which bulb will u use???

[sps_dude]

getting new bulbs need you guys to help me decide....

[terryansimon]

depends on what you want to keep.

[sps_dude]

a full tank of sps........ running a 400 watter for a 3 feet tank...... so please vote and help me make my choice....

[ZeRoC00l]

Y no 14KK ???

Love the look since only have 1 MH over tank

Only 1 400W over 3ft?? You get some shaded areas.... 1 X MH effetively has a cover of 2ft X 2ft.

Else would like a iwasaki 6500 + 2 -3 radium to combine for a crisp white blue look

[sps_dude]

it is those victron type one...... i am using a 6500 k now... there is no dead spot on my tank./....... i would love a 14 k too... but there is no 14 k for a 400 watt fixture.......

[ZeRoC00l]

it is those victron type one...... i am using a 6500 k now... there is no dead spot on my tank./....... i would love a 14 k too... but there is no 14 k for a 400 watt fixture.......

Got leh Eaquanature:

Click Hamliton

[alanseah]

me using Hamliton 14k for my 250W.. love the look of it.. but come to pricing for the bulb it's too ex..

[andysho]

hi alan

how is the effect for the hamliton bulb?

[blueheaven]

Anyone have comments on the 10k bulbs compared to the 14k ones?

[prec]

pheonix 14k works wonders i tot?

[calvinci]

Yes, I am using 1 x 250w phoenix 14K and 2 x 150w BLV 10K, intensity and overall color is nice.

[bluesky]

Use hamilton 14000K. Looks OK. No complaint so far.

[iantoh]

when considering lighting, the key determinants are given by these three indexes: 1) light temperature; 2) colour rendering index (CRI), and 3) the lumens rating (that demonstrates the penetrative strength of the bulb.

natural sunlight is about 5000-6000k, 100 CRI, and the lumens varies on the depth of the water or reef area.

photosynthetic corals harbouring zooallanthae typically receive light of about 10000k temperature, that is, with most of the yellow and red wavelengths having been refracted out at shallower depths so only blue and whitish spectrums remain. at even deeper depths, light of above 10000k.

it is important to note though that colour temperature itself doesnt tell you much. a 10000k bulb one feet from you and one hundred feet from you will still both emit 10000k light but the further one is obviously of less strength and usefulness. hence CRI and lumens. CRI is measured as a percentile, with 100 being light of perfectly full spectrums (having all spectrums and as similar as possible to natural sunlight. for marine aquaria use, it is recommended by most marine aquaria authorities that you look for bulbs with CRI above 90. lumens is the penetrative ability or light strength of a bulb, and above 2000 will do for most tanks. typically, a T5 bulb is about 3000 i think. most lighting manufacturers do not specify their CRI and lumens ratings on their packaging so as not to disfavour themselves, but the better brands do.

if youre thinking of using flourescents, the coral sun brand is great as it gives you a range of 6500k to 20000k and a CRI rating of 96, though their lumens rating would be lower than 2000k. as rule, the more bulbs, the greater the lumens, so if youll need more flourescents per area for greater intensity than you would HO T5s, and correspondingly, more T5s to match metal halide lamps.

if youre keeping a mixed reef tank with corals and fishes from everywhere, most of which their original reef depths you are unsure about, id recommend one 6500k bulb and one 10000k bulb, both with as high CRI as possible. couple this with an actinic bulb with wavelength spectrums from 420nm to 475nm and youll fulfill most of your organisms lighting requirements.

if you envisage yourself in this hobby for long, and i hope you do; and if you can afford it, try out HO T5s. for a two feet tank, Wakai sells retrofits that cost about $80. they're good and can easily be refitted should you decide to upgrade either your tank or your coral types in the future as theyve been proven good enough even for sps.

hope that helps. there are alot of factors involved in lighting, so it can all get confusing, but if you observe the lightings of long term sucessful tanks, like many of those that have been posted by reefers on src, youll note the benefit of T5s and MHs. MH's are really strong though, and heat up above 100 degrees celcius, so i'd recommend T5s.

remember too that too much light can and will damage corals. the overproduction of oxygen by zooallathae within a corals tissue will poison the coral unless the change is gradual and the coral is allowed time to expel some zooallanthae to adapt to the lightings provided, so slow change is best too ya.

i just upgraded my lightings so ive still got all this jazz in my head- hope it helps.

cheers,

ian