Lights64 - HQI 150w MH - PlusRite

[Matt]

Has it been another year already? Time to replace the bulbs... Last year, I replaced the stock 10000K Coralife bulb with a 10000K Ushio. I didn't notice a substantial difference in the quality of the light, and the reef motored along without noticably changing in response.

So, in my opinion, with a test sample size of 1:
Coralife = Ushio

This year, I've replaced the Ushio with a 14000K PlusRite bulb purchased from Lights64 on ebay. I've left it to break in for a few days. It is noticably brighter and whiter than the Ushio at 1 year. Shimmer is more pronounced (good or bad - I don't know, but it looks nice). Coral colour and fish colour are better. Much of this can be attributed to the higher K, although it hasn't shifted to blue at all, just less yellow.

Very nice. Very affordable. Easy to recommend.

[kwirky]

sanjay did some analysis on those cheap ebay bulbs and found them a lot of value for the money. Out of the various cheap bulbs available most of the e-bay ones performed better $ for $. They're not the same as a geisseman 13k or an xm 10k in PAR but they're better than the ushio's and coralife's for sure.

[Matt]

I checked out Sanjay's articles, but he hasn't mentioned or tested these particular bulbs. I don't know if you could generalize from one to the other -- but maybe they all come from the same factory in China.

[andresont]

In my case i find that color of the coral (SPS) is as much dependent on the water quality and amount of flow as it is depends on the light. I use to have a lot more light in my earlier tank (400W 20K) then i do now but with better water quality (less bio load, amino acids,bacteria addition and Bare Botom) and more flow i am able to keep SPS with better colors.