Lighting

[fkshiu]

Generally speaking, the further up the colour temp scale you go, the more PAR you lose.

However, not every "14K" bulb is truly 14,000 Kelvins as manufacturers claimed colour temps are not always accurate. You'd have to look at the bulbs with your own eyes in action or check the bulbs CCT on Sanjay's site for its true colour temp.

[bv_reefer]

-i like 20 k's for that deep reef appearance, and they really bring out intense colors in neon green corals, makes green star polyps and turbinaria look intense

[fencer]

I have been running 10k's and they are fine. But I find that the colors from acros do not come out as well. I have also wondered what is the best comprimise between growth and color. It looks like by the poll 14K's are the way to go. As for consistency of colour/temp, I would think all bulbs degrade with time and is highly dependent on amount of use. I suspect with most bulbs output efficency drops less than 10%. One of the electricans at work say less than 2% over the year. Sanjays site is excellent, I don't knoiw if he has an upto date chart of various bulb performances. I myself have gone to replace after one year plan. I am going out to buy some 14K's.

[Myka]

Originally Posted by fkshiu

Generally speaking, the further up the colour temp scale you go, the more PAR you lose.

Yep, and HUGE too!!! Which is why I run low Kelvin with strong actinic supplement. I have T5s though. I run the Giesemann Midday (6000K) and Giesemann Pure Actinic (true 421nm actinic). On my next bulb order I'm going to switch from the Midday to the URI (aka UVL) AquaSun 10K as it has a much higher PAR rating than the Middays.

I choose the lighting that is best for my corals that I have chosen from researching bulbs, and are the best to my knowledge. I won't choose a bulb based on "it looks better than that other one". My corals are most important, not how I like the color of the light!! My corals then reward me with better coloring, so it we're even in the end.

I'm buying a MH for my 65 that I'm setting up. I will run a 400w XM 10K mogul bulb on a PFO HQI ballast which has one of the highest PAR ratings.

[steve fedyk]

I like gessmen 250w 13000k MH great colour with my VHO's.