What kind of MH bulbs do you prefer?

[dave3112]

I am setting my 75 back up and need to get new MH bulbs. I have tried aqualine, hamilton and ushio. I was thinking about going with ushio again but I wanted to see what everyones opinion on bulbs was. I don't know what color temp yet either 14K or 20K. Would you use supplimental atinics with 14K?

Thanks,
Dave

 

[Tomoko Schum]

I use 14K Phoenix bulbs without any actinic supplement and my tank looks very pretty with the light IMHO. I think it is quite comparable to the look of 10K MH with actinic VHO. Did you notice that some of John Newby's big tanks are lit with 14K Phoenix MH bulbs with actinic T5 bulbs?

The only drawback is that you cannot create the dawn and dusk effect without actinic bulbs, but it's not a big deal to me. I have the dawn and dusk effect on my 15G, but I am often not around the tank to admire it. I wonder if corals and fish miss it at all....

Tomoko

 

[kiran523]

I am using Phoenix 14K's with PC actinic supplementation. I am happy with it. Are you going to use 175 or 250's. If you are going to use T5 actinic supplementation then the Phoenix may get too blue for your liking. In that case you can look at the Iwasaki 14k(PAR monsters) whick I have heard burn with a more crisp white look if you want to try something else new.

 

[dave3112]

I am going to use 175 mogul socket because I already have the balasts and reflectors. Too close to Christmas to buy another high dollar fixture. But after.....

I will probably use T5 for the supplimental. I really don't like PC lighting.

 

[Tomoko Schum]

I don't like PC actinic supplement, either. My Ushio 10K was too strong against PC actinic supplement and the tank looked washed out.

I find John's T5 actinic supplement somewhat wimpy, too. Even with Phoenix 14K, John's tanks do not look too blue to me.

Tomoko

 

[DrHank]

I'm running 14K Hamiltons without supplementation and am happy with them too.

 

[stolaas]

I have the 14K Phoenix they look good, a nice blend between blue and 10K but I prefer more blue so I'll go 20K next time.

 

[Tomoko Schum]

Phoenix 14K makes the green color appear more vivid than XM 20K. I like both 14K and 20K. The only thing I miss is the intense neon blue color that 20K brought out on the bodies of my blue eye cardinals. However, the blue mushroom appeared more purple under 20K and it did not really intensify the blue and purple colors much on my blue acroporas. 20K is initially very blue, but after a few months of use, the blue spectrum of XM 20K mellows out. Then the only difference I noticed was the afforementioned effect on the blue eye cardinals. When I replaced my XM 20K (actually double end bulbs are called XDE) with Phoenix 14K, I noticed the brightness of the 14K light and the vivid yellow and green. Hamilton 20K (over 8Ball's old tank) looked the same as XM 20K to me.

Tomoko

 

[dave3112]

I think I might go with the iwasaki 14k with T5 atinics and see how well they do. My montis and acros that I have in the 46 gal right now are under 8 39w T5 bulbs and have great color but not much growth. So when I get the 75 going again I will see if the growth gets better with MH and T5 suppliment. Thanks for all the replies.

Dave

 

[eyebedam]

I really like the phoenix 14k as well Im running them on my nano. When its time to replace bulbs on the 180 they will be phoenix also.

 

[TheGriffin]

I switched to iwasaki 14k's from Hamlton 14k's about three months back. Growth seems to be much better with the SPS. The bulbs are a very crisp white and really intense. Even with my actinic T5 supplementation I miss the blue. I like the growth though so I will probably stick with them for about a year before going back to the bluer ones.