Another lighting question?

[jason sartain]

OK,I have a custom built light that has 2-400 watt MH,14k SE bulbs,and 8-54 watt 48" t-5 HO bulbs (4-actinic,and 3-10k,1-coral acellarator)over my 240 gal tank,mixed reef.
I want to get more of a blue look to it when the lights are on,so I was thinking of leaveing the MH at 14k and adding more actinic bulbs to the mix.
Should I get the 420nm,or the 460nm,and ditch the 10 k bulbs,or should I add a couple of these bulbs and keep a combination of the 10 k's.
Should I change the MH to 20k?
What do ya'll think?All feed back will be welcomed!

 

[jason sartain]

dawgdude;425577 wrote: IMO I would change the halides. You are pumping ALOT of 14k light in there at 800w so its gonna take a rediculous amount of T-5s to level it out. I would suggest a couple of Radium 20kk's if your ballasts will fire them.

My ballasts will not fire them,what would be the next choice?10k with heavy actinic's?

 

[mockery]

What about ushio, XM, Helios, or EVC's would it fire those?

 

[jason sartain]

Mockery;425621 wrote: What about ushio, XM, Helios, or EVC's would it fire those?

Yea,I'm running XM's now(I guess I should have said that) but what about getting the coral growth with the "bluer" look?What should I go with?

 

[skriz]

The XM 15kk bulbs suck. You're much better off with the XM 20kk bulbs.

Also, there's very little point in running 10kk t5's in that setup. The halides are going to give you all the par you need. I would use the t5's to adjust the colour or for duck/dawn. If the XM20kk bulbs are too blue, you can "white" them out a bit with 10kk t5's. If they look good, you can add some fiji purples or whatever else for the t5's.

 

[jason sartain]

I made a trip to Keen reef Sunday and got some new bulbs. I ended up going with 2- Radium 20k , 3-super actinic T5, 4-actinic plus T5, 1-purple T5.
All the T5's are giessman(SP) except the purple, I really like the color now,thanks Tim.

 

[drnecropolis]

What a rip off.. We need before and after pics! You know this is mandatory!

 

[jason sartain]

DrNecropolis;426769 wrote: What a rip off.. We need before and after pics! You know this is mandatory!

I know,I know I'll post some tonight.

 

[mockery]

Glad to see that you were able to run the radiums!

Can't wait for pics.

 

[jason sartain]

Pictures with new bulbs.

1st-original actinic's
2nd-New actinic's
3rd-original MH's
4th-New MH's
5th-original with both
6th-New with both
<fieldset class="gc-fieldset">
<legend> Attached files </legend>