Thumbs up for venkiw!
 

I just received my 175W MH (x2) in the mail today from venkiw. They both arrived safely and packed well. I currently have one 175 Ushio on my tank I switched it out for one of the new bulbs and WOW! what a difference. The light appears a lot bluer to my eye and really brings out the colour in my tank (what little there is). I will try and get a comparison shot tonight with the Ushio once I get my other ballast hooked up.

here are the comparison pictures
http://www.canreef.com/photopost/sho...php?ppuser=510

Re: Thumbs up for venkiw!
 

When did you place your order? I've tried unsucessfully to contact Venki through PM to place an order.

I used paypal last saturday and recieved the bulbs thursday. I found he was very quick with his replys for me. Mabey he is away or something.

He also has his own forum (SunAquatics) on that Eastern Canadian reefing board people have been mentioning recently. Might get better luck there? :confused:

I just bought one of these bulbs and I am finding it very yellow. Does the bulb get whiter in time?

I spoke to someone last week that wasn't impressed with their bulb either. He said that it was even more yellow than his iwasaki bulb and was quite disappointed.

Christy :)

I have two 400W 10,000k bulbs. They fired up pretty yellow for the first 30 mins... after that, they are pretty white. Whiter then my ushio's.

Altho, I havent had many bulbs before (only my third set).

I guess the color varies from bulb to bulb? :confused: I will wait till the break in period is over then evalute. Right now my 175 10K bulb is more yellow than an Iwasaki.

I am disapointed so far with the 10K bulbs, they cast a green hue on my sand and are not near as intense as Ushio or AB's I have used, of course this is by visual but next week I will be doing my PAR readings to either confirm or not my visual beliefs.

I will be doing a review of all 3 bulbs (10K, 14k, and 20k) with pictures, PAR readings, and comparasons.

Steve

I am interested to see the results. I will definately keep an eye out for that post.

I must say shipping was great.. But I put the 10k 250 on and it looked like some one peed in my tank! :lol:

It'd have to whiten up a hell of a lot for me to tollerate it.. In fact I'd say it was more yellow/green then when I tried a 400w iwasaki..

I just fired up a 175W, 10000K bulb. Although I don't have much to compare it to, I find it very good. The bulb color is a bluish/white. It does not have any yellow coloration at all. It is considerably better than the older 10000K AB bulb I tried. :biggrin: :eek:

it very well could be the 175 ABs are a totaly different bulb from the 250 watt version, and I have not heard much good about the 175 watt ones.

Steve

I bought 2 175W 10,000K bulbs. One of the bulbs is really yellow (less than 10,000K) and the other bulb is really blue (more than 10,000K). Both are not as intense (visually) as my Ushio.

Nipple up? Nipple down? Short burn-in? :confused:
Has this article proved helpful to anyone? Does it contradict Steve? :wink:

Lighting Myths

OK, What nipple are they talking about?

Al

Probably not the nipple we would like it to be :biggrin: , but I think it is the little knob on the side of the capsule where it was sealed. :question:

For people with yellow or green coloration. Can you make sure the bulb is burning with nipple in horizontal position.

Thanks

Venki

do you mean pointing up venki? or do you mean to the side???
Thanks

I think a picture would be worth a thousand posts on this one if anyone is able.

Al

here here

I checked my light and the nipple was pointing up. I changed it so that it is on th side (horizontally) hopefully the light will turn white :confused:

the whole nipple thing is bunk and was proved in a following articke about a month after that. I have also burnt them in both ways and it makes no difference.

Steve

There was a couple of articles on this topic by Richard Harker in Advanced Aquarist (maybe the ones you were refering to Steve).


