Reflectors and Bulbs... Feedback please!

[DGee]

I know this belongs in the lighting forum and already posted it there and got little to no feedback, so I'll try here and see if I can get some help.

So I'm setting up a tank we just picked up used to upgrade the mother in laws solana. The new tank is 36 x 36x 24

The tank now has a 400w ballast, PFO I'm pretty sure and NON HQI.

It has a crummy reflector and some sort of generic bulb, these will be the first things to replace.

On my personal tanks I have always run Bluewave ballasts and Radiums, as most of you know running radiums on a non HQI ballast looks like poop so I'm trying to get a similar look to my radiums on a non HQi ballast. Something that will be bright yet really make the colors pop like a 20k Radium

I'm stuck also on the reflector. I'm trying to decide on either the Lumen Max Elite or the Lumenarc III. Or a better suggestion?

So, I'd like some opinions and maybe even a few pictures to help decide on a bulb and reflector...

I'd like to find something thats a little "whiter" than the Radium and not more blue.

I've been hearing a lot about Reeflux bulbs lately, opinions?

 

[mixer911]

i am running a 250w reeflux 12k with a lumenbright 3 reflector. check out my build thread and you can see the pics. The color is a really nice white blue, the pics look bluer that it actually is. I have run Radiums on HQI m80 ballasts in the past and love that combo, but I figured i would give reeflux a try this time.

 

[jus chillin]

lumenbright is a awesome reflector..i personally like 14k but thats not the point.....

 

[Kshack]

The 400W Radium is not a HQI bulb. The 250W Radium is a HQI bulb. Since you have a 400W ballast, the Radium will be OK. May want to add the Lumenbright reflector to your short list.

 

[mixer911]

Kshack... you can run a 400W or 250W radium SE bulb with an HQI ballast. it overdrives the bulb and gives it a nice whiter glow. I used to run them for years that way and so do thousands of people on here. Just with his ballast it would not be the same coloration.