MH FOR CHEAP 250,400

[StirCrazy]

Well I was going to stay out of this and Stephane probably wishes I did but I don't agree with some of the statements made here. first all I want to agree that yes this is a Iwasaki made bulb and Hortilux is one of there biger plant growing brands (specificly made for the hydroponic industry) but there are also 3 different main brands of hortilux bulbs and depending which one it could range from a yellow to a white color the 2100K's will be real yellow (I think thatis the spectrum that AJ posted, and the 4100K will actualy be fairly white. having said that I have never heard of 10K or 20K hortilux and I would be skeptical of them.. maby e-mail iwasaki themselves and inquire about that.

People seam to be hung up on actinic light for our corals.. well they don't need Actinic light.. yes it works but so does any other light in the 360nm to 780nm range.. it just happens that the lower numbers penatrate better than the higher thats why everyone thinks you need actinic to make the corals grow. Well in the 18" to 3' of water our tanks contain you are not filtering out any significant amount of the light and any light in the previous mention wave lenght range WILL stimulate photosynthis.
there for if you have a high PAR value in the green range like this bulb you should be able to grow stuff like a hot damn :D BUT, and this is a big BUT it will not look as good to the eye as it would if you have some blueish lights on there to make thing "Glow" so with this bulbs it comes right down to you.. if you want the corals to grow and don't care much about how apeasing the tank is to your eye then get them (mind you some people actualy like the way iwasaki's look on there tank. it will be more realistic loking than a bunch of actinics on it) the other option is if you want your tank to glow and have a blueish look to it add some VHO actinics with these bulbs.

if there is any more doubts as the ability of your coral to grow under thease lights.. even Erik Borneman says

" You can grow corals well using only actinic light - if there is enough of it - same as any light source since corals can use all the wavelengths and will photoadapt to maximize use of whatever wavelengths are present."

here is the thread whare he says that
http://www.reefcentral.com/vbulletin...hreadid=116423

I have seen the 4100K bulbs in the local hydroponic shops and they look quite white there .. I imagin a couple VHO actinics or true 03 PC actinics would make it quite nice.


what about this one? could it be this?


or this one



unless we know which line of Hortilux he is talking about we can't be sure if they are bad or 1/2 deicent so lets not jump the gun and say they are crap befor we know the info :D :D

Steve

[ 02 October 2002, 16:59: Message edited by: StirCrazy ]

[AJ_77]

[ 02 October 2002, 17:57: Message edited by: AJ_77 ]

[mutabaruka]

This all began when one of my customers showed me some MH equipment he gets for his Hydroponics biz. I thought I would investigate the differences or similarities between what he was buying and what we in this hobby use, since there was HUGE difference in the price. He showed me reflectors, sockets, ballasts, water pumps etc at prices 1/3 to 1/2 what is being charged at LFS stores.

I figured there must be some differences otherwise hobbyists would be already buying them there. I spoke with the manufacturer's rep to get more info on the bulbs. They are available in 250W and 400W models; 23,000K initial and 14,400 mean over their lifespan. Their spectrums tend to the yellow and white end. I am not an expert, I know very little about these things and am not offering anything as such. I merely thought that if people were interested they were really cheap at hydroponic supply stores. To me it was obvious that since they were intended for hydroponic use, they would be intended for photosynthetic lifeforms.

In reading the many BB's and sites I have perused in the year and a half I prepared to get into this hobby, there is a wide variety of opinion on what spectrum/intensity/modality light is best,required or recommended.

If you are interested in checking these lights out, check out a local hydroponics store. Please stop emailing me and telling me to get my info straight. I should have known better than to start this after what Stephane went through.

[StirCrazy]

Originally posted by mutabaruka:

Please stop emailing me and telling me to get my info straight.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Hmm there is no reason anyone should be
e-mailing you with that as they can ask the stuff here.. thats just down right rude. It is pretty cool that we can find a lot of stuff at hydroponic stores but they are also starting to catch on.. the average price of a Magdrive 12 jumped 80.00 on the island here last month..

Steve

[ 02 October 2002, 22:31: Message edited by: StirCrazy ]

[Skimmerking]

well actually Brian .Sorry that this went this way. I was just trying to help you out ,Due to that, i know its hard to get things for a good price. you trusted me when you bought my skimmer and i thank you.. I'm just tired of people trying to rip us reefers off with this crappy prices ,Any way i was just trying to help out a friend ,if you have to email somone to tell them to get things straight. please email me i like a good scrap. LOL [img]tongue.gif[/img]
And I promise I'm not so nice to talk to..
so feel free to call me ..1-204-728-0342 :mad:

[ 02 October 2002, 18:28: Message edited by: asmodeus ]

[Bob I]

Maybe we should move some of this thread to another forum because it is getting away from the original post. I would like to add that I have had the feeling for some time that we reefers are playing into the hands of manufacturers and resellers of bulbs. On the basis of daylight in the tropics being 6500K, I have long felt that people are heading in the wrong direction when they discard bulbs after a few months because they feel that the color has shifted. I have a horrible feeling people are throwing out perfectly good bulbs. I myself am still using TWO year old 9325K PC bulbs. The light is still bright, and the color is fine. I have found the same with a 5500K MH bulb which is more than a year old. I am looking forward to some more well documented discussion on this, but for now I will continue to use old wrong color bulbs. :D

[stephane]

Originally posted by mutabaruka:
I spoke with the manufacturer's rep to get more info on the bulbs. They are available in 250W and 400W models; 23,000K initial and 14,400 mean over their lifespan. Their spectrums tend to the yellow and white end.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">if the bulb is realy a 23000k it will be very far from yellow white but completly in the blue spectrum

Ask your rep that he give you the number of the bulb I will ask direct Iwasaki japan I have a contact there. lost rep. dont even know wath they talking about

[ 03 October 2002, 16:54: Message edited by: stephane ]

[StirCrazy]

Steph, I think the 23,000K is a mistake.. it looks like the lumeen ratins.. 23,000 lumins inital 14,00 mean..

Steve

[pocilipora]

Bob Ipema, you couldnt be more wrong. And Im sure other experienced reefers, and coral farms would disagree. You need to change lights to keep colors viberant. That is if every other water perameter is in balance in your tank.
But if your using Coralife Id change to a different brand.

[Delphinus]

I don't know if I should admit this, but, I'm using a more-than-two-year-old 10000K Hamilton over my 20g which houses my green saddle carpet. If growth and colour of the anemone is any indication then as far the anemone is concerned it couldn't care less that it has an old bulb. I think, the higher the Kelvin rating, the faster the bulbs wear out and thus the emphasis on a regular replacement schedule .... but, some bulbs definitely continue to be useful after the prescribed interval .... Of course, I wouldn't go and recommend that anyone be as lazy as me when it comes to replacing bulbs, the basic rule should be whether you feel the bulb is working for you or not. If you have a lot of algae nuisance growth, or, you feel the light just isn't as bright as it once was ... by all means the bulb could be at fault.