Xanium X2's

[StirCrazy]

just when I thought i had it all figured out, I start reading on fishnet LOL, acording to both Richard Harker and Dana Riddle the Iwasaki bulbs can easaly go 18 to 24 months between changes. a quote from Dana
"If I were to start a coral farm and use artificial light, I would go with a 400-watt Iwasaki 6500K in a pendent luminaire and shielded for UV. I would replace the lamps every 18 months (or sooner if i can a compelling reason to do so)."

From Ritchard
"Again, one can't generalize about bulbs. A one year old Iwasaki will still produce more PAR than a brand new Ushio 10K 250w bulb and at the end of the Iwasaki's second year, it will produce even more light than the one year old 10K. But if you reverse that and compare a one year old 400 w 10K to a new Iwasaki 250w bulb the reverse is true."

I think lighting has now take over 1st place on my list of the single most confusing aspect of reefing. do we go with bad colour, but good growth or do we go with nice colour and ok growth.. if we want to provide what is best for the corals shoulden't we all be using 5500K bulbs? (something to think about)

Steve