Help me understand HQI Kelvin.....

M

myownkeeper

As some of you know im transitioning my tank into an sps tank. Ive bought a Odyssea 175W Metal Halide fixture. Im getting ready to buy my first bulb. So i need to get some advice on what brands, and Kelvin.
Im looking for a 175W double ended bulb, but not sure if i need 10K, 15K, or 20K. What are the differences in them, and what are the good brands?
Ive found some odyssea 175W bulbs on ebay for about 20 each. i always thought they were expenssive. Guess not, but do you get what you pay for?


Also have a thread about my skimmer decision. If you would like to give me your 2 cents about that as well.
http://www.dfwmas.org/Forums/viewtopic.php?t=57520


thanks
bryce :D
 
Guess not said:
You get what you pay for :D . My recommndation would be XM 20K. Hamilton, Ushio, Iwasaki are also good, Reeflux would probably be your cheapest option, but i'm not a fan of those. Don't buy ebay bulbs, you'll just end up trying to sell them a few hours later..
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The XM20K is a good color bulb... I've also used Phoenix 14K and Hamiltons 14K and 20K. I liked the XM better over all for the color it gave, but the Phoenix seemed to have more growth on the tank when I was running them. A lot will depend on the ballast though.... so my suggestion would be to find some used bulbs with no more than 3 or 4 months on them and try them all out to see what coloration you like best with that fixture.
 
I loved my Phoenix 14ks...nice color (I didn't run supplemental lighting) and good growth for the time I had them
 
Actually before I started listing all the brands, I should've noticed 175W DE bulbs are really nonexistent and odyssea seems to dominate in that field, might be your only choice there, unless you buy another setup.

On a different note.. wow they actually make 175W SE phoenix now, that's crazy.
 
Some people believe the 175w DE bulbs are really 150w that are overdriven by the ballast. I have never read anywhere that this was in fact the case.
 
well ive been told to run a 150W bulb in it but i kinda what as much strong light as possible. Why just run 150 when i could get an extra 25Watts.....
 
@myownkeeper wrote:
well ive been told to run a 150W bulb in it but i kinda what as much strong light as possible. Why just run 150 when i could get an extra 25Watts..... said:
As I stated above, some people believe that the 175watt bulbs are really 150watt that are overdriven to 175watt. As far as I know, odyssea is the only one selling a 175watt de bulb. As far as how good they are compared to other brands, I don't know. I do know I've run some $100+ bulbs and the $55 bulbs I use now appear to be just as good.
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so Opus, what should i go for? im realy only getting into sps for the Sunset monti, other monties and some colorful acros. but mainly the sunset, i want good growth and color. but don't need alot of heat or replacing bulbs all the time. But don't want to shell out 90+ bucks for a bulb i think around 50 is what im aiming for....
 
To make the monties glow, I would go with a 14k bulb. I'm running 2 14k bulbs plus 3 actinic/blue T5 bulbs on my SPS tank and the corals glow.

As for brand/wattage I'm not sure. I would check over on RC and see if they are using the Odyessa bulbs or if they are using 150watt bulbs.
 
14k phoenix are going to make them glow and grow, if you want even more growth and less glow, you can go with 12K reeflux. I'm more of a glow person :lol: so I take it all the way up to 20K.
 
I had my best growth with a AB 10k bulb but those are $$$ and they were too yellow for my taste. I personally didn't have much luck with the Reeflux 12k bulbs but the 10k were good.
 
The Aquamaxx bulb's are back on sale at Marine depot, they make a 14K DE bulb's as well that folk's swear look likethe radium 20K bulb's. They are on sale for like $33. I have owned that very same odyssea fixture, I put a killawatt on it and it was only drawing 150W.... not 175W. The ballast is only a 150W ballast and the cheap chinese bulbs are crap and will rapidly lose PAR after 3 to 4 month's. You will not convince anyone that one chinese company is making all of the 175W DE bulb's, and ebay is the only place to get them from. I would ask myself why none of the major bulb manufacturer's make a 175W DE bulb....maybe because they don't exist. :lol: Good luck

Cheers,
 
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