extreme5450
Member
Still good to go
Ebay MH bulbs
- Thread starter mat167
- Start date
cet98
"feed ur reef...feed it!"
FWIW, I received my 175W 14K Artemis from hobbylighting (on EB) yesterday and while I agree with Stuart that the 14K is definately heavy on the Blue side...I can also say that it is very dim IMO...
kinda disappointing unless it brightens up over the following days... but I guess for $19.98 I shouldn't have really expected much
UPDATE: well, less than two months ( of 6 hours a day usage) and my 14K Artemis Ebay bulb from Hobby Lighting is garbage... dead :sad2:
emailed Hobby Lighting support and they did reply immediately stating that I need to mail them the defective bulb back first and then they would "either" refund my money or replace the bulb...
don't think I'll invest both the time and "more money" to ship this bulb back to Canada....
guess I will just chalk this one up as "you get what you pay for"!!!...lesson learned here
LPS_Blasto
New member
My hobbylighting bulb seams to be doing alright. I've been using it a coupe months. I bought the 14k 175w MH. I've never had MH lights before so I don't have anything to compare it against. It seams pretty bright to me. It does seam very blue. I can barely pick up the difference between a 10k, 11k and 12k T5 bulb. This 14k MH seams more like 16 or 18k to me. It is a big step from a 12k T5.
Customer service for 1000bulbs.com was great! I bought 3 20K bulbs assuming that was the temp I wanted and 1 14K just to test. Ultimately I decided I wanted the 14K and returned the 20K ones with no problem.
They do have a policy of charging a restocking fee if you just return items. I bought more 14Ks instead but was worried they would make we wait until my 20K return go processed before shipping out the 14Ks. Nope- basically I bought 14Ks outright and when they got the 20Ks back, they saw the recent 14K purchase and just did a full refund.
At these prices, I just buy a couple of extra and keep them on the shelf. If one turns out to be a dud, I'm still ahead.
extreme5450
Member
stay with the plusrite bulbs, instead of the other ebay bulbs u'll be happy you did
jwalker314
Member
service from trust_deals has been excellent. I had two bulbs that weren't working properly and they sent new ones out, no questions asked! the 10k seems a little too yellow for me, will try the 14ks next...
hounddog01
Active member
I have read this whole thread and found it to be interesting. Out of all the post only one person was able to do a real comparison of bulbs. I have done and seen many different bulbs and the reflector is the most important part for par readings. I would have thought there would have been more par meters out there to use.
I guess my hour or so worth of reading will probably save me some money because I am now convinced that the Phoenix 14k bulb is the one to stay with even at twice the cost.
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I guess my hour or so worth of reading will probably save me some money because I am now convinced that the Phoenix 14k bulb is the one to stay with even at twice the cost.
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I just got a 400w 20k plusrite bulb and have it fired up in the center of my tank between 2 250w Radiums and honestly i cannot see a difference in color between. The 400w is a tad brighter to my eye though. So far i am very pleased with a bulb that is 1/3 the cost of the name brand bulbs. I'll post back after a week or so of burn in to report on color and brightness.
I had the Artemis 175W 10K SE bulbs on a magnetic ballast running for about 4 months. I found them quite yellow (looking at the bullb) and the projected light looked like a 6500k to me and although coral growth was good a few things were bleaching - notably red mushrooms and devil's hand leather even though they were all at the bottom of my tank (90G). Zoas, GSP, torch and hammer corals all seem to like the light fine. I just switched to Artemis 14K and they appear white with a slight blue aura (looking at the bulb) but the projected light is definitely blue and much dimmer. I would say they are half as bright compared to the 10K. I've only been running them a few days so we'll see if they improve, but like cet98 I'm disappointed.
Good bulbs like Ushio, AB, Reeflux all need pulse start ballasts to run correctly but unfortunately I have an older probe start ballast so that's why I've been experimenting with thses cheap bulbs.
Good bulbs like Ushio, AB, Reeflux all need pulse start ballasts to run correctly but unfortunately I have an older probe start ballast so that's why I've been experimenting with thses cheap bulbs.
Radiums on the Left and Right Bluewave 7 dual ballast. Plusrite 20K in the center on Coralvue 400w dimmable ballast.
It's never easy to judge from pictures but the color looks identicle. You can see the bright patch on the rocks extends a little deeper with the 400W.
NaClH2Opgh
New member
Has anyone put a par meter on these. I think this would change some minds. I have tried several bulbs and even when they "look" the same the par can be different between the two even up to double the amount of par. In DE bulbs, the only one I was happy with as far as color and par was Phoenix. I tried 3 other DE (Plusrite and others) and they either were way off in color or the par was ridiculously low or just quit working. I just switched to SE for my new setup and tried these Generic Reefmax bulbs and also Reef Optics and the Reef optics were twice the par. I am going with Reeflux now and will even try Radiums when I get a chance. The other thing as some have mentioned is the ballast. I am going to switch to lumatec dimmable ballast as I have a generic electronic ballast from China.
I agree that its hard to tell from a photo but i think that this particular one captures the color and intensity pretty well. What i cant figure out is how people think that 20k bulbs are too blue. I just switched from 3 blue plus and 3 aqua blue T5's on icecap ballasts which was probably twice as blue as these. One thing I can say is that MH is a much crisper light source and the depth it adds from shadowing is amazing even if i do miss the whole tank being lit. I now know what people mean when they refer to T5's causing a pastel look. But to label 20k's as too blue or dim is pretty laughable, I think all the 10k users out there just haven't tried a 20k yet. I dont see how you'd go back after running them.
hounddog01
Active member
You will not find much difference in ballast especially electronic ones. I have the cheap one and my friend has the ice cap and we have the same reflectors and bulbs. Readings are within 20 par. Mine were higher.
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NaClH2Opgh
New member
I agree between most electronic ones, but there are bigger differences when you compare electronic to an HQI (M80) and even some electronic ones. I got the lumatek because there are overdrive settings on it.
jwalker314
Member
I bought some 10k bulbs from trust_deals on ebay. Very pleased with them for the price. Next time I will buy the 14k bulbs, as the 10k are too yellow for me. But customer service was top notch, and since they are only located 2hrs away from me i recieved my bulbs the next day. Two of the bulbs i got i thought were bad, so they sent me new ones, turned out that my ballast just wasn't the right kind (they were hqi bulbs, and my ballast wasn't hqi) bought new ballasts and bulbs work great.
awesome vivarium btw, i think you just turned me onto a new hobby, i'd love to throw a few frogs or anoles in there and id be set.
awesome vivarium btw, i think you just turned me onto a new hobby, i'd love to throw a few frogs or anoles in there and id be set.
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