MH Suggestions

[AndrewG]

I need to replace all the bulbs on my tank. I have 3 250W mh's and 4 96W Sunpaq's.

I am undecided on which route I want to go. My first thought is getting 3 XM 10k's for the MH's and 4 dual actinic Sunpaqs. I was thinking the 10k's will provide maximum growth while the actinics will counterbalance the yellow and bring out the color. I don't have much experience here so perhaps some of you know if this would work.

My other option was to go 1 XM 10k in the middle and 2 HM 14k's on the side and still getting the 4 sunpaq dual actinics. My thought here was that if the mh's were too overbearing for the sunpaqs I could soften them a little by adding the 14k's.

I have gone to http://www.cnidarianreef.com/lamps.cfm and checked out the PAR's. I've been impressed with the XM 10k rating. Another site I checked out is http://www.cnidarianreef.com/lamps.cfm It's interesting how one site rates HM's 14k PAR at 352 and the other at 218. Not really sure what to believe. I appreciate any feedback you may have.

[three90s&125sump]

I would just go with all 14 or 15k MH and the super actinics. I hate 10k bulbs though but, thats JMHO.

[AndrewG]

Do you not like the 10k color? Or do you think growth from 14k is sufficient?

[three90s&125sump]

Both.

[Schwaggs]

Lets not forget Sanjay's site http://www.reeflightinginfo.arvixe.com/

Do you have SE or DE 250w bulbs? I have 250W DE BLV 10Ks with T5 actinics and the color is real balanced. I don't get a lot of "pop" from the SPS coral colors but the LPS corals have colored up tremendously. Growth is good. This BLV bulb peaks at 420nm which is the peak of photosynthisis which yeilds pretty good PAR but not as much as the XM 10k. The next bulb I am going to try is the phoenix 14K which has a much larger peak at 460nm so the total effect should be more blue and more "pop" I am hoping. It has almost the same PAR as the BLV 10k so growth *should* be around the same...

[MattTVI]

Keep in mind that bulb performance changes depending on ballast as well...

par exampla (pun intended)...

10k xm 250w SE bulb w/ IceCap electronic = 115 ppfd
10k xm 250w SE bulb w/ M57 magnetic = 137 ppfd

hth,

Matt

[AndrewG]

I've decided to go with 3 250W XM 10k SE MH's and 4 Dual Actinic's on the 96W PC's. I'll let you know how things turn out. It's going to take awhile since I need to introduce the new bulbs slowly.