DE or SE Metal Halide?
- Thread starter darren24
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From what I have read it seams the single ends give more par. I use DE's only because I love the phoenix bulbs and they didn't have a single at the time. I am using a single end on my frag tank. I really think its a matter of personal preference or the setup. If the bulbs have to be right on top of the water due to a canopy then I would opt for doubles.
Well now that Phoenix bulbs come in single ended bulbs there no real big reason not to use single ended. I do like that SE are easy to change. I like the glass shield that double ended have but you can run glass over SE as well. I am a little gun shy about SE because I just had a fish splash one of my SE bulbs that was a month old and crack the glass. There goes $70. The reason I notice so fast was my elegance shriveled up and none of my parameters were out of wack. So I decide to check the bulb and it had a crack in it allowing it to leak UV.
So con SE run without glass can break if splashed with water. Does not always break but can. If you run with a glass shield you well reduce the PAR more then a DE with glass.
Pro more bulbs to choose from and easy to change.
DE Pro are small compact come with glass shield.
Con they are a major pain to change and if you want to try out a bulb alot of times the ceramic breaks during removal, ruining the bulbs.
Joe
So con SE run without glass can break if splashed with water. Does not always break but can. If you run with a glass shield you well reduce the PAR more then a DE with glass.
Pro more bulbs to choose from and easy to change.
DE Pro are small compact come with glass shield.
Con they are a major pain to change and if you want to try out a bulb alot of times the ceramic breaks during removal, ruining the bulbs.
Joe
The biggest problem I had with the DE was the smaller reflectors.. I switched to SE and run them on a HQI ballast with large reflectors and WOW!! 100x more and brighter light
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There are a LOT more SE bulbs avaialble than DE. So, if by choice, I would go SE. Actually, I have gone from DE to SE.
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sailfish;280349 wrote: Maybe I am the only one to break a DE while removing it. I have been known to man handle things that don't need to be.
Joe
No way. Depending on the tightness of the socket, and the "qual;ity" of the bulb, they can break VERY easily.
skriz
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SE for sure. All things being equal, only one of thebulbs can be overdriven: SE. Although you may not need to, it is a cool "feature".
SE offers more bulb choice, cheaper bulbs, and no glass shield to clean. I assume you will use the coralvue reflectors too? This is going to be nice.
SE offers more bulb choice, cheaper bulbs, and no glass shield to clean. I assume you will use the coralvue reflectors too? This is going to be nice.
I lost about $500 in corals when a fish splashed my bulb. I just looked up the price differance in bulbs. I used 250w as an example, and Hamilton, sps, Usho and other brands are the exact same price. So where is the price differance that everyone is talking about?
I never had a problem with SE bulbs breaking then had 3 break in a short time period. Maybe a fish was splashing them or someone was dropping the top cover a little to hard.
All broke at near the end of the glass tube. Leaking UV killed everything in it's V-shaped path.
All broke at near the end of the glass tube. Leaking UV killed everything in it's V-shaped path.
