What color temp best

[blackcloudmedia]

SO Ive been running my tank under 20000K duel 250 watt mh for the past few months and Ive come to the conclusion that its too blue for me. Id rather have faster coral growth plus Id rather it be white light that I can add blue to. Should I go with straight 10000K bulbs with an actinic supplement or should I just go with 14000K bulbs. I like the blue look of course but 20000K is just too blue for me.

 

[iseeweed]

I have been running duel hamilton 14k 250de for the last couple of months. I really like the growth rate, but the colors just seem ok to me. One of my ballast is a mag, the other electronic. The electronic ballast seems to have a much more blue tint.
Maybe 2 14k's and some blue t-5's for color???

 

[blackcloudmedia]

Yea mine are both electronic balasts and the bulb brand is supposed to be really good at making their bulbs blue.

 

[iseeweed]

I once used a 20k xm bulb w.mag ballast, and it was like black light blue. So maybe 2 15k xm's with your ballast might look really nice, and have good grow out??

 

[iseeweed]

I once used a 20k xm bulb w.mag ballast, and it was like black light blue. So maybe 2 15k xm's with your ballast might look really nice, and have good grow out??

 

[Ben1]

IIRC the XM 15x had less par then the xm 20k but dont feel like checking sanjays pages right now. In anycase there are lots of good 10k bulbs out there. The xm 10k has a ton of par and with sup. actinics it should give a nice color. If you are using DE bulbs the pheonix 14k's give a nice color and growth, fro SE maybe a 12k reeflux. There are a lot of options, I personally liked my Radiums with actinics but thats just me :lol:

 

[TheJGMProject]

try phoenix 14K's...i run 150W's and i love the blue tint that comes with phoenix bulbs. Moreover, I been having great coral growth since using them the last 2 years. Phoenix has 250W available. not sure if you have a DE (double ended) or mogul socket as phoenix only comes with DE sockets ( i think )