light bulbs mh
- Thread starter thedealer
- Start date
scsinet
Active Member
Originally Posted by thedealer
Is there a difference between a $20 10000 k bulb or $80 10000k bulb?
Yes. $60.
Keep in mind that's also $60 worth of quality. I'm assuming we're talking regular prices here, and not some insane clearance deal online versus an LFS's regular prices.
You are highly unlikely to find any bulb designed for marine aquarium use priced regularly at $20. $80 is a "usual" price for a metal halide lamp.
When you get into the cheaper ones, you end up with bulbs that do not have nearly the quality. To name a two of the biggest aspects...
1. Halide lamps get their color temperature output from a cocktail of chemicals doped into the inner envelope, where the arc is actually struck. Cheaper companies do not put nearly the R&D in or they use poorer quality chemicals (or both), meaning the lamp may drift in color over time, causing algae growth and other such problems. A side note: This is the reason why halides made for warehouse lights, signs, etc are so much cheaper. A little color drift doesn't hurt anything in these applications.
2. Halide lamps operate at high pressures and temperatures. Cheaper bulbs are made of thinner, poorer quality quartz, or impure quartz, causing the inner envelope to fracture or explode over time, ruining the lamp.
Of course, you can go through 4 of the cheaper lamps in your case before you get to what an expensive one costs, but unless you have a photometer you are not going to be able to positvely tell what color the lamp is putting out, so if you end up with drift it may be tough to figure out what's causing the problem...
Just some food for thought...
Is there a difference between a $20 10000 k bulb or $80 10000k bulb?
Yes. $60.
Keep in mind that's also $60 worth of quality. I'm assuming we're talking regular prices here, and not some insane clearance deal online versus an LFS's regular prices.
You are highly unlikely to find any bulb designed for marine aquarium use priced regularly at $20. $80 is a "usual" price for a metal halide lamp.
When you get into the cheaper ones, you end up with bulbs that do not have nearly the quality. To name a two of the biggest aspects...
1. Halide lamps get their color temperature output from a cocktail of chemicals doped into the inner envelope, where the arc is actually struck. Cheaper companies do not put nearly the R&D in or they use poorer quality chemicals (or both), meaning the lamp may drift in color over time, causing algae growth and other such problems. A side note: This is the reason why halides made for warehouse lights, signs, etc are so much cheaper. A little color drift doesn't hurt anything in these applications.
2. Halide lamps operate at high pressures and temperatures. Cheaper bulbs are made of thinner, poorer quality quartz, or impure quartz, causing the inner envelope to fracture or explode over time, ruining the lamp.
Of course, you can go through 4 of the cheaper lamps in your case before you get to what an expensive one costs, but unless you have a photometer you are not going to be able to positvely tell what color the lamp is putting out, so if you end up with drift it may be tough to figure out what's causing the problem...
Just some food for thought...
acrylic51
Active Member
Originally Posted by SCSInet
Yes. $60.
Keep in mind that's also $60 worth of quality. I'm assuming we're talking regular prices here, and not some insane clearance deal online versus an LFS's regular prices.
You are highly unlikely to find any bulb designed for marine aquarium use priced regularly at $20. $80 is a "usual" price for a metal halide lamp.
When you get into the cheaper ones, you end up with bulbs that do not have nearly the quality. To name a two of the biggest aspects...
1. Halide lamps get their color temperature output from a cocktail of chemicals doped into the inner envelope, where the arc is actually struck. Cheaper companies do not put nearly the R&D in or they use poorer quality chemicals (or both), meaning the lamp may drift in color over time, causing algae growth and other such problems. A side note: This is the reason why halides made for warehouse lights, signs, etc are so much cheaper. A little color drift doesn't hurt anything in these applications.
2. Halide lamps operate at high pressures and temperatures. Cheaper bulbs are made of thinner, poorer quality quartz, or impure quartz, causing the inner envelope to fracture or explode over time, ruining the lamp.
Of course, you can go through 4 of the cheaper lamps in your case before you get to what an expensive one costs, but unless you have a photometer you are not going to be able to positvely tell what color the lamp is putting out, so if you end up with drift it may be tough to figure out what's causing the problem...
Just some food for thought...
Good info I agree
Yes. $60.
