Replacement Bulb Questions

[aquawolf]

It is almost time for me to replace the bulbs in my Coralife Aqualight Pro fixture. In the past I have always used Coralife bulbs as that is what the fixture originally came with.

I am now wondering if it would cause any harm to my reef inhabitants if I went with a different bulb manufacturer. I am still planning on keeping the same spectrum, 150 watt 10K MH and 96 watt actinic 03 PC, so does it really matter?

I was thinking about giving the Hamilton bulbs a try. Does anyone have any experience with these versus the Coralife? I tried looking on Sanjay's lighting page; however, it did not have these manufacturers listed in the comparison selections.

Any advice on this would be greatly appreciated, otherwise I will end up just playing it safe and going with Coralife again.


Edit: I thought I was placing this thread under the Lighting Forum. If a Mod could move it there for me I would appreciate it.

[aquawolf]

:bump: Anybody have any opinions on this?

[crvz]

Different bulb brands do give a wide variety of outputs, so it can matter. Do some research. But even if you keep the same brands, new bulbs could put out a lot more light than an older set, so be careful that you don't burn the corals in the tank. They're probably going to want some acclimation time to the new setup.

[aquawolf]

Thanks Chris. What would the recommendation for light acclimation be? Reducing the number of hours they are on for the day or actually using something to shade the tank? The last tiem I replaced bulbs I just put the new ones in and kept everything running as normal.

Are Hamilton bulbs any better than Coralife?

I also remember a few threads a while back about people getting really cheap bulbs from EBay, but there was quite a bit of controversy over that as well.

[Loverotties]

Most people like the hamiltons better then the coralife.

[OneDummHikk]

But why? What makes the Hamiltons better bulbs than the corallife? My fixtures all have Hamilton bulbs in them and I also am getting ready to replace them and not sure what brand to go to. Probably going to be a Hamilton simply because thats what is in them now.

[aquawolf]

Exactly why I am asking this question Randy. Why?

I hear a lot about Radium, Ushio, Reeflux, Phoenix, and so on but hardly anything on Coralife or Hamilton.

By the way, Hamilton is a sponsor of this forum and is having a sale right now so you might just want to check it out Randy.

[OneDummHikk]

I will have to check it out. Right now, I am looking at about 2 weeks before I do anything with the bulbs. Heck, I can't even stop it from leaking yet

[joker577]

Personally I'd go with the phoenix...I use 2x250 14000k and I love mine and I'm not sure how 10000k looks but i've never had a problem with them and on a 11 hour photoperiod they've given me over 10 months of service...I just replaced them and had 2 ordered from OF...with the 10% discount it made about the same as online prices which saves having to ship etc.

[aquawolf]

Thanks for the information on the Phoenix ones Brandon. That is the type of feedback I am hoping to get. I, for some strange reason, sort of thought that Phoenix was started to fall out of favor and some of the other bulbs were getting more press now. It is good to know that they are still good bulbs.

On a side note, I wonder what the impact would be of using a 14K bulb along with the actinic supplementation.

[Fat Tony]

I'm partial to the XM's and Radiums personally... but you know i'm more into the 20K look anyway..LOL

[aquawolf]

I wonder if 14K plus true actinics might not turn out to be more like running 20K.

[joker577]

On alot of places where I read alot of people still choose the phoenix