Oh no, another light bulb question...

[DaveS]

I know this stuff gets debated all the time- if there's a good thread to read than please let me know.

 

My tank is a 250G that is about 30" tall. I have a Aqua-medic Ocean Light 250W T5 Combo unit. It has 3 250W MH double ended lights and 4 39W T5s. Man does it put out a lot of heat! According to the manufacturer, the stock bulbs are:

 

T5: 39W ocean blue- aquamedic p/n 77517

MH: 250W Aqualine Bushke 10,000 p/n 76250

 

I'm looking to replace the bulbs and wanted suggestions. I know there's a lot of personal preference to this and my current tastes seem to favor the Hamilton 14000K color. The current color I get with these 1 year old bulbs isn't bad but it's a little more white (though thankfully not yellow) than I'd like.

 

I guess one question is that since I have the T5 Actinic fixtures already, should I got with something less blue in the MH and allow the T5s to provide that blue spectrum? Or should I get the Hamiltons and just leave the T5s off? Or...?

 

I was reading a thread on RC about the Reef Optic bulbs. They sounded interesting but don't come as DE bulbs yet- anyone got more recent news on that?

 

Oh yea I guess I should mention that growing pretty corals fast and saving a few bucks would be nice...

 

Thanks for you help guys.

[DaveS]

Bump... What no love?