So I have had the 250w sunpod on my 37 gallon since its inception. Everything is great, works great and im running a 14k hamilton bulb. However, I am not getting the same color vibrance seen in other tanks because I dont have any actinic lighting. I want to add some, but the problem is space; the sunpod takes up substantial room. I recently saw current makes a powerbrite lighting system that puts out 60 lumens of light from each led (I would link two together so Id have 8). Would this make a substantial difference??? Its going to cost over 100 bucks for this lighting. Any other ideas?? I dont have a canopy so that presents a problem as I wont be able to simply retrofit a t5 light or something.
Finding actinic lighting
- Thread starter titus164
- Start date
gasman059
The OG mad scientist
Titus growth would be sacrificed. I've had many many configurations in terms of lighting over the years and IMHO true colors always end up being better at 20k b/c we all love that deep blue coloration.
I've yet to use reeflux bulbs but been leaning towards them b/c at 12-14k they seem to be blue.
The higher the kelvin the lower the par-general rule, thus u can compensate with higher watts- at the expense of higher energy bill.
Wow, that last comment helped me so much. I bought a deep water acro a while ago and its still growing well but it had a bluish hue to it at the store and now it is brown at the top and white at the bottom. Ill keep that in mind when I go to select my bulbs. Maybe ill keep mine until I get the growth desired then change to a 20k.
racermike27
Premium Member
I run the reeflux SE 10ks on Icecaps and the color is superb. Much better than my previous 14K setup. I also run the 10Ks with VHOs but with the VHOs off there is not much differnce.
The first thing I noticed when Imade the change to 10ks was that the blues and purples seemed to POP more, and that was with the VHOs off.
I really like these bulbs, I actually just bought a DE for my pendant on the other tank. It is running on Sunlight Magnetic Ballast though. The color here is more white/yellow. I am going to switch to a spare icecap that I hav to see if this makes a difference in color. I read somewhere that these bulbs perform best on electronic ballasts.
HTH.
-Mike-
The first thing I noticed when Imade the change to 10ks was that the blues and purples seemed to POP more, and that was with the VHOs off.
I really like these bulbs, I actually just bought a DE for my pendant on the other tank. It is running on Sunlight Magnetic Ballast though. The color here is more white/yellow. I am going to switch to a spare icecap that I hav to see if this makes a difference in color. I read somewhere that these bulbs perform best on electronic ballasts.
HTH.
-Mike-
racermike27
Premium Member
I got my reeflux bulbs from www.premiumaquatics.com
they have a large selection of other bulbs there too.
they have a large selection of other bulbs there too.