"Nipple Nonsense Revisited"
http://advancedaquarist.com/issues/mar2002/product.htm

"Nipple Nonsense"
http://advancedaquarist.com/issues/j...ductreview.htm


Alex

Would someone be so kind as to post a picture of this elusive nipple please :question: :question:

As to yellow coloration, and nipples. My bulb is in a pendant, so it is vertical, and if what I think is the nipple, it would be sideways. My bulb is on a new M57 ballast, and burned pee yellow for a couple of days. Today it has burned with the correct color all day. :biggrin:

Here's a picture of my newly setup 20H nano. under the new 175W bulb.

http://members.shaw.ca/rcipema/newbulb.jpg

Here's the same tank nine hours later. That is how the camera thinks it looks. It does not look that bad to me.
http://members.shaw.ca/rcipema/newbulbtwo.jpg

And here's the tank under 2X65W PC'c (one 10000K, the other actinic)

http://members.shaw.ca/rcipema/newbulbthree.jpg

Not hard to guess which way I will be going until I get this bulb orientation cured. :biggrin:

This is a picture from the article.

http://advancedaquarist.com/issues/mar2002/newbulb.htm

Bob, it is the pinched off part when they form the inner bulb as you thought previosly. the speculation was that the thicker part of the glass made the light less blue but further tests showed it didn't matter.

for what its worth a fan blowing on the bulb does affect the output color but I doubt most people would notice it.


Steve

yup they are.. that actualy shows that the color should be better with the nipple down (this is PAR output only as color was almost identical) so we should do the oposit of what Venkiw asked, BUT this is also assuming that you do not use a reflector, sence I have tested 6 different bulbs this way my self I can tell you that when you use a reflector of good quality there is virtualy no difference.


Bob, do you mean that your bulb are hanging up and down so that the screw part is up? if so you should try them horazontaly as these bulbs are not made for verticle use and this could be the source of your yellow on the AB's.

Steve

[quote="StirCrazy"]That is the way they are oriented in the Coralife pendant. I have no choice in the matter, because that is the way the pendant is made :sad:

that first pic looked like I would expect from a 10K bulb, a little actinic and your corals will POP out and look awsome, the second pic , mine look like that for about 20 seconds when they start up and then they go whiter over about 3 min.

the last pic is a nice color but lacking the intensity of the MH. Do you have a pic of these pendants Bob?

Steve

If you look on J&L's site under MH lighting, Pendant & Reefsun lights, then look at the Hamilton Bell Pendant, it looks the same as the Coralife pendant I have. I think Energysavers (coralife) will also have pics.

Would you be so kind as to tell me on what you base this statement :question:

I have a bell shaped pendant of which I am sure Coralife has sold thousands over the years. It is a MH pendant which originally came supplied with a Coralife 5500K bulb.

In short who says the bulb I have is nor made for vertical use :question:

I am not using the light anymore, because I don't get the ripple effect I got the light for. And the ripple effect is the only reason I would like to use MH light :eek:

As far as color and intensity goes I am very happy with the 2X65W PC fixture that is on the tank now.

if you look at bulb listings they will say weather they were designed for verticle, horazontal, or both. Given the shape of AB, USHIO, SA, and several others they were designed for horazontal use. normaly the bulbs that are ment for use in a hanging pendant are pear shaped with a large surface area at the bottom.

if you look at this bulb for example it is ment to be verticle with the base up and only a 15 degree variation is allowed
http://ecom.mysylvania.com/sylvaniab...19163302388End

this is aslo a factor because the shape of the glass cann affect the amount of PAR and the color out put of the bulb.

there are a few desagnations BU is base up, un is universal and I think H is for horazontal but I will have to double check that one.

Steve

OK excellent, you win this argument, if indeed it was an argument. I am assuming then that the bulb sold by Venki, which has a shape similar to the AB bulb I have is not meant for vertical operation (sorry about all the correct spelling :biggrin: )
I am not using the bulb at this time because I am perfectly happy with the PC fixture. I have asked someone to whip up a temporary fixture so I can rid myself of the bell pendant. If he agrees we will test it out and let you know what we find. :biggrin:

cool, I do like the pic of your tanks with the PC's the best.. I think if you could get the MH going with a couple good actinic tubes it would give you the same color though.. mind you the power usage would be a little higher.

Steve

For sure, I feel the same way. I am getting the best color rendition on my zoanthids, and the polyp extention on the few Digitata in the tank is very good. I think I will give the tank some time to settle in and see how things go. I am looking forward to a good chance I will get some Cyano, because most of the 2" sandbed is new, but I can deal with that if it happens. :biggrin:

Just a forwarning that after 3 weeks of going through ever box that was not yet unpacked looking for my mulitmeter, I finaly found it.......out in the trailer :rolleyes: so PAR tests and pics will be comming soon.

Steve