Reeflux 12K.... It's a nice bulb! (my personal review)

[ckusnierek]

*** I am by no means a bulb expert, nor do I have any affiliation with any manufactures. These are just my opinions (as a simi-novice) and thought they might be helpfull for somone trying to decide on a new bulb. I wish there had been more personal reviews while I was looking...

SO a few weeks ago I started the search for new MH bulbs.

I had a few requirements:
Under $75
"decent" PAR
Crisp white/blue, but not two blue....

I think I found it in the 250w Reeflux 12K SE.

I have had XM 10K (too yellow for my taste)(and bleached come LPS)
Hamilton 14K nice color/growth but bad quality.... after 6 months the bulbs started pulsing from yellow to blue.

While researching a new bulb I really liked what I was seeing with the reeflux 10K and 12K. I was scared the 10K might be a bit yellow for my taste. I chose the 12K. After receiving the new 12K I started second geussing my decision and almost returned them for the 10K. I decided to keep them. I'm glad I did. I really like the bulb, GREAT color! I'm seeing blues and greens that I never saw before and my tank looks better than ever before.

I was leary about this bulb after seing Sanjays testing and the poor PAR output. know that Coralvue recently redesgined these bulbs and they are now made in Japan and not China. I was hoping that all those tests were on the older versions of the bulb. I think they are.
(My IceCap ballast has also been redesigned since the tests)

The testing showed the Hamilton 14K having a much higher PAR than the Reeflux 12K. The Hamiltons were only 8 months old when I replaced them and still had lots of life in them. When I put the Reeflux in I thought they would be much dimmer. They are not IMO they are much brighter than the Hamiltons. I thought "OK, lets see how the corals react" I'm pretty sure they like it I thought my corals had nice color before... now they POP even more. Brown areas have really colored up and I had some "German Blue/purple" Digi that was totally brown and now (in only a few weeks) has really got nice color and is getting better every day. there are also a few acros at the top that are bleaching under the new lights and were almost brown under the Hamiltons...

All in all I think it's a great bulb for the money.
It's not going to give you insanely fast coral growth but they do grow nicely. ( In a 75g I really dont want them to grow too fast anyway)
And if you like a crisp blue I think you will like this bulb

any way this is my opinion of the bulb...
If your looking for a new bulb use this review as a tool for choosing...

[Loverotties]

Can you do a before and after pic?

[aquawolf]

Thanks for this review Chris!

I actually posted a new thread recently because it is about time for me to replace all of my bulbs in my Coralife Aqualight Pro fixture. I have always used Coralife bulbs just because that is what it came with, but was considering switching to Hamiltons.

This may be just the ticket as I was also worried about going with a 14K plus my actinics, but a 12K with actinic supplementation may be a really good combination and not way too blue.

Even if it doesn't help anyone else out, I am glad you posted your review of the bulb. Thanks again!

[ckusnierek]

Originally Posted by Loverotties

Can you do a before and after pic?

Check back later and I will post some.

[ckusnierek]

Just FYI. I wanted a bulb that I did not need to run atinics with. I am not running atinics....

[ckusnierek]

Here is a example of the color change.
Here is a pic of a unknown acro and a stag.
They are both pretty brown



And here they are after 3 weeks under the new bulbs....
see all the blue in the stag, the green digi frag has nice color and the orange digi (bottom) was almost brown too...


Here is the acro now almost no brown with blue and greens


Just a random shoot Tricolor on top right
no FTS with new bulb yet..
The pics came out much darker then it really is...

[Fat Tony]

Chris what type of fixture/retrofit/ballast is this on?

[ckusnierek]

Originally Posted by Fat Tony

Chris what type of fixture/retrofit/ballast is this on?

I'm running 2 Icecap 250w ballasts (the newer style)
Sunlight Supply Reef Optix II reflectors
It's a retro....
Bulbs are 8" from water

[shaggy420]

nice, i am running 2x250w over a 50 g and havent yet found the combo i liked that had no actinics. this bulb color looks great IMO and looks liek it is definitely worth checking out. too bad i just bought an sps 20k a few weeks ago. my SE needs to be replaced though =)