150w DE Bulb Suggestions PLEASE

digital-audiophile · #1 03-14-2008, 03:15 PM

Ohayo gazaimasu, O genki desu ka?

On my 150MH I was running the aquaconnect DE bulbs. Really nice mix of blue/white and I was getting decent growth as long as my corals where high up.

Whatigot · #2 03-14-2008, 05:02 PM

that seems to be a pretty consistent view on the aquaconnect...
JL sells them too which is near my residence so that helps.

I had a feeling you might be one of the first to offer some insight into this....lol
I get the feeling there isn't a whole lot of equipment you haven't tried or tested or read about...

I was leaning towards the aquaconnects mainly because they are the most expensive, which is a stupid reason in my opinion so it's nice to get a hands on review...

fkshiu · #3 03-14-2008, 05:44 PM

Perhaps I can help translate. Under the 150W M81 (HQI) shielded results you get this:

http://www.reeflightinginfo.arvixe.c...&Submit=Submit

If you are looking at growing corals you want to look at the "PPFD" column which is simply another way of expressing PAR. You can see that the Icecap 6500K has the best PPFD (78), but is extremely yellow (the next column over "CCT" can simply translate to K-temp for our purposes). As you can see, it's always a trade-off between PPFD and colour as the more blue you get, the less PPFD you get, generally speaking.

Whatigot · #4 03-14-2008, 06:30 PM

That helps out a lot.
Love someone who knows how to dumb it down for us.
Whats with the ones that have 0 cct like the aquaconnect????
doesn't look so good to me if I understood you correctly...

fkshiu · #5 03-14-2008, 06:58 PM

The "0" in the CCT column means that Sanjay wasn't able to measure the colour temp. I forget the reason (it's in one of his articles I think), but there are often difficulties in the 12K - 18K range.

Whatigot · #6 03-14-2008, 07:49 PM

hmmm. I guess I should start to seriously consider supplemental actinic lighting...
I was hoping to just stick with the 2 hqi's, but it really seems like the difference between going with moderately blue bulbs and something like the icecap with leds or a vho might be worth the extra equipment....

ron101 · #7 03-14-2008, 10:33 PM

I don't think that you are going to find many supplemental blue LED's that will make white light when matched with a 6500K metal halide. Considering the additional wattage when you introduce VHO fluroescents, parting out your existing 150W gear in favor of a 250W system becomes a very competitive alternative. IMO, if sps are your priority then going to 250W is almost a no brainer.