Spare 20K Halide?

[coral_reefer_25]

Does anyone have a spare 175 Watt 20K Metal Halide bulb that I could try out? I'm wanting to change my lighting, but I'd like to see how different bulbs look on my tank.

I currently run a 14K (XM brand) and it is too blue. I want a very crisp white.

I just tried a Hamilton 10K and it was very green/yellow. Really made the algae sort of "glow" on the back wall of my tank!!

 

[gflat65]

A 20K is going to be very blue, if the 14K was too blue... You might want to try an Iwasaki 15K. I fired mine once (my dual ballasts over the 120 won;t fire them, so looks like it's time to swap ballasts...) and they were pretty crisp. Much less blue than the 12K's (and while I haven't seen them side by side, but I'd bet even less blue than my XM 15K's).

 

[coral_reefer_25]

I've read and seen that the XM bulbs are more blue than most other brands with even higher Kelvin ratings.

Anthony Smith uses Radium 20K's and they are much "whiter" than my 14K XM. I would borrow one from him, but he runs 400 Watters.

 

[rsteagall]

The Kelvin scales of these different manufactures definitely need calibrating! ***.... do they all rate them by "eyeballing"???? Even then... I guess that may be subjective to the amount of alcohol the guy rating them had the night before.

Its ashamed you can't trust the K rating thats advertised.

 

[phudeb]

The best bulb (white/crisp) for a magnetic 175W I've found will be Ushio 10K. Stil needs suppliment IMO.

 

[coral_reefer_25]

rsteagall....yeah....it definitely makes it difficult when you're trying to pick out a bulb.


Phudeb,

How does a Hamilton compare to a Ushio? I thought they were pretty close.

 

[gflat65]

An Ushio 10K has very little blue in it. You'd notice a major difference. I ran 175W 10K Ushio's and VHO's for years and got great color. You gotta have the VHO's, though, IMO. The 10K Ushio's have alot more of a yellow tint than than blue, but aren't anywhere near as yellow the 250W DE AB 10K's (they look more like 7-8K). ushio's with VHO's may be just what you are looking for. That is essentially what fishdoc runs (I think he got rid of the PC's, but not sure-he was running VHO, PC, and 10K Ushio's).

 

[gflat65]

To add to this, the comparison of the 400W with a 175W in terms of color will not translate. A 250W SE 10K Ab has more of a 13K look, where the 250W DE AB 10K is more of a 7-8K. The color of the bulb is going to be largely influenced by the ballast it is being burned on. If you find a 20K 175W that is yellower than a 14 or 15K, let me know because it may be exactly what I'm looking for, too (would only have to wrestle with differences in par). Just not sure such an animal exists...

 

[coral_reefer_25]

I'm running an ARO electronic ballast....I'm going to try to find a 20K bulb that I can take a look at in my setup. I'll let you know what I find if I an get my hands on one.

Thanks Gary.

 

[CKreef]

I have an ushio 10k

 

[coral_reefer_25]

How old is the Ushio, CK? And how often are you in Nashville?

 

[CKreef]

its 8 months old

 

[coral_reefer_25]

Has it begun to turn? I know they start to shift their color spectrum after nearly a year...

 

[CKreef]

it looks the same to me maybe a littke yellow but it would give you an idea

 

[Angela Short]

My new 10K 175 XM's freaked me out when I first installed them. It was freaky yellow to the point I thought it was a bad set of bulbs. My back glass glowed also! The alage was florecent! I gave it a while to burn in and love the color now, not even the same look as it did the first few weeks. My 80 was perfect IMO with the 10k XM's and 195 watts of actinic PC's. My 175 hamilton 14k's were way to blue is why I swapped. The tank is so much brighter and the corals seem to like the 10K better.

 

[Angela Short]

BTW I have my old 14K hamiltons if you want to see them running.

 

[platax88]

I have a 175 Watt 20 K xm you could try out... although its over a year old.

I personally love the look of the 20K ... i run them without supplementation

 

[coral_reefer_25]

Angela, maybe a 14K Hamilton will be more of what I'm looking for. I've read that the XM's are just more blue than most other brands at the same K rating. I'm really looking for that "brighter white" appearance...and the 14K XM is just too blue.

Have you seen a 14K XM to compare to your Hamilton?




Plataxx, if the 20K XM is any more blue than my 14K XM, that should be like running actinics.

 

[Angela Short]

I personally thought the 14K hamiltons were to blue but each is own Cory liked the more blue 14's but I like the 10 XM's. They are way brighter than the 14K hamiltons I had and with some Actinic suplimintation they were perfect for my taste. If you were close and could bring it back in a day or so I could let you borrow my 10K XM's that are burned in and true to there color. I am only running them a few hours re-acclimating my corals and could just use the old 14s for a day... I will PM you my #

 

[coral_reefer_25]

Angela,

The 10K XM is awesome. I really like the brightness of it, but it does need some actinic supplementation. I really like the way it penetrates down to the bottom of the tank though.

Now I just have to find some actinics to go along with the 10K. I really would like a 75W VHO, but I have a Workhorse 7 and I'm afraid that it will over drive one bulb, but I'm afraid that two VHO actinics will put me in the same boat as with the single 14K XM.