Metal Halide ballast info

[Delphinus]

Originally Posted by mr_alberta

I never knew Iwasaki made anything above 6500K

They've had an insanely blue bulb as a 150W size for a number of years which sounds neat but there seems to have been not enough interest to generate importing other sizes. They call it a "50000K" (although of course it's not really). I've always wanted to give one a try but have never gotten around to it. It's a medium base socket (not mogul or DE) though.
http://www.premiumaquatics.com/Merch..._Code=mh70-150

There is also this new one (14k) which looks pretty neat. Like Willow I want to try some of these soon:
http://www.premiumaquatics.com/Merch...y_Code=mh-175w

Originally Posted by Bartman

So here's the $million question. I've never had MH lights before and this is a new tank. I plan on mostly softies and maybe some LPS. The fixture has 2x175w MH and 2x40w actinic. I think I would like bright, vibrant light (for myself, visually). There's 5 brands of bulb listed above. Which should I choose?

I'm with Willow on this one. You might want to start with a 10k and see how you like it. A "good" 10k should fit your description of a "bright vibrant" light (think "crisp white" or "white with a hint of ice blue").

A good 14k bulb isn't too bad either. I did try the venture 14k's though (in the 250W size) and I found them to be overwhelmingly blue (think disco blue). (Just my own preference, others may like it, but it was a bit of a culture shock for me coming off 6500K's). I ended up trading them in for some Venture 10k's and I am happy with the colour of those bulbs (I do have actinics alongside so that did influence the overall blue-ness). But in the past I've had other 14k lamps (in the 175W size) and found them to be a nice colour. I find 14k's are good all by themselves, but the problem is they tend to have a lot lower PAR. I have 10k's over one tank by themselves (Ushio 175) and 10k's over another (Venture) with actinics and I think I like the look of actinic supplementing slightly better. And you can have a cool dawn/dusk effect. But of course, it's all personal preference.