Best K rating for reef tank lights

[mseepman]

Doug,

I noticed in your signature that you show having 50,000k HOt5's....where did you get those bulbs if I may ask.

[fiorano]

im using 14,500k halides and t5's it looks pretty good and i hope that doesnt really slow down coral growth or anything

[Drock169]

I like 15K, still gives you good colour and the growth is decent

[fkshiu]

Any discussion of colour and growth potential with respect MH bulbs in purely general terms is pointless without reference to Sanjay Joshi's testing:

http://www.reeflightinginfo.arvixe.com/

Choose your ballast, choose your bulb and off you go. PPFD (a.k.a PAR) and CCT (a.k.a. colour) are the most important columns. Actual power consumption in term of watts is useful as well.

Of course colour preference is purely subjective and mixing in supplemental lighting such as actinics adds to the choices you have.

Having supplemental actinics gives you more flexibility since you can use a bulb with higher PAR which are GENERALLY in the lower-K more yellow range.

[bv_reefer]

i get good growth out of my 15k's but the colors especially pop-put when the bulbs are newer

[BCOrchidGuy]

Mark I got them at Hidden Reef in Abbotsford, they are actinics but a bit different blue, nice light.

Doug