Radium or Phoenix

[n-kleine]

Here is my dilemma. I have a custom acrylic hood on my tank. It came with 175 watt SE halides. I wanted the Radium coral "pop" so I ordered 2 Lumatek ballasts and 2 250 watt SE Radiums. Loved the color and growth but the heat increase on the hood was intense. So I went back to 175 watt and ordered 2 SE Phoenix. My growth has slowed and the corals don't look as good. My question to you is do I order two DE 150 watt hqi sockets and go to 150 DE radiums or stay with the SE 175 watt phoenix and wait to see the results in a couple of months?

 

[DownwardDawg]

I'll be following along. I hope you get the answer your seeking. Maybe it'll help us both. I've been debating 175 vs 250 for my 125 with a hood. Was the heat increase pretty significant?

 

[n-kleine]

Almost 4 degrees on the water temp and the hood was too hot to touch even with two cooling fans. The tank is only 20" deep so 175 should be enough.

 

[kingfisherflesh]

Im just throwing this out there, but maybe the problem was that the hood, and fixtures (replaced balasts and bulbs aside) were designed to handle the heat of two 175's and not two 250's...

Hope this works out...Im currently working on what bulbs to get for myself as well. Very interested in the radiums.

 

[n-kleine]

Im just throwing this out there, but maybe the problem was that the hood, and fixtures (replaced balasts and bulbs aside) were designed to handle the heat of two 175's and not two 250's...

Hope this works out...Im currently working on what bulbs to get for myself as well. Very interested in the radiums.

Yes that's what i think so I am wanting to know if I will get the color going to the 150 DE Radiums or should I stick with the 175 watt SE Phoenix?

 

[n-kleine]

Any pics of the 150 watt Radiums would help me. Thanks

 

[kingfisherflesh]

Any pics of the 150 watt Radiums would help me. Thanks

+1...does DE stand for "double ended" because I dont think radium makes a double ended bulb...I got excited surfing today and seeing how popular they were (even with starting issues, which Im not sure my ballasts are good enough to run them anyways) and so I decided to search for a double ended 150w'er...they make them...but as far as I know only in 20k...and that is going to be too blue for me I think.

GL...Ill be keeping an eye on this thread for updates.

 

[DownwardDawg]

+1...does DE stand for "double ended" because I dont think radium makes a double ended bulb...I got excited surfing today and seeing how popular they were (even with starting issues, which Im not sure my ballasts are good enough to run them anyways) and so I decided to search for a double ended 150w'er...they make them...but as far as I know only in 20k...and that is going to be too blue for me I think.

GL...Ill be keeping an eye on this thread for updates.

I think Radium only makes 20,000k bulbs in any sizes. They make a 150watt DE.

 

[n-kleine]

Yes the 150 watt 20 k double ended is what I am interested in if they compare well to the phoenix single ended.

 

[shifty51008]

they do make a 10k bulb but there was a post about them a few days ago and they looked very bad.

 

[kingfisherflesh]

Does anyone have a link to radiums on tanks? They dont all look 20k to me.

 

[tinkerman]

Any of the people not running radiums on there proper ballast seem to complain about them being to blue. I have 250's and run them on hqi ballasts and they are white. I have managed to get my 4 degree heat increase down to 2 degrees just by having my end 2 lights 4 in higher and putting a fan above them blowing across the hood. Don't even have the 4 fans in the sides of the hood even come on anymore, they kick on at 80 with the rkl.

 

[n-kleine]

I ran them on a Lumatek hqi ballasts

 

[n-kleine]

Any of the people not running radiums on there proper ballast seem to complain about them being to blue. I have 250's and run them on hqi ballasts and they are white. I have managed to get my 4 degree heat increase down to 2 degrees just by having my end 2 lights 4 in higher and putting a fan above them blowing across the hood. Don't even have the 4 fans in the sides of the hood even come on anymore, they kick on at 80 with the rkl.

How many hours a day do you run them?

 

[tinkerman]

I run them for 8 hrs. Sorry didn't come out right. this is a 125, the end 2 lights sit 4 in higher than the middle light with the 10 fan blowing over the top of the reflecters which are mounted to the outside of the canapy.

 

[kingfisherflesh]

Well...I have some HQI ballasts...and I am looking for something inbetween ushio 14k's and phoenix 14k's.

Anyone think that the radium DE 150w 20k's would maybe do this?

I have seen radium tanks and they dont look too overly blue...just about perfect. Who knows.

 

[rtbm]

I have a 150 watt 20k over my qt tank. I was the guy with the post about the 10k's as well. I have since put the old 20k back on the QT.

Anyway on a magnetic hqi. I believe it's an m81 Your radium 150's will look great. Color wise they are pretty close to the 250's on m80's. However once my corals eventually get under a 250 radium on an m80 ballast they color up significantly.

For what its worth.