Caribbean Jake December 13, 2005 Share December 13, 2005 10K are more for growth (as the 6.5K are), and they are crisp white. 15K seem to have mix reviews as shown on several RC posts, no real potential. 20K are more for looks but do not provide much growth. These are the comments we get when it's time to decide on what bulb we will have on our reef systems. I wonder, what do you have to say? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Folta December 13, 2005 Share December 13, 2005 I have 10k's over my tank right now, and they are indeed a very bright 'white'. However, the output at 450 nm is insignificant in these bulbs so there's no fluorescing. Both the 15ks and 20ks (as well as the 14ks) spike at 450 nm to give more of a glow to the corals. However they don't provide as much par for growth. This is one of the reasons some people go with 10k bulbs then supplement with actinic lighting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caribbean Jake December 13, 2005 Author Share December 13, 2005 Some posts in RC mentioned that 20K have less PAR, and therefore last shorter than 10K. In other posts in RC they call the XM 15K a bluf since it really has less PAR than the 20K when in fact it should have more. The 10K although help in growth, are sometimes too yellow or too crisp white and require Actinic 03 for blue supplementals. That in fact is true cause I run 10K's in my system and back them up with VHO 110 Actinic 03's. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lee Stearns December 13, 2005 Share December 13, 2005 Ditto Jakes comments- 10Ks with 4 vho's over the 150G high has been a real winner for me-And I do like the point source shimmer, I just wish I had the life expectancy of the T5 bulbs. I pushed my 10 se bulbs to 14 months- but when I added the new same brand bulbs 10K ABs, and howard took new measurements after 4 weeks - my PAR was double what it was before I changed the bulbs. The tank was noticeably brighter. Now to be fair I had run the Mh bulbs almost 12 hours a day before deciding in Aug to reduce them to 6 hours a day. So maybe these will last as long? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caribbean Jake December 14, 2005 Author Share December 14, 2005 Lee in you opinion and experience, AB 10K are better than XM 10k? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lee Stearns December 16, 2005 Share December 16, 2005 I like the crisp white of the 10K ABs had no problem with aclimation when I trasitioned to new AB bulbs, though I did leave my hood proped open for the 3 day transition-burn in- ALthough Eric mentioned that he thought the 10K AB was really 13K - I do not know where he got that information. I did change out one of my Back 4 VHO actinic to a 50/50 which is predominantley over my SPS acros and so they get that for 12 hours even though the MHs only come on for 6 hours. Makes for a more realistic dawn and dusk vs just actinics on those extra hours. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caribbean Jake December 16, 2005 Author Share December 16, 2005 Is it true that 15K don't last as long and have less PAR than 20 and 10's ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lee Stearns December 16, 2005 Share December 16, 2005 I know the PAR is less on 15 and 20 K vs 10 K- but not sure why their burn time would be any less. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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