Anyone switched from XM to Reeflux?

A

afishfanatic

Membership Expired
It is time to replace my bulbs again, so I am conseidereing a change. I recently went to visit a another member's tank (Servo) and was very impressed with the color of the sps corals. I have been running 250W XM's for about 3 years and have been happy with them. I originally chose them because of the PAR and CCT. The Reeflux seems to be getting very popular so I looked at the specs on Sonjay's site and found that the 250 watt version is not very impressive, low PAR and high CCT. Servo's tank is running 400W Reeflux that looked great without supplamentation. My concern with going with these bulbs is that even though I would be moving up from 250 to 400, the PAR still drops from 137 to 129. I would be spending a lot more in electricity and excess heat only to lose intensity. Is it worth it?
 
They sell reeflux in 250's. Are you going with 10K'a or 12K's. I have 250 10k's but I do run supplement lighting. No need to go up to 400's if you don't have to.
 
to increase intensity you can also lower your halides closer to the water. I read the same article on reeflux 250 watt bulbs. One thing to consider. Do you like the color the bulb puts off? 12k i think is a middle of road bulb if you want growth I would be going 10k.

I like the color of the 12k looks like actinics are on but not as blue as 20k.
 
Dean, I've been considering the same thing but I just can't do it. I have to massively upgrade and have major one time costs (400W ballasts, etc) not to mention a bigger electricity bill to even get close to the PAR of my current setup. It's just not worth it to me. I like the reeflux's and they really seem to bring out some nice colors but it's just to expensive a tradeoff for me. If you do it let me know how it goes. I'm tempted to get some 250s and lower them way day (chiller working overtime) and see how that works.

I also have magnetic ballasts though so I don't think I'd get the nice colors out of the bulbs anyway.
 
I have my 250's about 8inches off the water. I usually leave my canopy open to releave the heat build up and my chiller still pops on every once in a while.
 
If you are considering moving up in wattage from 250 watts to 400 watts, I wouldn't just to use ReefLux bulbs. How are your corals doing under the XMs?
 
@Rick wrote:
If you are considering moving up in wattage from 250 watts to 400 watts said:
Rick the corals are doing great under the XM's, but just dont have the color I have seen in other tanks with the Reeflux bulbs. I am considering going up to the 400's so that I keep generally the same PAR and hopefully get that "pop" out of the blues and greens. The thing that makes me want to change is from my trip to Ryans house. I brought him a piece of purple montipora with brownish polyps from my tank that IMMEDIATELY changed to a vivid blue with red polyps. i could not believe my eyes that those bulbs make that big of a difference. Rick why would you not suggest the Reeflux?
Click to expand...
 
If you also changed to a reflector such as a Lumenarc, you will be very surprised at how much light you will magically gain. Rick told his story at the meeting about when he switched over to Lumenarc's. Much cheaper in the long run than going to 400 watters. imo

Cheers!
 
i have 10k reeflux and they are too white imho. in the pic they are supplemented by blue plus t5's, will eventaully switch some blue plus with actinics to see how that looks
 
Good point Ron. My problem is that I have an enclosed light box that sits atop my canopy. Because of the restricted space, I dont think an aftermarket reflector will fit.

clekchau,
What ballast are you using?
 
http://www.reefexotics.com/lumenarc.htm

they have different sizes....changing to higher bulb wattage will give you more intensity but if you dont have a good reflector to maximize the light going into your tank...you are just throwing electricity away.

if you have limited space a mini might work...either comes as a reflector only or reflector pendant setup
 
@afishfanatic wrote:
[I]@Rick wrote:[/I][quote="If you are considering moving up in wattage from 250 watts to 400 watts said:
Rick the corals are doing great under the XM's, but just dont have the color I have seen in other tanks with the Reeflux bulbs. I am considering going up to the 400's so that I keep generally the same PAR and hopefully get that "pop" out of the blues and greens. The thing that makes me want to change is from my trip to Ryans house. I brought him a piece of purple montipora with brownish polyps from my tank that IMMEDIATELY changed to a vivid blue with red polyps. i could not believe my eyes that those bulbs make that big of a difference. Rick why would you not suggest the Reeflux?"]

I would go to Sanjay's website and look for another brand of 250 watt bulb that might give you a better color spectrum than the XMs. You could find a different bulb that would give you what you want, without moving up to 400 watts.
I know I wish that I had bought 250 watt ballasts when I just changed all of my lighting. I would have saved a bunch more on electricity.
You can certainly get the color without moving up to 400 watts, i have seen tanks with 250 watts that have great color.
Click to expand...
 
I've been using ReefLux for at least a year now. I used to use XM. And they are 10,000K bulbs, with VHO actinic supplementation.
 
Kuyatwo - Thanks for the link, but they are all too big.

Marc are you still runnung 2 250W's and 1 400W? Also, are all 3 running Reeflux?
 
The 250w are 10,000K Reeflux, and the center 400w is a Radium. It used to be 20,000K XM, but I ran out and the other XMs were 15,000K (and ugly).
 
Rick, what kind of bulbs do you run? the search continues for a nice 10k bulb with no yellow or a higher kelvin bulb with lots or par.LOL
 
Dean did you decide anything here? I thik I'm going to bite the bullet and order Reeflux 250s when I replace.
 
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