Lighting without actinics

Dave VG

Dave VG

New member
Ok so I can afford to loose some par as the SE 250 setup over my 30 long seems a little much. Sense I can't afford to buy a complete 175 setup at the moment I have been looking into a 12 or 14 k bulbs. Tanks I've seen with 20K seem to blue for my liking so there out. I'm not running any actinics so this will hopefully make things pop more as well. So has anyone had any experience with either of these? And which brands are the best in each K range?
 
I am running 14k on my systems and the color is popping. The growth rate on 10k seems faster, but I like the color more.....I have XMs

Dave
 
I believe alot of it depends on the bulb too. I was using a 175 hamilton setup with internal ballast and 14k icecap bulbs. gave a nice blue tint to the tank. still have it if you're interested.
 
What ballast are you running these on? I'm unclear, are you running a 175 se now, or are you going to darker bulbs in order to dim down the 250w that you're currently running?

If the former, I unfortunately don't have experience with any 175w fixtures: Bulbs are known for being very different even within the same brand, same kelvin, for different wattages and also for se vs de.

250w de mh on hqi ballast, I have run a few bulbs: I really like the Geisseman 250w de Megachrome Coral bulb, but it's expensive. I like the 250w Ushio 14k as well, but it's very white and if you are looking for something that has a blue tint, you probably wouldn't want it unsupplemented.

On a 400w blueline eballast I ran a radium 20k se, it was nice, but very blue.

Personally, I would get something with a color your like, but then still save up for a t5 actinic supplement... really nice not having to run the main lights 16 hours a day in order to enjoy viewing the aquarium. jmo

Alternatively, you could just do t5s, no halides, on a 30L.

-A
 
Guess I could have been a little clearer on this. I’m running a single 250 Watt Lumatek digital ballast with a 10K XM bulb on a spider reflector over my 30L. These ballasts are killer bright and a pair of them worked well on my 90. But……this is wayyyy to much light for the 30. I have even been raising the bulb to the point I’m running to of head room and the bulb is now about 30 inches off the water and I could only raise it maybe 5 more inches lol. So I’m looking to tone it down a lot and I thought I could do that with a bulb that puts out less par. Being this is a mixed reef some of my LPS corals do not like that much light and no matter where I put them at this point it seems it is still too bright for them. My thought was that I could keep the low light corals on the ends of the tank but that’s just not working. So here is where I’m at sense my post yesterday. A STRS refer has made me a killer deal on a plug and play 175 setup with an XM10k bulb and it will be going right on as soon as I get it. Thanks Dave (Neoz). Thanks to all for the input so far and I will keep you posted as to how it goes.
 
The 175 should be a good fit. Congrats on the find! :)

I've run the Hamilton 250w de 14k and consider it to be rather dim compared to others I've tried, fwiw.

-A
 
Thanks for the info Angela. What other bulbs have you run? The 175 I'm getting from Dave is a SE setup. Anyone else have experience with bulbs other than 10K. Still trying to get away without using actinics.
 
Yea the color is pretty nice with the XM14K, found a 15k bulb but no nothing about it Iwasaki 175 15K. I would stay away from 20K, it is way to blue and you don't get good coloration diversity. The 12K Reeflux were nice looking but still needed supplemental lighting IMO.
 
I have run the Reeflux 12k however I found that the spectrum shifted dramatically in just a few months and it lost PAR over the same time course. I found this with two sets of Reeflux lamps. Others on the RC forums have complained of similar findings with Reeflux and Hamilton lamps. Ushio (which i have never personally had) appear to have a better track record with their 14k lamps. The Iwasaki 15k is a terrific lamp however burns much whiter than its color temperature rating and therefore is not recommended without actinic supplementation. Plus the PAR on their 175 watt lamps is about equal to that of most 250 watt lamps so again, probably not a good choice for you. So I would suggest either Ushio 14 K or Radium 20k, however you have to have the proper ballast for the later.
 
Jerry I have been leaning towards the Ushio 14K. I have found allot of posts here on RC and elsewhere on the net that confirm they do pop the corals. That is no surprise being that there spectrum does go into the 460 nm range. I’m pretty sure I’m going that way at this point.
 
I love my Ushio 14k, but, at least when run on an HQI ballast, it runs at about 10k as per Sanjay's chart. It is, to my eyes, very white. I think on an e-ballast it will run more blue, hqi ballasts tend to overdrive bulbs and give a lower kelvin output I believe.

I am running the Ushio 14k right now with 2x24w blue supplement (1 x actinic 03, 1 x aquablue special) and it is very very very bright and still on the white end, fyi.

The hamilton isn't my favorite bulb because it is a bit dim compared to others, but since you are looking for something that is less bright you might go with that one- it is definitely bluer than Ushio, but not as blue as Radium. Alternatively, people really like the Phoenix bulbs unsupplemented. Is your ballast electronic, or?

-A
 
Dave VG said:
Not really sure I don’t have the ballast yet.
Click to expand...

Then wait to decide on the bulb... :)

((If it were me, fwiw, I'd just keep the 250w setup and find a dimmer, low par bulb. They are easy enough to find, and often cheaper (one man's trash is another man's treasure.) Even though you'll save some electricity with the 175w, I don't think it will soon make up for the $$ you have to spend buying another fixture. Also, 250w bulbs are more popular I am guessing, thus you may have more options in the end, and perhaps an easier time selling it later...?))

gl,
-A
 
Dave I'll send you a picture of the ballast tomorrow. I know its a Hamilton.


Newreeflady said:
Then wait to decide on the bulb... :)

I don't think it will soon make up for the $$ you have to spend buying another fixture. gl,
-A
Click to expand...

Not sure but for a MH Ballast, Mogul fixture, 10K XM Bulb and a brand new spider reflector all for $30 bucks seems cheap :wavehand: I owe Dave for bailing me out of a Jam. My way of saying thanks..
 
Neoz said:
Dave I'll send you a picture of the ballast tomorrow. I know its a Hamilton.




Not sure but for a MH Ballast, Mogul fixture, 10K XM Bulb and a brand new spider reflector all for $30 bucks seems cheap :wavehand: I owe Dave for bailing me out of a Jam. My way of saying thanks..
Click to expand...

Holy crud, that is the best deal I've ever heard of! Regardless, for any other person other than one getting some sort of insane good deal like this one, I stand by my statement;) Seriously, though, I wish I could get a deal like this one... my tank would be fine with a 175W, actually and I couldn't say no on a deal like that!

Oh, I should add, if the XM bulb is in spec (<10 months run) I'd try it out and see exactly what you do and don't like about that bulb- it will be easier to find the right bulb. (ie, if someone thinks a Hami bulb is too blue, they shouldn't buy a Radium;))

Cheers,
Angela
 
For me Dave my system had 20K bulbs on it when I bought everything second hand. I then went with 10XM bulbs as I wanted the best the growth I could get. For me personally I don't like 10K Xm's by themselves. Way too white for my taste. But try it out and see what you think.

If you need some VHO stuff I have some end caps and wiring if you want. I also have new 6ft bulbs but don't think they will fit your tank.. ;)
 
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