Anyone running Aquaconnect 14k?

[dzhuo]

As the title states, anyone running one? If so, how is your experience? Like it, not like it? What ballast are you running it with?

Bonus: Post picture if you can

 

[NanoReefWanabe]

i am.

i like them...good colour, good growth, good bulb life...bad hole in my wallet...

150W 14oooK aquaconnect, APO electronic ballast...

 

[palawan]

I am running them with 250w ic electronic ballasts. I like them. Now I run my 96w powercompact 03 actinic bulbs opposite the aquaconnects. The 03 and the aquaconnects have the same color.

 

[dzhuo]

Anyone else?

 

[capture]

Would like to know as well. Can anyone compare to any bulbs they have used in the passed?

 

[Marine Man Dan]

I have been running Aquaconnect 150w 14K for about 8 months and really like te color. I had previously used 20K Coralife bulbs that came with the fixture but wanted to have more PAR so I could keep SPS and some clams but I also wanted keep the nice blue / white color... The Aquaconnect bulbs did the job!

 

[gcarroll]

I was running the 400 watt but was not a big fan of the color. I prefer more blue. Bright as heck though.

 

[GPhiAce]

I got my 250w 14k AC in january and already see a big difference. I was running 20k coralvue and have had 14k coralvue before the AC. I have a PFO ballast and am getting either an IceCap, Lumenatek or Galaxy very soon- the electronic ballast push the bulb to the max. A fellow reef club member and good friend has an amazing tank and have run the same 14k 250w AC for over 20 months now and is just now seeing a slight decrease in color. So far, I love the bulb.

here is a picture of my tank, but it's from a crappy PAS. Hopefully some great pics will be posted at the end of March- can't wait.

 

[dzhuo]

your tank seems to be a lot more blue. any idea why?

 

[Peter Eichler]

I thought the Aquaconnect 14k and the Phoenix bulbs were the same....

 

[fishdoc11]

The DE bulbs are basically the same. The SE are not ( Pheonix doesn't make a SE bulb )

The two pictures above probably look different because of the white balance on the camera.
Another thing to list would probably be if the bulbs you are using are single ended(SE) or double ended (DE). I know Paul's above are SE.

I'm running 2 250 watt SE AQ 14 K's on gallaxy electronic ballasts along with 3 4' UVL superatinic 110watt VHO's. I have had the AQ's on the tank since the summer before last and they just now are needing to be changed (which is impressive) I ran 250 watt 10K Ushios for years before these bulbs.

Picture in December of last year (about 1.5 years on the bulbs)

Pictures from last summer (> 1 year on the bulbs)

Chris

 

[Goodwood]

Pretty work Doc.

I have been kicking around the Idea of ditching my 400watt XM 20's on M59 for 400watt AC's on Galaxy/Lumatek. I dig the XM's but, looking to go bit whiter.

Anyone got some 400's to show off?

 

[dzhuo]

Really nice Chris! Is the gallaxy an electronic ballast? How do you think the color of the AC 14k might turn out if using a Bluewave ballast or would the bulb even fire?

 

[fishdoc11]

Thanks
Yes the galaxy is an electronic ballast and you will get a significantly higher PAR with electronic ballast compared to a magnetic ballast (I changed over when i changed to these bulbs for that reason). JBNY has some comparative info here (click on 250 watt MH testing):
http://www.cnidarianreef.com
And Sanjay's info is here:
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/july2004/review.htm

Chris

 

[dzhuo]

so any electronic ballast should drive this bulb to the spec correct?

 

[fishdoc11]

They won't produce the exact same results but they are close. There are several electronics in the data on the links I posted and you can see the variation there.

hth, Chris