New XM bulbs

A

Angela Short

New member
I installed my new XM 10,000K bulbs yesterday and man they are WAY more yellow than my old coralife 15K. Did I say way more? The alage on the back glass floresess real nice now ;). I put one side in for a color comparison and was amazed at the color differance. I shot some pics to show but have misplaced my camera cord to download with so I will try to get them up ASAP. Some things look better today and seem to like it and others look uglier colored. I do like the much brighter tank but wish it was a dab bluer but not as blue and dim as the 15k's were. I was wanting deeper penitration to the sand also.

Question: Does the color change some as they burn in and how do I safley break in my corals? I ran them 3 hrs on 3 hrs off and 3 hrs on today with my 165 watt antic pc's all day. So 6 hrs total MH light cycle today. 10 hrs continouse antics. Any better way do you all recomend? I don't wanna bleach my tank out!! :)
 
The color does change some when they break in. I had some 400W 10K and they were a tad on the yellow side even after burning in. They sure were bright though!
 
Go down to about 3 or 4 hours total and then go up an hour a week. With that much jump in par you are liable to cook everything. I did when I went from Hamilton 10K's to XM 10K's with acclimation but I only let them stay at 4 hours for a couple of days and then started moving them up. Also if they are really yellow you could have gotten bad bulbs. 2 out of the three I recieved went bad(yellowed out) within a month. The XM's should be a nice ice white color.
good luck, Chris
 
If 6 hours is half your normal photoperiod, you should be good. Slowly increase it over a few weeks to the normal photoperiod. The 10K starts with more par than a 15K, and the 15K has been used, but it shouldn;t be too big a change if you do it slowly.
 
My MH is 9 hrs and my antinics are on 11 hrs so I may back it down then. I wasn't aware of MH bulbs being "bad" sometimes :(. How about the couple hrs on and couple off cycle? Maybe 2 hrs on 2 off and 2 on again but leave the antinics on like normal the 11 hrs? I am worried about cooking everything as my torch is only about 2-3 inches under the water line. And my bulbs were about 1.5 years old so I am sure they were shot. I love the brightness but they are definatly not crisp white at all. Maybe I can get some advise on them at the meet next month, they should be burned in by then. Thanks for the input.
 
you could also get some screens.. just the regular screen material used for windows. Layer it over the top of the tank and remove one layer each day.
 
But that involves something called work :) My top is a pain to get off so I will just do the back off photo period methode. Thanks though.
 
I have the XM 10K 250w bulbs and initially they were quite yellow. After about 60 hrs of burn in they are much whiter.
 
Thanks luckyfish, thats what I was hoping to hear. I think the alage build up around the edges where the mag float doesn't reach is helping with the yellow huge also.
 
IMO alternating between lighting(2 hours off and 2 hours on etc...) doesn't do anything. It's better just to go straight time. If you notice everything lightening significantly lower the photoperiod more.
Chris
 
Ok I will do that. I was just thinking it would give the coral a break from the intensity. I will just start with 4 hrs tommorow and go from there.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7013269#post7013269 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Angela Short
But that involves something called work :) My top is a pain to get off so I will just do the back off photo period methode. Thanks though.
Click to expand...
:D
 
You also need to make sure that the nipple is lined up properly in relation to the socket. There is a little nipple on the glass inside the bulb. The color is different if that nipple is vertically aligned vs horizontially aligned.
 
I Was wondering if that made a differance. Are you talking about the kinda rectangle thing where the light comes from in the center of the bulb?
 
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