Different "K" combination advice...

[MikeP]

I have had 3 MH's over my tank for a while now. All of them of 14000K, it's getting close to bulb change time and I was wondering about maybe putting a 20000K bulb in the middle. Does anyone have an idea of how that would look? Would it be a distinct different color shining in the middle and look kinda stupid or blend in with the 14000's?

Thanks

[Delphinus]

Yes and no. You will notice that the centre is slightly bluer, but because it's in the centre it will blend better than if you had, say, two lamps and one side was blue and the other not.

What kind of reflectors do you have? If you have the smaller batwing style you might be able to tilt the outside 2 inwards a bit to overlap the lights a bit more thus blending them in nicer but if say you are using lumenarcs or similar then maybe don't do that.

Having said that, the difference between 14k and 20k is not going to be as large as say 10k and 20k.

[MikeP]

Hi Tony,

I'm using LumenMax elite reflectors. They are pretty big, with three over my 60 inch tank there isn't a lot of room left. You're right 14k to 20k isn't a big jump, I was just looking for a little bit more blue to help show coral color . I have some fiji purples along the back of the tank but they don't make much diference once the MH's are fired up.

[Delphinus]

I'd imagine there's a fair bit of overlap as it is then. My guess is it would probably look OK. Hard to say. Maybe the thing to do is try it out and see what you think. Usually (within reason) you can take a lamp back and exchange it for another if it's really not to your liking and you've only run the light for a day or two. Well, I guess I can't speak for the vendors but when I've done it, they were willing to work with me that way. Guess the worst case scenario is you're stuck with a spare lamp or something you have to sell yourself...

[Skimmerking]

I have 3 MH over my 60 " SPS tank and I have 12K on the outer edge and a 14 K in the middle and love it