he shows an extremely low PAR for that bulb/ballast combination.
I'm thinking of buying an XM 10K bulb, which has more than double the PAR.
So here are my questions:

- Would the visible light output increase significantly?
- I have a lot of shadows in the tank, making the bottom of the tank pretty dark, would I still have this issue with the 10K bulb?


Thanks in advance
Waffleman

 

[reefin'aggie]

The diff is literally night and day. Be careful b/c the XM 10k bulb is extremely powerful and your livestock need to be acclimated to the new intensity and spectrum of the bulb.

Jacob

 

[Ti]

the more blue it is the less it appears bright.