Help me pick new 250w MH bulbs :)

flyyyguy

King of the white corals
Premium Member
Ok..here is the deal.

I have been using XM 15 k's for a long time. I love the color, and get good growth out of them.

I know the par sucks. I dont like the look of XM 10k's, although i know the par is great.

Im looking for people with first hand experience of what the 15k xm bulb looks like, and for experienced suggestions of a bulb with similar appearance (identical appearance preferred...lol), that will offer more par.

I use 5 single 250w Icecap electronic ballasts on two tanks and prefer the SE bulbs.

thanks in advance for any insight
 
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The XM15k is definetely the best XM bulb in terms of color but once I switched to the Hamilton 14k i never switched back. It looks similar but better.
 
I haven't had any experience with XM 15k, but I love my Ham 14k SEs on EVC e-ballast. Not too much blue, but it still has this great, cool looking purplish tint. You will probably get a bit more blue out of them with your icecaps.
 
Thanks for the input everyone.........Gabe3d or Aclos(or anyone with those Ham 14k's)..........you guys dont happen to have pictures of you tanks with no actinic supplementation and a camera that is custom white balanced to them do you?? I know thats a long shot usually....just wondering :)
 
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Actually I do. No actinics and calibrated. Not the best picture but this is all i have on me right now.

fulltank_070201.jpg
 
Thanks Gabe I think i will at least order two of the bulbs and see how i like them.........im due to replace all 5 within the next couple of months......

Thx again :)From what i can tell.....it will increase the par by 150% over the 15kxm's.

How muhc of a diff that makes.....who knows...im gonna find out
 
How would 14's or 15's look with my t5 actinics? I have two blue and two purple. What is it like 460 and 420nm...I have two 150 watt mh's with 10000k that wash all the color out. (don't mean to highjack the thread!)
 
I used 15k XM and 14k hamiltons with URI VHOs and i didn't like any of the combinations. It's kinda purplish blue.
 
Gabe's picture rocks and the coloring looks fairly similar to mine. My camera and my camera skills suck... so I wont even both posting my blurry, innacurate shots!
 
:)........yeah.....a camera custom white balanced is a thing of beauty as far as realistic colors in your pics.
 
i dont know if you can run the bulb on that ballast( maybe to blue) but Helios are the nicest bulbs i have ever seen..
 
I have been really happy with the EVC 14k. I have been running them for almost 2 years now. Great growth and color and the price isnt too bad either. You can get them at oceanencounter.com.
 
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