Anyone use Sun Aquatics 14K bulbs?
 

Has anyone tried using the 400 watt 14k bulbs from Venki? and/or is there a data/spec sheet on them somewhere that someone can point me to.

I'm also curious about the 400 watt 20k bulbs, any difference comparing them to the radiums? (other than price)

TIA
Bill

I dont believe anyone has been shiped the 14K or 20K out west, they will be available in stores shortly. UnderWorld Aquatics is now the exclusive west coast distributor for Sun Aquatics. (BC, WA, OR, CA.) They will be in your local stores shortly.... I will post Spectral analysis charts in the near future

Re: Anyone use Sun Aquatics 14K bulbs?
 

yes I have tried the 14K bulbs (250 watt though) and they are more like a 19K in my opinion. I have just put 100 hours on them to break them in and tonight I put the 10K bulbs in (yes I bought two 20K two 14K and two 10K befor christmas to run trials on)

as for the 20K bulbs I would say they have a touch more purple than the radiums but the 14K remind me of a radium a lot.

now these are the 250 watt versions but the colors should be the same.

next week I will be doing PAR comparasons and the like as all the bulbs will have 100 hours on them and be broke in.

Steve

I thought Venkiw said it was J&L?

Steve

J&L sells them, we are the distributor, we will be supplying to J&L and the rest of western north america, (places listed), we dont sell to the public, that would put us in competition, with our customers...

are there any other store that will be carrying sun bulbs other than jls?
king ed? aqua fan? ocean aquatics? big als?

to be announced in the near future...

So maybe you should tell venki to do like you and stop selling them on ebay :rolleyes:

So we can expect the bulbs to cost the same as Ushios and Radiums soon? China to distributor in Montreal to distributor in Vancouver to store, what's the markup going to be?

STOCKPILE!

Do I smell a price increase? :rolleyes:

Just2Bad,

Ebay sales are not for Canadian Buyers and will be valid only until US dealers stock our items.

Venki

Of course there is a price increase, but it is a very reasonable one. The prices the bulbs were first offered to you for were ridiculously low, and would not pay for costs alone. Venki offererd them at a huge discount to get the product out in your hands, that has happened and now retail outlets will be carrying Sun Aquatics products... As mentioned in another thread, the halides will sell for around a very reasonable $75.00CND retail, that is in most cases, less than half the price of any other comparable bulb sold in the lower mainland.

Still waiting to hear who all is going to be carrying them. I was in at King Ed and asked them about the bulbs they told me they've never heard of them so I assume they haven't been contacted.

Doug

Give it a few weeks before product will be available at stores for retail sales.
Thanks for you patience...

Weeks??? but I've got $$ burning a hole in my pocket... sheeesh..

Just kidding I never have excess money, I'm looking forward to trying them out, I need a couple of 175 watt bulbs


Doug

lol, we are trying to get our products in your local stores as soon as possible, our money already burnt through our pockets...lol

I can well imagine, I once looked at running a mail order supply business out of my home, the cost was staggering. Even with no store front it would have meant a huge out lay of cash.

Doug

you'll be waiting even longer then as SA doen't curently make 175 watt bulbs :confused:

Steve

175 Watts 10kK (SE) – Bulb
250 Watts 10kK (SE) – Bulb
400 Watts 10kK (SE) – Bulb
250 Watts 14kK (SE) – Bulb
250 Watts 20kK (SE) – Bulb
400 Watts 14kK (SE) – Bulb
400 Watts 20kK (SE) – Bulb
250 Watts 10kK (DE) – Bulb
250 Watts 14kK (DE) – Bulb
250 Watts 20kK (DE) – Bulb
Electronic Ballast 250 Watts
Electronic Ballast 400 Watts

these are our current offerings

See now I'm excited, I want I want...

maybe a 14,000k 400watt... hmmm...

Doug

crap 72 bucks a bulb
was hoping for 10-15% price increase i guess not

I should have bought a few more while the price was right,still not a bad price if you consider the going price for the same bulb.Lets just hope they dont keep going up.

