Coralvue or Radium
 

Down to two choices for the lighting over my cube.

1. Coralvue electronic ballast w/dimming capability, {good for acclimatizing}, 250w 12K Reeflux bulb & Lumenarc pendant.

2. PFO HQI ballast, 250w radium, PFO pendant. {Steve,s suggestion, :smile:}

Thats it. :lol: Although I still look at this nice 150w HQI plus normal actinics down at the store. I still say it looks brighter than most 250w bulbs over 10K. :smile:

Thoughts or experience,s welcome.

I really liked the Radium, HQI ballast with Lumenarc pendant. I ran two of them over my previous tank. Absolutely loved the look. I also think Radiums look way better on an HQI ballast vs Electronic.

I was thinking of the PFO pendant w/the Radium, as it quick connect matches the ballast. Could use the Lumenac though.

Only reason for considering the 12K Reeflux, is I read they run their best on the CV electronic and give a really good par rating. I,m still looking for where I found that. :lol:

I'm currently running two Radium 250 watt 20K's on a PFO HQI ballast and am rather pleased with the overall colour. In my opinion, its more like a 15K colour temp than 20K but I seem to get better growth out of the radiums than with any other 20K I've tried in the past.

Do you get a decent bulb life with the 250,s & HQI ?

Doug, the HQI ballast in a 250 will actualy give you better life than a probe start ballast and about the same as a pulse start.

Steve

Well doug whit the 250's that i ran on the aqua medic electronic ballast you saw how bright the 13 kmegachrome bulbs were the 14 k were pretty good thou. you i take it that you went back to the 45 gal cube. again i see:mrgreen:. I remember that when you had the 225 upyou had the 400 w radiums going with blue line ballast. you like the color there ,why not go back to it. or are you looking to stay with the 250 range... or use the 250 range with the radium

Thanks Steve. I know you like that combo. So nobody uses or likes the new CV ballast & 12K reeflux combo. I,ve been looking for the Rc thread but my IE is not working correct when bringing up a search there or even trying to bring up my messenger e-mail??

Hi Mike.

I wasn't overly impressed by the Reeflux Bulbs when I ran them.

Neither was I, but I ran mine on a normal PFO ballast. I still think I read someplace that the CV electronic drives them real well but sure cant find it again.

ok. I ran them on standard mag ballasts.

I can also vouch for the Radiums on HQI ballasts.. DAMN they look nice.

Why can't you do the HQI/Radium combo with a Lumerarc reflector? The PFO isn't a bad reflector at all but it ain't no lumenarc.

No reason. I was just looking at the PFO, as its wired for the ballast/pendant combo, instead of wires sticking out everywhere to hook up and at more cost.

So going over performance data tonight;

Iwasaki 175w 15K, w/electronic...86 PPFD, Reg. ballast..71 PPFD

Radium 250w 20K, w/electronic...66 PPFD, HQI ballast..85 PPFD

Iwasaki still is best bang for a buck, but guess the problem with them is as someone mentioned before, if you dont happen to like the colour, you're stuck.

Here,s an interesting value,

Sun Aquatics 250w 10K...w/electronic...104 PPFD...with a regular ballast 111 PPFD :surprise: I use to run the 14K in this bulb abd thought it lacked in par. Heard the 10K was a good one but never looked it up before.

if you remember my lighting comparisons between AB, radium and SA the AB was the best, followed by the SA 10K, then the radium, then SA 14K then SA20K this was all on a HQI ballast. problem with SA is the owner screwed me over so I have a personal beef with him, but the bulbs were good, although some problems with consistency in color. but I think he released a 12 or 13 K to mimic the AB color which is absolutely my favorite bulb.

Steve

I would go with the coralvue ballast, lummenarc reflector but for a bulb I would use a 14K 250w Phoenix. I have a galaxy ballast with lummenarc pendant and 14K 250w Phoenix (cost 400$ new) and I can not say enough good things about this bulb and reflector, its very blue and crisp for a 14k bulb.

Probably seen this picture before but I'll post it again, its my frag tank with the above combo on it for lighting.

http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/j...m2/reef025.jpg


And a up close shot

http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/j...2/DSC00892.jpg


Thanx

Sean

I have 2 -250 w Phoenix 14k bulbs over my tank and in 2 weeks my browned out corals coloured right up including some frags which I purchased that were previously under 12k 400 w Coralvue bulbs. One of the montis is now such an insane blue that it almost looks fake. I bought them at OA and will definately buy them again. Does anyone know the par value on these bulbs?

http://www.reeflightinginfo.arvixe.c...&Submit=Search

Thanks fkshui ! Mine are on Coralife ballasts which I think probably aren't the best. If the ballasts die ,I'll try Pfo hqi seeing I have a new one sitting in the box.

Well the ballast & reflector decision is done. :lol:

Purchased the 250w Galaxy ballast & a Reef Optix reflector. I was looking at the Lumenarc type reflectors but got a good deal on the combo. Thanks Quinn.

Still looking at bulbs. I may borrow a SA 10K for now. Seems many running the Galaxy/Radium combo on Rc but most seem to be 400,s. Not as bright as the HQI but pretty nice looking.

Funny you mention the SA 20K Steve. It has pretty impressive par on electronics. Much more than the 14K and more than the Radium.

Thanks for all the posts.

ya it is a misreading by the sensor. heavy blue in the right range will scew the results a bit depending on what is used to measure it.

Steve

Ok. He never had any 20,s in stock anyways. Likely run the 10K for now but will have to be very careful with my corals if going to that high par of a bulb. If the 14 had a little more par, I would start with one of them but just to low. We were talking about switching to the Reeflux 10K later, as apparently they run with a hint of blue as compared with the SA 10K but I assume a bit less par also.