Phoenix 14K not as blue as it should be?

xxiprxx

New member
Hey guys so heres my story.

I was having issues with my ushio flickering on my aro ballast so I went to my lfs and bought a new icecap 250 ballast. Got home and it was still flickering.
So after talking to the lfs I decided to take my whole light setup down to them and have them take a look at it. It was still doing it there (not flickering on and off but more like a candle light flicker.) So we narrowed it down to the bulb.

They even commented that the ushio looked more like a 10k and mind you the bulb was only a month and a half old!

They threw a pheonix 14k in there and voila flicker stops, apparently the bulb was bad. So I decided to buy the phoenix. The color was great at the store!

As soon as I got it home and throw it over my tank it looked more whiteish than blue like it did at the store. Is it just my mind playing games or is there something that could deal with the input voltage or any other factors that would not drive the bulb as blue as i recall it being?

About 2 years ago I ran the exact same setup and i remember it being bluer.

And one final question does reflector quality have anything to do with color appearance? I know in my case it should because it appeared bluer at the store...


Thanks guys!!!
 
It will probably change color one you get the "burn in time" done. but i believe ballasts will also affect bulb color but im no expert
 
Dunno on this??? I wouldn't think the reflector would have anything to do with color though IMO. Maybe intensity?

Aaron
 
I run 20k phoenix and like it but dont like most other 20k bulbs. phoenix seem to me to be less blue. But thats just my tank.
 
the phoenix will run a little whiter on the icecap ballast but it could just need to burn in as well. also depends on how long they had it lit at the store. it will start bluer and get whiter as it warms up
 
magnetic ballast = whiter
electronic ballast = LOTS bluer. almost or just about 20k material.

typically.
 
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