New MH but .......yellow????

stuckinfla

Active Member
Just put up two retro's with aqualine 175 - 10K. The whole house is lit up, but tank looks on the yellow side. I think I remember reading somewhere that the bulbs will do this during the break in time and after about 2wks will then show more crisp white. I hope this is correct, anybody familiar whith this?? Is it normal, or bad bulbs?
 

calvindo

Member
10k bulbs are usually yellow. i would add an actinic or use 14k/20k bulbs.
I'm running dual 250 mh 20k bulbs, along with 1 actinic and 1 50/50 vho's. very happy with this set up! :D
 

rayraypico

Member
Stuckinfla thanks for the mail:joy:
I have 20k MH bulbs. When I first turn on they are a bit yellow but after about 1 min when they heat up they light up the water with a blueish tint. 20k bulbs supply the blue tint I would think that a 10k bulb would also start up yellow but once the bulb heats up which take about a min or two it would not stay yellow.
Maybe somebody with 10k bulbs could give you a more precise answer
 

calvindo

Member
oh yes it will.... :yes: I use to run 10k bulbs... if you want the blue tint, you gotta go with 20ks, if not... get some actinic vho's.
by the way, theres no such thing as break in period for bulbs. whenever the light is turn on, it will take about a minute or so to light up to its true color.
 

golfish

Active Member
Try running some carbon for a few days. This will clear up the tank a bit and get you used to the color. The color wont change much but you'll get used to it.
 

nvmycj

Member
some lighting questions folks.......
Metal hyalides are rated by 10K and 20K, right? Is the 20K stronger than teh 10K?
What do the actinic bulbs do? And what are the VHO's? What's a 50/50 VHO?
And I'm not too sure what 2-65 PC's bulbs are.
All these lighting differences and ratings get the better of me. I plan on buying a metal hyalide 20K, with 2-65 PC bulbs for $500.00. Too much? That's what the guy at the local fish store recommended. Is he F.O.S.? Thanks for any info.
 

oscardeuce

Active Member
The kelvin rating is the "temperature" of the bulb. As the temperature increases the colors shifts to the blue/white region.
Think of stars. An orange star is cooler than a white dwarf. a 6,000-10,000K bulb will be more orange-yellow, a 20,000K willbe blue white.
 

tanksalot

Member
I have to disagree with calvindo, there is a break in period for bulbs. I just swithched from 10K to 12K. When I first turned the 12K bulbs on they were very blue, just as blue as my actinic bulbs. But after about 20 hours or so they became a very crisp white with a hint of blue. Im not sure if that is normal but thats what I saw with my setup.
 

stuckinfla

Active Member
See, now the reason I went with the 10K was that on all the post here, everyone said that they are the "white"ones. Higher rating bluer bulb, lower yellow-green. I do hope there is a break in period, I have not yet hooked up the actinic supp. Thats my weekend project.
 

nas19320

Active Member
Not every 10K bulb will look the same, different ballast bulb combos will yield slightly different colors. I am running XM 10K's on Icecap electronic ballasts and my bulbs are a bright crisp white. Actinics will help greatly to change the color.
 
T

tizzo

Guest
Mine are on seperate switches and if I yurn off my actinics (VHO) then the tank looks, well... ugly. It's still clear and everything, it is just not a crisp and bright!!
 

stuckinfla

Active Member
Ok.....now acclimation. I have run this tank for six years with just 80W of flour. - 40w actinic & 40w 20K. I put the MH (350w) on for 2hr last night, and will do 2hr now. Should I also do 2hr later in the evening or is that to much in one day? I dont have room under the canopy for the strip hood, so how can I give them light the rest of the time? How long each day, and increase that time by how long after how many days?
 
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