Light Bulb K ratings

[manderson0805]

I have a 192w and a 96w Jalli on my 46 bow. The 192 has 1 96w actinic, and the other a daylight. The single 96w is a daylight also. The daylight bulbs are 7100k. The tank doesn't look that bright, and almost kind of yellow. Would a 10k bulb be brighter? I have heard to go to a 10k, but this was from a 15 year old with no SW experience, besides working at a lfs. Thanks

[Buzz_Hog]

Yes... a 10K will take out the yellowish in the light and bring it closer towards a blue white...

I have a couple of 18K bulbs and they look great...

[Doug1]

Caveat Emptor, there are no binding standards for Kelvin ratings of light bulbs
As a rule the higher the Kelvin rating of a bulb the lower the PAR and lux output.
The other thing to remember is that the way we see visible light may not mean squat to reef inhabitants. The 6500K Iwasakis always seem to score high in PAR(photoactiveradiation) whickh is important for growth. The true actinics that are heavy in light waves in the 420 nanometer, cause awesome floourescence and may be of some use to photosynthic inverts. If you use a couple different lamp types you will prolly be ok, ie MH/VHO or MH/PC