Anyone with 400W 20K's...
 

Trying to decide which way to go on my upgrade. I want to do SPS, Clams & some LPS. Anyone here sporting the 20k's? Any Pictures? Could I come & see your systems? The few systems I've seen online look very nice with great colored SPS.
Looking for some feedback before I fork out the $$$$.

I'm running them, but pictures don't do them justice. You can come see them if you're a good swimmer :razz: . I believe a couple of people on the mainland have them; you really should see lighting in person before deciding. Remember, ballasts play an important role in the color of the bulbs.
I'm told they drop in intensity after 6 months, but I'm not quite there yet. I can testify to that in another month or so. So far, I'm really happy with the color, but they aren't as bright as my 10ks were. I put the 10k back in the other day just to see the difference and the color about made me vomit!! I'd have to take time to go back to 10k. A third 20k woulds solve my brightness problem, but I don't have the power available.!

At the moment yet I still have a 75 gallon reef and I swapped out just one of my 175 10k ushio and put in one 400 watt radium on a son/agro ballast. The color is VERY NICE. However, like Brad said, the radiums will not be as bright as a 400 watt 10k.

So currently I have one 175 watt 10k still on one side of the reef and the radium on the other. I really find that the color of the radium is a very nice bluish/white. It makes the 10k look pretty yellow/green which is what I thought when I compared the 10k to the 6500's.

Photo's on the web will not give you an accurate enough picture of how they look. They tend to look whiter and brighter when you are actually are looking at a system (not a photo)

I certainly am planning on adding one or two more radiums to my 150 gallon reef that I will be setting up in a couple of months.

BTW I have Brad (& Stephane) to thank for the recommendation to go to radium. He was very informative and so I thought I would give it a try. I love the color of the light and unless I find I have to replace the bulbs way too frequently I wouldn't consider switching to anything else.

The key to the radium looking good though is to use the right ballast. If you have a hard time finding the son/agro 430 watt ballast in your area for a good price, I know a place locally that sells them for a very reasonable price. I'm out in Chilliwack.

Bill

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see what I mean? :shocked!:

Yup, sure nic corals. Have you seen Mtndewman's tank? He has the same color corals under 10k bulbs. A local guy here (shane) has 1 20k and 2 55k with some really nice color also.
I think the main feature of the Radiums is that the whole tank has a certain bluish hue to it, which is something I like. I can't say with any certainty that my corals are nicer because of them.

Am I helping yet?? :biggrin:

That's a big 10-4 :idea:

I run 400w Radiums, driven by Bluewave pulse start ballasts. I just checked a side by side with one of my 6 month old bulbs abd a new one. No visable change.

However I dont believe they are as bright as the overdriven Radiums but certainly much brighter than driving them on a normal ballast.

As to how good they are, I reserve judgement on that. :eek: Because of changes in my tank, I have not had corals in there long enough to see. I can say my Iwasaki bulbs drown them out but are poo-poo looking. :lol:

I always thought that a pulse start was the same as a normal ballast, just with a different starting mechanism.....the SA ballast is brighter because it has more wattage running thru it. Anyone know for sure?

Pluse starts ballasts can have different current/voltage levels also. that is why you cannot create a pulse start by simply adding a starter to a normal ballast.