400W HQI Bulb Comparisons

[davelin315]

I'm about to purchase some 400W HQI set ups as follows:

PFO HQI Mini Pendant
PFO 400W HQI Ballast
CoralVue 400W HQI Bulb

The question I have is on the color temperature. The bulb is available at 10K and 20K. I don't want to look at a blue tank, and I know output is better with a 10K, so do I mix and match, go with one, or look for another bulb? I'll have 3 of these over a tank that is about 30" high and am going to allow these bulbs to spill over and light my refugium and frag tank as well.

Thanks for your input!

 

[moonpod]

The 400w DE setups didn't test all that impressively vs standard in Sanjay Joshi's testing, albeit I think it was the icecap and not the PFO. Additionally the bulbs are not known for being particularly color stable over time. I'd personally just go SE and use Lumenarcs or LumenMax reflectors. Additionally the 400w "HQI" ballast is not even a metal halide ballast. It's a 430w HPS ballast--it really punishes the bulbs.