Normal for halides?

stuckinfla

Active Member
What exactly do you mean full strength? I had a prob with mine a while back, turned on & off for 2-3 hrs and sometimes 8 before they would stay lit. Turned out they were pulse & I was running probe.
 

shnabbles

Member
I dunno i was looking at a Jebo lighting fixture on ---- and the seller says its normal for the light not to be bright when you first turn it on and reaches maximum strength after 4 hours!!!
 
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thomas712

Guest
3 or 5 minutes is about right, however if you have the wrong ballast then you could have some other type of problem, or if your ballast is going bad then there could be a problem.
Do not confuse this with burn in time. With new halides the normal burn in time is like about 100 hours.
Thomas
 

spicy meat

New Member
what do you mean by burn in time, I'm curious, I just got a new 175 w 10k bulb and it looks quite yellowish, will that go away soon? or did I just get a cheap bulb by mistake?
 

devildog01

Member
Originally Posted by spicy meat
what do you mean by burn in time, I'm curious, I just got a new 175 w 10k bulb and it looks quite yellowish, will that go away soon? or did I just get a cheap bulb by mistake?
10k's are VERY YELLOW. It is just the color of the bulb. If u dont like it I would get a 20k.
 

fishieness

Active Member
i have the odyssea (what jebo became) and in the instructions it says 5-30 minutes....... but it appears to be only about 2..... that is all you can tell with the

[hr]
eye anyways. i have a 10000K because i thought it would be white like the PCs.... but it is a little yellow.... ill go with a 15000 or 14000K next time.
 

spicy meat

New Member
the weird thing is I have a double fixture, the one bulb is crisp white and this one is yellowish. different bulbs, got them at different places because of being out of supply, didn't think they would eb that different. I'll just have to look what brand the crisp white one is, I like the look of that one. let me know if there is something I'm overlooking. thanks
 
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thomas712

Guest
Originally Posted by DevilDog01
10k's are VERY YELLOW. It is just the color of the bulb. If u dont like it I would get a 20k.
Thats just wrong, I've run 2 10k bulbs, XM and Ushio, both have a good bright light to them. Oshio was a bit more yellow than the XM that had a very good crisp white light.
 

hurt

Active Member
If you want PAR go with the 10k's. Par=growth. If you want better color in your corals and less growth, go with 20k's. Tradeoff's between the two unfortunately. I personally run XM 10k's supplemented with VHO actinics.
 
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thomas712

Guest
Originally Posted by Hurt
If you want PAR go with the 10k's. Par=growth. If you want better color in your corals and less growth, go with 20k's. Tradeoff's between the two unfortunately. I personally run XM 10k's supplemented with VHO actinics.
Yes and no on the color, you see you can always supplement with VHO or PC for that extra color appearance. There I would recommend the URI actinic bulbs. Its a ballance that most reef keepers have to learn to deal with. Depends on what your goals are with your tank and your corals.
As to the par in my case its the PFO HQI ballast so I wind up with a much higher PAR value 835 XM vs. 617 Ushio. Thus I changed to the XM Bubls.
Thomas
 
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thomas712

Guest
Originally Posted by spicy meat
what do you mean by burn in time, I'm curious, I just got a new 175 w 10k bulb and it looks quite yellowish, will that go away soon? or did I just get a cheap bulb by mistake?

New metal halide bulbs require up to 100 hours to burn in and could flicker or turn off during that "break in" period. If your bulbs are not new and flicker or turn off then you need to check that you are using the correct ballast for your bulb.
What is the brand on your bulb?
What ballast are you using?
HTH
Thomas
 

hurt

Active Member
Yes and no on the color, you see you can always supplement with VHO or PC for that extra color appearance. There I would recommend the URI actinic bulbs. Its a ballance that most reef keepers have to learn to deal with. Depends on what your goals are with your tank and your corals.
I'm not sure we are talking about the same thing. I do use two 110w URI VHO super actinics with my 10k XM halides. I am talking about supplementing actinic's along the 10k's only for your eye's viewing pleasure, not necessarily for the corals overall color. What I meant was that 20k's will make your corals show more color than 10k's supplemented with actinics. However 20k's don't have near the PAR that a 10k does-so it's a tradeoff between the two bulbs. Coral growth vs. coral color.
As to the par in my case its the PFO HQI ballast so I wind up with a much higher PAR value 835 XM vs. 617 Ushio. Thus I changed to the XM Bubls.
My point exactly, with your same ballast and using 20k XM's you will only have 314 PAR. 835 PAR(10k) vs 314 PAR(20K)-big difference. I believe our reference source is the same. :thinking:
 

mudplayerx

Active Member
I have pendant metal halide lights and would like to add some actinics for some color. What do you guys recommend? It is going to be pretty difficult for me to add additional lighting since it cannot be of a canopy-style at all.
Here is what I have. Any recommendations of what would work in conjunction with these?
 

hurt

Active Member
MPX, the only thing I could possibly think off would be to buy a single strip pc light with actinics. Put it either on the very front or the far back. From the looks of your tank, I would try and put it on the very front. I've also seen a few that can tilt, so that would help even more. But you obviously don't want it blocking the MH so as thin a strip you could find would be best. Hope this helps.
 

salty cheese

Active Member
mudplayerx
You could build a box frame around the tank (a canopy sans the top) and mount some VHO end caps on some 1x2's. URI actinics have the internal reflectors so you could angle the lamps (not sure on the diameter of the pendants) so they shine down onto the tank will still keeping your pendants.
 
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