Do you think two, 400 watt MH would wash out two, Kessil A150's?

[ralph atl]

I have a 4 foot 90 gallon mostly Large Colony SPS. I have two, 400 Watt Radiums hanging over tank in a custom made hamilton reefstar dual 400 watt fixture.

I am looking to add actinics, I have no canopy. I was thinking of just a t-5 fixyure, but it would look out of place since that fixture would be much longer than the Metal Halide Fixture. Even LED strips would look out of place, and all but one or two would be washed out anyway.


So, I'm thinking two Kessil A150's Deep Ocean Blue fixtures. I could mount these off the wall (maybe tank, too) with those gooseneck mounts.

So, do think two, 400 watt MH would wash out two, Kessil A150's Deep Ocean Blue?

Thanks!

 

[ringo®]

I do. It would make for really nice evening/morning viewing though.

 

[seth the wine guy]

Come to my house and see for yourself. I wouldn't run them with Radiums unless you like it smurf blue.

 

[jdavid]

I was wondering the same exact thing today before you posted this Ralph. I'll probably end up setting the kessil aside until I am ready to set up the 30 shallow tank and run the radium over the 60 cube solo

Edit: Also my kessil is 15k not actinic so actually might not be too blue

Edit: I've never heard of a 14k 400w bulb. Is there a commonly used bulb for 400w that isn't 20k? Are all 400w bulbs 20k?

 

[seth the wine guy]

JDavid;915549 wrote:
Edit: I've never heard of a 14k 400w bulb. Is there a commonly used bulb for 400w that isn't 20k? Are all 400w bulbs 20k?

Common ones available are 6500k, 10k, 14k, and 20k.

 

[jj ocean]

I'd add the Kessil's to augment your 400s. I'd select the color choice you want based on what it looks like with only the LEDs on.

I've got 2 400 MH in the large Cozumel reflectors with radiums. I'm augmenting the MHs with AI Sols. The LEDs are great for the ramp up, ramp down and when the MHs aren't running. I also needed the LEDs for additional coverage on the edges given the dimensions on my tank. They add a little bit of color when the MHs are running, but it isn't that much different. Too much blue wasn't an issue for me and I'm only running the AI Whites at 25%. Blue and Royal Blue are at 100%. Plenty of room to dial back the blue if I wanted.

 

[seth the wine guy]

JJ Ocean;915601 wrote: I'd add the Kessil's to augment your 400s. I'd select the color choice you want based on what it looks like with only the LEDs on.

I've got 2 400 MH in the large Cozumel reflectors with radiums. I'm augmenting the MHs with AI Sols. The LEDs are great for the ramp up, ramp down and when the MHs aren't running. I also needed the LEDs for additional coverage on the edges given the dimensions on my tank. They add a little bit of color when the MHs are running, but it isn't that much different. Too much blue wasn't an issue for me and I'm only running the AI Whites at 25%. Blue and Royal Blue are at 100%. Plenty of room to dial back the blue if I wanted.

I too have AI's. I have three AI SOL Blues with the two 400w's. (In addition to the Kessils) I can tell you the Kessils are a whole different animal. (In a good way!) One of the Kessils I use is the A360 so I can fully adjust the Kelvin spectrum. The reason I use 14k's over Radiums is I started with Radiums and things were way too blue and if I tried to dial up the white LED's to offset the imbalance it didn't look at natural or as evenly dispersed light as if I used the blue LED's to offset the whiteness of the 14k's.

I will likely be dumping the AI's all together and going with all A360's to replace them for supplementation. I got the A360 to experiment then got a150w actinic to see if spending less would work. It will, but I've become too accustom to the versatility of a fully controllable spectrum fixture to go back to a single spectrum fixture.

Seriously Ralph, if you want to see for yourself, pull the bulbs out of your fixture and bring them over and you can see them in action. You can then see how they look with my 14k's too.