Well I figured I had better get something going on the review but I am making a new jig for measuring PAR in my tank in able to assure that my sensor is in the exact same place each time. For this reason i have split this review into two parts, first the photo and personal impressions of the color, and the second part will be the actual PAR comparasons.
for equipment I am using magnetinc ANSI M80 HQI ballast with an ignightor to bulb lenght of 3 feet. for the pictures the first bulb listed will be on the left side of the pic. because I only have a 3 foot long tank there is a lot of blending in the middle but if you look you can still see the diffeeences.
the first picture is a tank shot with two SA10K bulbs and two 36" VHO actinics
and this is without the actinics
this picture is comparing a two year old AB 250 watt bulb against the SA 10K bulb with no actinic (remember the AB's have over 7000 hours on them)
same set up with actinic
personaly I found the 7000+ hour old AB to be about the same color and intensity as the 300 hour old SA10K's
here we see the SA14K and a SA10K with no actinic
same bulbs with actinic
I was very suprised at the amount of blue in the 14K bulbs and I even e-mailed venkiw to see if this was a defective batch.. I would say they should be labeled as 19K's compard to other 20K bulbs I have seen which will be even more evadent when compared to the 20K bulbs
here are the SA20K and a SA10K with no actinic
and same with actinic
and finaly the SA20K and a SA14K with no actinics
and with actinic
So there is the side by side comparasons. in my personal opinion I am not impressed with the color of the 10K's as every Ushio I have seen is whiter then the SA10Ks,
BUT for the price they are a deal. if they were priced at 100.00 I would concider the Ushio bulbs myself. Also if you are going to MH for your first time the SA10k bulb would probably satisfy you.
The 14K bulbs strike me as way to blue for 14K. I have put them back on to burn them for another 1 or 2 hundred hours to make sure the initial shif is complete but I think it is. they are almost as blue as a radium and way way more blue than a new AB that has a actual color temp of "13and change"K so to me 14K should only be slightly (read barly noticably) more blue than an AB
as for the 20K's I am most impressed with them out of any of the SA bulbs, it has the color of the radium with a tiny more "vilot" in its make up causeing a little more of the colors in the tank to "pop" out. the only question I will have with it is the actual PAR levels and I will find them out in part 2.
Steve