MH bulbs, are they all created equally?

[sharkbait]

ichthyoid;614140 wrote: JMHO, but don't judge a book by it's cover, or a bulb by it's color, unless all you care about is aesthetics (ie-your perception/preference).

I wasn't. I have personally had both bulbs and found that I like the radium far better then the Ushio. I found the Ushio to be much whiter then what the kelvin rating was on the bulb. For instance when I had my Ushio 20k it was much whiter then my now Radium 20k's. So I have my own experience with these two bulbs.

 

[ichthyoid]

You are not alone on the Radium's. I completely respect your choice.

 

[jmaneyapanda]

Acroholic;614134 wrote: My 300 gallon SPS tank is driven by this exact combination of 400 watt Radiums on CoralVue e-ballasts driven at the standard rate. My ballasts are dimmable but I use them at the 400 watt output level. I couldn't disagree more about them looking bad, but that is really a matter of personal like or dislike. I don't like Reeflux because they are too white for me. I like the bluer light the Radiums give.

But a large factor for me was that I do not want to supplement my halide lighting with T5. I'm sure Reeflux gives a good light, but if I used them I would have to supplement with blue T5s to get the rendition I wanted.

Interesting. Most pictures and accounts I've heard have had horrible luck with standard 400 watt eballasts and radiums.

As for the blue, I've ran the reeflux 20kk and they were TOO blue for my taste. My current 12kk have killer PAR and good color, albeit I use actinic T5s

 

[ralph atl]

2, 400 watt radiums on galaxy ballasts overdriven....crisp color, no supplements needed, IMHO.

 

[ga_daisy]

I think I'm going to give the Radiums a whirl and see what I think.

I forget what kind I'm running right now.....got them from Drs. Foster and Smith.....think I paid under $80 for each. My growth had been fine....everything looked fine. My tank has....tanked due to lack of time/interest over the last 4-6 months, its time to get things back up and looking nice.

 

[schwaggs]

ichthyoid;614233 wrote: Another thing I did consider was lamp life. The Ushio 10k only loses ~15% output after 6,000 hours of operation. Based on an 8 hour per day burn, that is 2 years. This will help offset the added cost of more bulbs.

I have similar experience with Phoenix 14K 250W bulbs. A few years ago, I measured 18 month old bulbs just before replacing and new bulbs a week later and the difference in measured PAR was ~10% if I remember correctly. Needless to say, I run my Phoenix bulbs 24 months between replacements now and put the old bulbs in service over my frag tank for another year or so...

 

[grouper therapy]

Like Dave mentioned above the ballast can have as big of an impact on the color, par and lifespan on any bulb. For instance the radium 20 k is way to white for my taste on my HQI PFO ballast where as the evc and helios are blue with great par. Then those bulbs on another ballast might be to white with poor par. My point being when people express their opinion about their bulbs make sure you ask the type of ballast that they are driving them with so that you can compare to what you have.

 

[ichthyoid]

Schwaggs;615448 wrote: I have similar experience with Phoenix 14K 250W bulbs. A few years ago, I measured 18 month old bulbs just before replacing and new bulbs a week later and the difference in measured PAR was ~10% if I remember correctly. Needless to say, I run my Phoenix bulbs 24 months between replacements now and put the old bulbs in service over my frag tank for another year or so...

Thank you for posting this, very important to know (for me at least).
I have had a tough time deciding between the Ushio and Phoenix, even though there are significant differences in their characterisitics.

I guess it's a lot like my Dad used to say about shoes. " You are never really sure how comfortable they will be, until you have walked in them a while".

grouper therapy;615471 wrote: Like Dave mentioned above the ballast can have as big of an impact on the color, par and lifespan on any bulb. For instance the radium 20 k is way to white for my taste on my HQI PFO ballast where as the evc and helios are blue with great par. Then those bulbs on another ballast might be to white with poor par. My point being when people express their opinion about their bulbs make sure you ask the type of ballast that they are driving them with so that you can compare to what you have.

Another great point. I asked a lot of people what ballast they used (and looked too). I finally decided to try the ARO's as I will be going with 250 DE bulbs. It appears that the ARO does a good job of running different flavor HQI bulbs, in general, all things considered.