Which bulb with HQI

[schwebb]

Can someone simplfy the bulb choice. I have a 400 watt hqi ballast. The fixture has 2 Small vho's for actinic. This is the first time I've used an HQI ballast. My tank is a 90 gallon cube. I don't know what all of the bulb value mean. (Par Lux etc. ) From what I gather a 20k bulb will have look of a 10k. So why would you want an HQI ballast that will over drive a 20k bulb and get the look of a 10k bulb? Wouldn't you just get a regular ballast and get a 10k bulb? Someone please make some sence out of all this

 

[chadfarmer]

get 2 vho acitinic bulbs

and pick a 10k bulb and you should be set


you have the best of both worlds high par with the 10k and the blue to bring out the colors in the corals

 

[schwebb]

I'll go with the actinics for sure. The big question is if the 20k bulb look slike a 10k bulb while useing an HQI ballast, why would I want to use a 10k? Are the values on a 20k better than a 10k bulb on an HQI ballast?

 

[moonpod]

The kinda "classic" combo albeit the bulbs don't last long is the Radium and the 430 HPS ballast.

 

[Don Berry]

You have a variety of options with DE bulbs. 20K's do tend to burn less blue on HQI ballasts, but they are not going to look like 10K bulbs. It will also depend on the brand of bulbs. Some are diffently more blue than others. There are some DE 10K's that burn a nice white and there are other bulbs like the Phoenix 14K that burns pretty white with a hint of blue on a HQI ballast.

 

[schwebb]

I guess I forgot to mention I'm using a single end bulb