Type of/find MH bulbs ?
 

Well been trying to find some good quality SE MH bulbs (400w) for some time. Absolutely no luck. I really want to try the aquaconnect bulb in the 13000 range. Just wondering what some of you are running and happy with(Best quality for the money). I've been thinking of dropping down to an XM's 15000. Steve(reefraf) was good at this :biggrin:

I think you mean "Stir Crazy". ReefRaf is Brad.

Cheers,

Until someone who knows what they are talking about replys, here's a link :lol: http://www.reeflightinginfo.arvixe.com/

thank you :mrgreen:

yeah I like that site a lot.

What lights have you tried and what ballasts are you running? I find that the range of answers to this really runs the gamut because what one person likes may not appeal to another and even the same lights run on different ballasts can have different effects. Think Radiums run on probe starts versus pulse starts versus overdriven on HQI ballasts.

Although my big tank isn't setup yet, I am planning to run 400W Radiums on HQI ballasts. I have the ballasts, I have the lights and I have Lumenarc reflectors so it's all ready to go (I just don't have the basement ready for the tank). This look of Radiums-on-HQI is really one of my favourite looks for a tank but it seems to me it's no longer in favour by many. I'm not sure why that is, is it a cost issue or are Radiums simply a little outdated nowadays?

PM Jason at Proline, he should be able to direct you to someone in your area where you can get the Aquaconnect bulbs when they come in. Apparently they'll be another 2 or 3 weeks.

Gold's carries the Aquaconnect bulbs. Talk to Albert for those.
Don't buy the XM 15K bulbs. They are not great bulbs at all.

They had some at one point, but not lately.

Did you just get an update on this ? I've been looking for about a month now. Anyone have any info on stock on these ? I'll try Jason and see what he has to say.

Jason has had a problem with customs. They are coming, worth the wait IMO.

As I understand it Radiums are actually a 360 watt bulb either High pressure sodium or mercury vapour and they are run on 430 watt ballast that is designed to run the other of these two lights. Meaning, if the radium is a HPS then it's run on a MV ballast or if the radium is MV it's run on a HPS ballast. Either way it's overdriven by about 60 watts. I could be wrong, that's just the way it was explained to me.

Doug

That's only if run on a "HQI" ballast which is really a HPS "SonAgro" ballast at 430W, overdriving the lamp. If run on a pulse-start "ANSI M137" (or whatever it is) then it's closer to the 360 (and bluer and dimmer). The probe starts (M58) are probably somewhere in between (I'm not sure).

What's better about the Aquaconnect lamps? I haven't been following lighting trends lately. Seems there are about a billion different combinations out there...

Tony
What makes these bulbs so great is that ,usually you sacrifice par for color ,I find these bulbs to be a happy medium & also the bulb does not loose spectrum & intensity as quick as some other brands.
Here is a comparison of Aquaconnect 14k DE on Icecap Vs Geissmann 20k DE on Icecap
http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c2...c/untitled.jpg
on Pfo
http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c2...ectgeisPFO.jpg
as you can see it spikes a bit bluer & also has more than twice as much par.
after using this bulb for a while I noticed better color because of the new spectrum & also more intensity,many others have reported the same.
I think Rob here runs one & a few other people as well.
In Alberta Golds carries them
Bay side corals in Sask
Hidden Reef/J&l
I will update you guys when they land
Regards
Jason

i am currently running 3 400w aquaconnect 14k on lumen max 2 reflectors and these bulbs rock. i would totally recommend waiting til you can find the bulbs. i get amazine coloring of new sps in a week or two. i do not run actinics to supplement because the color range of the lights are amazing and give an awesome look to the tank. i had kind of expected too much blue with 15k but it is not the case with these. i forgot to mention i'm running them on icecap 400w electronic ballast. on sanjays sight they get an excellent par rating when used with the icecap ballast and i believe slightly better when using HQI ballasts but dont quote me on that.

Unfortunately I'm only running 1 Aquaconnect 400w 14,000k on my middle bulb while I wait for the 2 remaining bulbs.

Not a fair comparison, but the end bulbs are XM 10,000k, which are very yellow:sad: The Aquaconnect bulb gives a nice white, balanced look, not too blue as you would expect. Very natural looking!

As I promised to update you guys on this.
It is finally here:mrgreen: :mrgreen: ,Aquaconnect products (Bulbs ,Addtives ,Media,..) are in stock & will be shipped to stores on Monday.
Sorry for the long wait Gang it was out of our control ,The products were simply not available due to high demand in Europe & Asia.
Regards

Jason thank you for the e-mail and checked with Golds and ordered SE 400's 14000, can't wait to try. I'll keep posted.

One of my new 14000K Aquaconnect bulbs is really yellow, even after 3 days of burn in:frown: I don't mean like a 6500K yellow, but real yellow, even my rock looks yellow! Is this normal? Has anyone experienced this? Will it eventually even out to look like the other bulbs?

Going to pick up mine this week, so couldn't say for sure. I heard and read that they are on the blue side until after a few days of burning in. You have more than one ? Strange that they aren't the same color. I would check with where you bought it and see what they have to say.

I have 3 bulbs. 1 has been running for 2 months- looks gorgeous, 1 new one that is slightly blue- seems about right, and the 1 new one that is hideous yellow.

Well I picked up my Aquaconnects and must say I'm happy with them so far. One day and some tank residents also look like they are happier. Can't wait to see a little down the road. Wish I had a decend camera :confused:

Like I posted in anouther thread, here is a link that helped me sort out the big MH bulb selection.

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2007-04/jb/index.php

This is better:
Sanjay's Reef Lighting Pages

i like the 400w 14K reef flux bulb that i used to use on my 170,

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2007-04/ac/index.php
Here also is a little interesting article. The Phoenix, which is supposedly the same as a Aquaconnect, in the article showed little PAR drop after the first three months over the coarse of a year. I beleive you get what you pay for in a high end bulb.

Rob
Sorry for late reply ,I was away on holiday ,how is the bulb now my friend

The new bulb is gorgeous, just like the other ones. Very happy thank you!!:mrgreen:

Happy to hear,so how many days didit take to break into it's real color?

Oh, I thought you knew, Mike exchanged it for another one. The first one didn't change, it stayed yellow. All the other bulbs were blue from the start.

Here's a picture with the yellow bulb on the right.
http://www.excalibur.bc.ca/aquarium/slides/DSCF0020.JPG

reply
 

Good to hear, how blue is it?

I just ordered a 12K to replace my old worn out ARC 14K. I was told that the 12K is just as blue as the ARC 14k, but maybe not as blue as some other brands. Which is ok since I have new HO T5 actinics now. Anyone have experienve with the Reeflux 12K?