Help with picking new bulbs

[90gallon4me]

I have Coralife 20k bulbs now, i was thinking about going with Phoenix 14k.. what does everyone think of the two bulbs?

 

[ryuchi]

IME the Phoenix 14k has probably the best bang for the buck regarding PAR however you wont have as blue a light as the cora 20k and therefore the colors dont "pop" as well, both are decent bulbs.

 

[90gallon4me]

whats the color like on the radiums? what's different about them?

 

[ryuchi]

dawgdude;566250 wrote: I agree fully with what Ryuchi said about the Phoenix but I will disagree on the fact any coralife bulb is decent!

I am a big fan of radiums. They are pricey but man is the color nice.

Ya, I was trying to be nice about coralife. Ive never had 20k radiums but i have seen many many tanks with them and the radium 20k is spectacular visually.

 

[jaustin]

If you have 400w halides stay away from Radium....they are having bad batches. Read up on RC and see all the pink bulbs out there since Radium switched the way the make their bulbs.

I got two pink radiums. One i still have that is going in the trash as soon as my Ushio 20Ks get here. The other i sent back to the retailer and its being credited.

Been running radiums for a while now...hate to leave them, but they have left a bad taste in my mouth and a dent in my wallet.

 

[cr500_af]

To the OP: You didn't mention what type of lights you have, but I'll assume SE bulbs since they are more common. I agree that the Radiums are the cat's meow, but you can't run them on all ballasts. If you are thinking about them, post what ballasts you have so you can be sure they'll fire.

The Phoenix bulbs make the corals happy, but are too white for me... when you've been used to seeing a 20KK bulb it's especially noticeable. Color is purely a matter of opinion, but unless you are only changing bulbs to get higher PAR output, I'd stay with 20KK bulbs if the color pleases you.

If you happen to be using DE bulbs, then your options are severly limited. I found the best option to be the Ushio 20KK. There are some (EVC, Helios) with a bluer look, but after talking to several retailers about the high "bad out of the box" rate with them, I decided to go with the Ushios.

 

[acroholic]

I am still a die hard Radium fan. I have not had the issues with pink bulbs JAustin describes. Hopefully, by the time I need to swap out they will be all sold or recalled/returned and the bugs worked out.

 

[grouper therapy]

It is impossible to let you know what a bulbs color will be unless you or we know which ballast and wattage you are running.