EVC Tech Bulbs - Anyone using them?

[goodfortune]

Hello Everyone:

Another club member and I were talking about MH bulbs a little while ago, and they told me about the EVC Tech bulbs, which I believe are relatively new on the market.

I'm toying with the idea trying the 250W EVC tech 14K DE bulb; I'm currently running an XM 10K SE bulb on an IceCap eBallast. The XM runs fine and burns a nice crisp white, but I would like a little more blue (I am supplementing w/ ~130 watts of Actinic 03), plus I am wary of going with a higher K bulb because of the loss of PAR.

Is anyone here using the EVC techs? If so, what do you think of them in terms of coloration and coral growth?

Thanks in advance for any responses!

- Michael

[wildemon]

Michael, I have a low milage [1 month] 250 DE 14K bulb if you want to try it. I actually prefer the XM 10K. Call.

[dme330i]

Micheal,

The 14K's have great color (bluish white) but the compromise is lower PAR. I'm running 14K's on all three pendants and have had decent growth. I just ordered a 10K bulb to see if I can get better growth without too much compromise in looks - it will be here tomorrow.

Here's the 2/05 article with EVC test results (the 10K bulb puts out some outstanding numbers).

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issu...5/feature.html

[goodfortune]

PM'ed William; though I think I might try replacing one of my actinic 03s with a 7100K, in the vein of the recent thread: http://www.thereeftank.com/forums/sh...ad.php?t=49374
- Michael