Jim

Props $72 for a MH is pretty good, considering what they normally go for. Just think of it this way, for $146 bucks you can buy a Ushio 250 watt MH Bulb @ 10,000k, or for $144 you can buy two of these ones, sounds like a good deal to me.

Doug

250W - Mogul Metal Halide Bulb 10000K Ushio $146.00

250W - HQI Metal Halide Bulb 10000K Ushio/AB $149.00

250W - Mogul Metal Halide Bulb 20000K Radium $126.00

400W - Mogul Metal Halide Bulb 10000K Ushio $159.00

400W - Mogul Metal Halide Bulb 20000K Radium $126.00

These are the prices you are used to paying for your halide bulbs, to have the same quality bulbs available to you at $72-$75, at your convience, at your local stores, I cant even fathom how one could complain...

heck for that price I'll take two... or three...

Doug

That's better than the $126 I pay per Radium now so its all good :mrgreen:

proven bulbs? I think it will be a little while till you can compare with the others. What is the par going to be in 6 months? these haven`t been around long enough to say they rate with the others. jmho. ps I`m running 2 myself

I think from my observations so far you are a little out of your league comparing the SA bulbs against USHIO and AB. I for one at this point would gladly pay the extra money for a AB. :rolleyes:

oh well at least when I go to sell these bulbs I know I will get my money back for them as they will be cheeper than the stores.

the one bulb I do like by SA so far is the 14K but it is to blue for my liking.. it looks identicle to a radium bulb and if Adam can ever get over here with his 250 watt radium I can do a comparason pic on them.

look on the board for PAR values in the next week as I will start testing at the begining of next week.

Steve

when you test will you make sure we know how many hours on them?

At ~$40 it was worth the risk of receiving a bunk product from China versus one for $150 made to high standards in Germany. For ~$80 it may not be. It will be interesting to see how they stand up after they are in wider use for a longer period of time. I will be trying them regardless.

yes there will be 100 hours on each bulb give or take a few hours. this is the point where they should be broke in so all inital color shift and such should be complete. Also this should be the point where the bulbs will be at there highest out put for there usefull life.

the 10K's are the last bulbs to be broke in and they will be at 100 hours some time saturday evening.

as for referance bulbs My AB's have about 7000 hours on them and I will get a aprox age of the Radium when it comes over to visit.

Steve

Steve, when you're testing the bulbs do you align the nipple on the inner sleeve to the upright position? One guy at a hydroponics shop told me that they usually burn better in that position rather than having that little nipple down or to one side. I'm not sure if he's pulling my leg or not but I thought I'd ask.

Doug

Doug I've heard that before but someone (now I can't remember who, it may have been Van Down By The River) told me that it was BS... I'm no electrician but I'd be interested in the reasoning behind it.

Well I think that it will be an interesting turn of events!

I purchased some 10k venture bulbs when I bought my system on ebay. I paid roughly $45 USD for the bulbs which came out to about $80 after shipping, exchange, etc. My logic was that since I was laying out so much money to build the system that I had to scrimp somewhere. At the time the Ushio's were around $160 per bulb, so even if the ventures were absolute crap and had to be replaced after 6 months I was still doing just fine.

While I agree that the SA bulbs will need time to be truly compared to the quality of the German bulbs, I believe that the same logic, to a certain extent, holds true. The area of interest that I will be most curious about is if a bulb has a problem, will it take weeks to remedy or days. Hopefully with a distributor nearby it will be the latter!

Best,

Rob

thats bunk, makes no difference at all (I tried it when the article came out and everyone thought it was true. however cooling the bulb will make a slight difference but not much.

Steve

not nessasarly, I noticed a huge increase in color and growth when I went from a 175 to my present set up.. this could be the same thing where if the bulb you scrimp on has 1/2 the PAR out put of the expensive bulb you might never realize the full potential of your corals.

Steve

Thanks Steve of course it's bunk, it took me about 45 minutes to set my mogul so my bulb would let that little nipple sit upright... lol oh well.

Sometimes it's hard to justify the cost of MH bulbs, but, when you see the growth exibited by the corals after changing to a better bulb it's hard to argue the point. Once the reef is stocked the bulbs don't seem so expensive, it's just while you're stocking the reef EVERYTHING is expensive.

Doug