The Better Actinic Bulb

[Tigger]

Which Actinic bulb is better, the Phillips Actinic O3 or the Coralife Super Actinic. I'm looking to get a 48" bulb. Is there a difference in color or life?

Thanks
Steve

[Canadian Man]

What about the ZooMed Actinic Bulb, I use these and they are a wonderful bulb.
Overdriven 4x they last about 1 year for me before the ends start to blacken.

[Tigger]

Where do you get ZooMed Actinic Bulbs? How much are they?

[Canadian Man]

Most of our local LFS carry them around here.
I think last time I paid retail they were about $20.

[reefburnaby]

Hi,

That's what I use too (Zoomed). I think there are two version : one for T8s and one for T12s. So, you'll need to pick the appropriate style. Big Al's, Animal house and King Ed's carries them.

In general, actinics are very similar to the 03, but there are a couple of exceptions. PC actinics are a bit wierd -- they didn't have a 03 actinic for quite a while. So, the older PC actinics were actually blue lamps...not actinic. Never PC have a choice between blue and actinic 03. Another unusual actinic is that URI super actinic -- they are actually blue-violet [img]smile.gif[/img] For the most part, Philips 03 is the standard so if you are trying to decide between the two...pick the cheaper Phillips 03.

I suspect the Phillips owns the patent on the 03 phosphors, so I wouldn't be surprised if Corallife contracted Phillips to make their actinic lamp.

- Victor.

[Tigger]

Thanks for everybody's input.

From looking at the light spectrum on J&L's webpage, the coralife super actinic has a much wider spectrum than the Phillips O3. Is the wider spectrum better?

I am using the Phillips O3 bulbs currently, and the reason I am looking to switch is that there is a drastic decrease in the bulb after only a month. I thought maybe another bulb would last longer. Maybe it is the way I wired the bulbs. I bought a Phillips 4 Bulb T8 electronic balast. I wired 2 leads to each bulb, in hopes to overdrive 2 T12 Phillip O3 bulbs. Does anybody see a problem with this?

Victor, do you remember how much the bulbs are? Maybe it would be better to run 3-4 T8 actinics with my electronic ballas. Or do you think it would be better to overdrive the 2 T8 actinic bulbs?

Thanks again
Steve

[StirCrazy]

Originally posted by Tigger:
Thanks for everybody's input.

I am using the Phillips O3 bulbs currently, and the reason I am looking to switch is that there is a drastic decrease in the bulb after only a month.
Steve

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">hmm do you mean that the bulb has gone from making your tank a medium blue to a darker blue?
IMHO the first month the bulb is only burning in.. I noticed the tank looking a bit darker also but I also noticed that things were floressing more. take a good look and make sure that the bulb didn't just finnish burning in befor you throw them out and waist money.

Steve

[ 18 August 2002, 19:31: Message edited by: StirCrazy ]

[Tigger]

One one of the tubes, tne ends are starting to turn black.
On both tubes, the bulb is starting to look faded and washed out compared to when I first bought them. Is this what they are suppose to look like? How will I know if the tubes are fully warn.

Steve

[StirCrazy]

are you overdriving them? i decided not to overdrive my actinics as there was no need.

Steve