been thinking about tryin something ???

[jrthomas40]

hey all i have been thinking...what type of problems could you run into if you ran 2 different kelvin bulbs in the same fixture...i know people run different kelvins in big lighting systems but can you do it for a 2 bulb fixture...for instance i have the sunpod 2x150w fixture...what i have been thinking is putting a 10k in one socket for growth and a 20k in the other socket for color...what kind of problems could occur??

 

[wattsupdoc]

There's no problem doing this. Many people do run different temperatures of bulbs. However, your going to have a lopsided tank.

The color difference will likely be obvious. I have 2 different bulbs on my 135, 10,000K and 20,000K. It looks pretty peculiar right now.

 

[gmann1139]

Yeah I only have a two bulb fixture, so I tend to run one full spectrum and one actinic.
No biggie. Just make sure that the bulbs are both 'acceptable' wattages to your fixture.

 

[jrthomas40]

i guess i should have mentioned i wanted to do this for my frag tank so the lopsidedness may not be a problem but to me...so i wanted it to be lopsided but i thought it would be cool to have half the tank for growth and half for color...but i was scared of ruining the ballast or maybe those coral in the overlap area...but i guess that overlap area would really just be a 14-15k mix

 

[mr_x]

it wouldn't be half growth and half color though. people are under the misconception that the higher kelvin lamps make the corals color up better than lower. what the higher kelvin lamps do is just make the color show better. it does nothing more to actually color up the coral.
use your 2 lamps and do a test. put 2 frags from the same colony on either side of the tank. wait 2 months and then switch them. you won't notice the difference in color- you might notice the difference in growth though. the lower kelvin bulb will have more PAR, and the coral that resided under it will end up getting more out of it's bulb.