Best light for Morphing Zoa's

[Snowreefer]

in response to Mucho's plea LOL

here's a question I've been wondering about.

What's been your best luck light wise with really getting the color out?

For me it seems to be high intensity rather than color.

 

[twon8]

high k metal halides

 

[Meisen]

Radium 20K 400 Ws

Like magic for zoas (and most other corals too). Even fun to put "brown" pet store zoas under em to see if they will color up.

The 14K hamilton 250 DEs I have over mine now are a close runner up.

 

[Jayreefer]

I feel that the 20k 400w SE HQI bulb by Helios surpasses the Radium or is at least even in color. I have found that they are hard to come by, but my LFS carries them at a good price and they are cheaper than the Radiums. I local reefer has been running his for a year now and It has not lost any color.

 

[cgarsmokr]

How do T5s work?

 

[Meisen]

Will they run on a pulse start ballast then or just HQI?

I would love to see some pics....its just about time to replace my rads

 

[camz28]

i have a 14k hamilton 175 w in my 29 gal , with 2 attinics , and i like the color not much growth .

 

[Jayreefer]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8789762#post8789762 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Meisen
Will they run on a pulse start ballast then or just HQI?

I would love to see some pics....its just about time to replace my rads

If you are asking about the helios 400w theen it has to be on a HQI ballast. It will not run properly on anyhing else. The box even says SE HQI.

 

[Meisen]

OK cool, yeah thats what I was wondering. The reason I ask is that Radiums and Ushio SE bulbs are sometimes referred to as HQI bulbs and will run on pulse start ballasts. I do not believe that they are true HQI bulbs despite the fact that many on here run them as such. To me, the whiter light the radiums put out running HQI isnt really attractive.

I personally see the best results with radiums anyway. The zoas I have under Hamilton 250 DEs are showing some interesting coloration now too....more green florescence especially in Palythoa sp.

 

[jasonj90]

2 x250 hamilton 14k SE's with 4x 110 super actinic VHO seems to be the best combination that ive tried. colors on even browns seem to "green" up a bit and growth is excellent!