Keep in mind that's also $60 worth of quality. I'm assuming we're talking regular prices here, and not some insane clearance deal online versus an LFS's regular prices.
You are highly unlikely to find any bulb designed for marine aquarium use priced regularly at $20. $80 is a "usual" price for a metal halide lamp.
When you get into the cheaper ones, you end up with bulbs that do not have nearly the quality. To name a two of the biggest aspects...
1. Halide lamps get their color temperature output from a cocktail of chemicals doped into the inner envelope, where the arc is actually struck. Cheaper companies do not put nearly the R&D in or they use poorer quality chemicals (or both), meaning the lamp may drift in color over time, causing algae growth and other such problems. A side note: This is the reason why halides made for warehouse lights, signs, etc are so much cheaper. A little color drift doesn't hurt anything in these applications.
2. Halide lamps operate at high pressures and temperatures. Cheaper bulbs are made of thinner, poorer quality quartz, or impure quartz, causing the inner envelope to fracture or explode over time, ruining the lamp.
Of course, you can go through 4 of the cheaper lamps in your case before you get to what an expensive one costs, but unless you have a photometer you are not going to be able to positvely tell what color the lamp is putting out, so if you end up with drift it may be tough to figure out what's causing the problem...
Just some food for thought...
Good info I agree
stanlalee
Active Member
Originally Posted by thedealer
Is there a difference between a $20 10000 k bulb or $80 10000k bulb?
there is a big difference between two $80 10K lamps much less cheap vs expensive. not only color, quality and significant par differences from brand A 10k to brand B 10k of comparable price but design differences as well: german pulse start bulbs-aqualine, most Ushio except 250w, radium ect which dont have internal ignitor and may not fire or work properly on typical american probe start magnetic ballast (require electronic or magnetic ballast with ignitor aka pulse start ballast like blue wave or special order PFO). american probe start bulbs-XM, coralvue/reflux, 250watt ushio ect with internal ignitor which works on everything but may be compromised or color altered on a pulse start magnetic ballast. most of the cheapy's are probe start.
as I found out recently trying to chose bulbs. a) kelvin rating isn't a good indicator of color you'll see (some 10Ks look yellow, some even have blue hue,same bulb may look different on different type of ballast b) price isn't a good indicator of quality. without calling names there are several american bulbs that cost more than they should in relation to the competition. c) unless you have an electronic ballast you need to select bulbs designed to work on the ANSI code of your magnetic ballast (due to above probe/pulse start differences) luckily my LPS has a bunch of tanks with MH pendents with various brand bulbs in each and carries all the popular brands. I could see 1rst hand the 10K rating on the box means next to nothing in regards to what the bulb is going to look like( ex ushio 10k looks almost 6500k yellow, reflux 10k looks like a 14k blue white). Aqualine/AB 10000 13K perfection! (guess which one I got lol).
Is there a difference between a $20 10000 k bulb or $80 10000k bulb?
there is a big difference between two $80 10K lamps much less cheap vs expensive. not only color, quality and significant par differences from brand A 10k to brand B 10k of comparable price but design differences as well: german pulse start bulbs-aqualine, most Ushio except 250w, radium ect which dont have internal ignitor and may not fire or work properly on typical american probe start magnetic ballast (require electronic or magnetic ballast with ignitor aka pulse start ballast like blue wave or special order PFO). american probe start bulbs-XM, coralvue/reflux, 250watt ushio ect with internal ignitor which works on everything but may be compromised or color altered on a pulse start magnetic ballast. most of the cheapy's are probe start.
as I found out recently trying to chose bulbs. a) kelvin rating isn't a good indicator of color you'll see (some 10Ks look yellow, some even have blue hue,same bulb may look different on different type of ballast b) price isn't a good indicator of quality. without calling names there are several american bulbs that cost more than they should in relation to the competition. c) unless you have an electronic ballast you need to select bulbs designed to work on the ANSI code of your magnetic ballast (due to above probe/pulse start differences) luckily my LPS has a bunch of tanks with MH pendents with various brand bulbs in each and carries all the popular brands. I could see 1rst hand the 10K rating on the box means next to nothing in regards to what the bulb is going to look like( ex ushio 10k looks almost 6500k yellow, reflux 10k looks like a 14k blue white). Aqualine/AB 10000 13K perfection! (guess which one I got lol).