Can you recommend the best 250W MH Bulb for SPS growth or....

[tangstank]

Can you please recommend the best 250 Watt MH bulb in terms of PAR value & life for SPS growth. How often do you replace your bulbs?

I'm thinking of adding Royal Blue LED supplements & trust on MH technology for SPS dominated tank.

 

[Ostentum]

Lower K bulbs, ie 6500k are going to give you the best growth but the colors are not going to be great. I believe that XM bulbs put out the most PAR of all the SE 250w MHs. I have used 10k XM, very yellow, with great growth and have since switched to 12k reeflux bulbs, which are much more blue, with comparable growth, little slower but still get good growth. As far as changing the bulbs I usually try to change out my MHs between 9 and 12 months. It all depends on the brand of bulb, the ballast your running and the cooling of the bulbs.

 

[chefzif]

Radium 20k are a great bulb! I would go with either XM or Radiums!

 

[sweet ride]

you should also checkout Phoenix 250W 14000K Metal Halide Bulb. I've had great success with them in both growth and color.

I replace the bulb once a year. I can't comment about par hard numbers as I've never measured them, but I can tell you that I've had SPS in my sand bed for over a year now and they are vibrant and has nice growth. The tank depth is 24" and the light is 6" above the water.

here is the link to my system.

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1881861

 

[ros_sco]

Radium 250s give me very good growth and color

 

[buy_baff]

xm or radium

 

[krazysps]

Agreed xm10k is the best for growth for color xm20k is nice but the par is horrible! If ya want a all around bulb I would go radium for my first choice then phoneix.

 

[Stanley-Reefer]

Have to say phoenix with M80 ballasts
3/20/09

10/4/10

It's not all lights but at least 60% is

 

[katpurdy]

xm 10K on an electronic ballast is a PPFD of 115....with a color rating of 11K...yellow, but not like a crayon!! south pacific sunlight by bluelife 10K bulb on the same ballast is a PPFD of 98...so not a huge drop from the xm, and the color rating is 18K...this is Sanjay info by the way....I have used both bulbs, find the sps bulb to be a nice crisp white, with good growth.

 

[Helter Skilter]

I'd go XM 10Ks. I run 400w bulbs, and have tried Hamiltons (all spectrums), Ushio 10K, Reeflux (10 &12K), XM 20K, and Helios 20K. The XM 10K give the best growth out of the bunch and give much better CRI than the other bulbs.

Mine look crisp white. I don't even bother running actinics unless company is over and I want the little extra pop that actinics give. IMO people report XM 10Ks as being yellow because it's not blue enough to cover up the fact that they have too much DOM in their water.

 

[tangstank]

Thanks Guys, I'm going to go with XM 10K's I have used this in the past, & with proper supplement from Royal Blue LED's I should get the blue tint as well.

 

[austin93]

Any update on how happy you are with your decision? Thinking bout doing same think on my 150. Tia

 

[tangstank]

The color of the Bulbs is crisp white to tint of Yellow. Excellent for the corals, but you have to have some actinic suppliment. My T5 suppliments were being washed off, so I ended up getting LED's attached to reflector, & I Love the coloring. It should be right around 14K & get the best par with it.

 

[nvdiz]

was growth enhanced after switching?

 

[smalltime]

The color of the Bulbs is crisp white to tint of Yellow. Excellent for the corals, but you have to have some actinic suppliment. My T5 suppliments were being washed off, so I ended up getting LED's attached to reflector, & I Love the coloring. It should be right around 14K & get the best par with it.

How about a tank photo with the 10k only, led only and led/mh please

 

[mattiej]

Where did you get the LED attachments?