10,000 bulb and ballast - who's got the answers!

[Samw]

Originally Posted by sumpfinfishe

My roomate Al is currently running 6500k bulb, with three attinics on timers over a 60 gal reef. Is it worth the upgrade to a German 10,000k bulb and ballast? Or is there some other good type of setup to use?

What ballast does he have now? Could he just replace the bulb and not the ballast? From what I've read, 6,500K Iwasaki's are great for making your corals grow fast while the higher color temperature bulbs makes the corals more colorful. From what I've seen, Radium 20k sometimes are a bit too bluish depending on the ballast. So, I'm looking at 10k bulbs myself and supplementing with 50/50 PCs.