metal halide lighting?

[bluehd60]

i am very new to reef keeping. i currently run pc's but i have only soft corals, i am gonna be running a 250 watt metal halide. what is a good bulb to use and should i also run actinics? i is a ice cap 250 watt electronic ballast, and also i will be using a single ended bulb. what are some thoughts? thanks alot

[Cheetos]

If you run a 10K bulb you will definitely want some sort of actinics to balance out the yellow of the 10K. If you run a 14K or 20K which are more blue you might not need any actinics, IMO!

[bluehd60]

so then what is a good make of bulb? i was looking at the lighting website that contains sanjay's research to try to get some info to tell me what is a good bulb to use with my ballast but i am kinda confused. what is important ppfd, efficiency, etc?

[focus]

Big fan of phoenix 14k here. Decent par and nice color. Fairly cheap also.

[garyl]

I don't think you can go wrong with the IceCap ballast. I have the IceCap 250 with a single-ended Geissemann 14K. Very nice white light.

Gary

[Cheetos]

I personally like the XM 10K's since they don't seem as yellow as others but I guess it's a matter of personal preference. I think you will definitely need to run actinics no matter what 10K bulbs you use.

[jimmyj7090]

I agree the pheonix 14K's are a very nice place to start. They are one of the most popular bulbs these days and are very nice stand alone bulbs with deccent PAR for a white/blue bulb.

With sanjays pages, the PPFD (PAR) is the number you want to think about for intensity.

The K temp numbers tend to be kind of aproximate and vary between mfg's. Overall lower K will be way bright and way yellow (10K). High K will be blue but way less bright (20K). In between (14K) will be white/blue and be somewhere in between in terms of brightness. All that said, if you look at sanjay's spectral charts for different blubs you will get more info on how the light may look. For example one 10K might have a peak in the blue and a few peaks in the yellow and green wavelengths, while another 10K bulb might have lower peaks but a more even overall balance of wavelengths. Add to that, different ballasts will give you different intensitys and different spectral charts, on the same bulb (the spectral charts usually follow similar patterns for the same bulb on different ballasts, but there may still be some difference in the exact details).

Yes, it's awfully confusing.

Again, I'd suggest the pheonix 14k"s to start. If you like that look but want more intensity you can go to 10K's with actinic supplement. Want more intensity and are ok with a less blue look, just go with a lower K temp bulb. Want more blue, add actinc or try a 20K (caution, some 20K bulbs aren't necessarily much bluer). I also suggest the pheonix because so many people either are using them, or have used them, it makes it easy to communicate since most MH users know what your talking about when you say something like "I want just a little more blue than the Pheonix's", or I want a little more intensity than the pheonix's"...)

The best advice, visit peoples tanks and or visit stores that have a variety of bulbs on their tanks and see what look you like.

[bluehd60]

all of this advice is great thank you, but i am using single ended and i cant seem to find a phoenix single ended.

[newfish]

I like the South Pacific Sunlight but I only have 175 watt 10k but the 14k are good too. I get them at seaworld in salem nh

[jimmyj7090]

Oops I meant to ask SE or DE. The pheonix bulbs only come in DE. You might want to try the ushio 14K,s, they do come in SE and I've been hearing good things about them although sanjay hasn't tested them yet.

[APISTOBORELLI]

I run a 400W 20K with no actinic. I love the way it looks.

[devin mac]

I run a 400W 20K with no actinic. I love the way it looks.

i can vouch for that. :-)

[Billybob18]

I do not have my own reef tank at home with MH, but as an employee of Seaworld Pet, i deal with MH lights on a daily basis. I would recommend either a Aqualine Bushke bulb 14k or geissman 14K bulb. My personal opinion is that 20k color is just to dark and some corals do not like that deep deep color. On the other hand i blieve 10k's are just too white and the full colors of the corals do not come out as nice.

[cobraz]

I had the XM 250 10K's MH and just changed to the Pheonix 250 14K's MH - I do like the blue balance - everything is not so white and it beefs up the coral colors as well.

[Behrmon]

I had the XM 250 10K's MH and just changed to the Pheonix 250 14K's MH - I do like the blue balance - everything is not so white and it beefs up the coral colors as well.

What kind of Actinic sup do you have? I've been thinking of switching to the same bulbs from my 2x250 10K's but hate to spend all that money and not like the results.

[cobraz]

What kind of Actinic sup do you have? I've been thinking of switching to the same bulbs from my 2x250 10K's but hate to spend all that money and not like the results.

I have the Aquamedic 36" fixture 2x250MH and 2x34W Atinic - I also changed out the standard Aquamedic Actinics with Guismenns 34W Pure atinics... I will see if I can capture the true colors and post a pic - tonight.