I bought a new bulb

[Delphinus]

Years ago when I switched from 14k's to 10k's over my 50 I found the anemones were the first to indicate their approval of the new lighting. They pretty much immediately expanded about double. They seem to be a pretty good indicator of lighting.

Interestingly enough, I find nowadays my BTA's look kinda ugly, and not really inclined to expand much. In fact, I think they're smaller than when they were under NO lights. I'm not sure if it's a function of them not being happy with the Iwasaki's (they have never looked "great" ever since I moved them into my Iwasaki-lit tank), or if it's because maybe my tank has overcrowding issues and there's just too much going on chemically (allelopathic inhibition?? who knows...).

I have been thinking about adding a third bulb to my 75g once I switch over to Radiums. Was thinking, do I want it to be Iwasaki? Or something else? The reason I'm hesitant to remain with Iwasaki's is that I would want to find a "non-M57 H37 ballast" to run it on, so I thought, why not just use an Ushio 10K since the M59 is the "correct" ballast for that bulb (according to the Ushio website ... which I found to be surprising since the 175W and the 400W versions are intended to be used on the pulse-start ballasts instead). Reading your comments regarding the Ushio reminded me of the issues of yellowness you had with those bulbs. Hmmm. Now, I'm still rather confused what I want that third bulb to be (I just want something to balance things out at midday for a few hours). Invest the $100 in a H37 ballast and see for myself if the Iwasaki's really do look whiter/bluer, or just say to heck with it all and forget about it.

The bulb that interests me most in the 10k/mogul range are the ones that Steve uses on M80's. But that means new bulb new ballast == mucho deniro. Ay, carumba.