Which MH bulb...?

g13

g13

Member
I currently run 250W DE HQI Phoenix 14K's on my ocean light aqua medic pendant with the stock magnetic ballast. I'm very happy with the look and par that the phoenix bulbs give me but lately I've been hearing that the bulbs life span is only 6 months
. I've never heard that before, I've been running mine for 11 months and thought it was time to buy a new bulb. Does anyone know anything about the life span on the phoenix bulbs?
I'm still interested in getting phoenix 14K's but was interested in hearing some input on other bulbs. Or if anyone has pics of their tanks while using these bulbs. Remember 250W DE bulbs.....
Aquaconnect 14K
Reeflux 12K
I currently only have an rbta, zoo's, mushrooms and just started getting into sps.
All help would be appreciated.
Thanks,
***)
 
shrmnator

shrmnator

Member
if u are happy with what u got, i wouldnt change a thing!! i run 14k hamiltons and am happy with it.. so im stayin with what i know to do good in my tank.. and thats what its all about.. what works in your tank!
 
murph145

murph145

Active Member
yeah phoenix's need changing every 6-8 months i run them too and like the color and output so its worth the changing IMO....
ive heard good things about the other brands u have mentioned too
 
acrylic51

acrylic51

Active Member
I get about 12 months but usually change out before that......Don't really care for the 20k XM's though.......Nice coloration, but very low PAR.....What ballast are you going to run them on?
 
dragonboy

dragonboy

Active Member
Well my corals are pretty large anyhow I don't want them grow all over the place so I go with the 20K but wouldn't it turn yellow over time anyhow.
 
viper_930

viper_930

Active Member
I've been running an 11 month old Phoenix 150W right next to a brand new one and can't notice any difference in color and brightness, though I never bothered testing for PAR or LUX. I just replaced the old bulb for a new one today.
 
L

lbaskball

Guest
Originally Posted by shrmnator
if u are happy with what u got, i wouldnt change a thing!! i run 14k hamiltons and am happy with it.. so im stayin with what i know to do good in my tank.. and thats what its all about.. what works in your tank!

Does that 14k hamilton look just as blue as the 20k XM?
 
acrylic51

acrylic51

Active Member
I've seen them both and you can tell the difference between the 2 bulbs....I like the coloration of the XM better, but as said earlier poor PAR as well as the other XM bulbs except for the 10K. Personally I don't care for Hamilton bulbs had to many bad experiences with them, and wouldn't buy again...
 
hurt

hurt

Active Member
What 20K bulb does have a lot of par? None of them do. I have seen quite a few tanks with 20K XM's that were very impressive, but they all run 400 watters.
 
acrylic51

acrylic51

Active Member
There is a difference in color......They burn hotter, and are overdriven and shorten bulb life, which IMO really isn't worth it......
 
g13

g13

Member
Originally Posted by acrylic51
There is a difference in color......They burn hotter, and are overdriven and shorten bulb life, which IMO really isn't worth it......
Which bulb are you talking about? SE burn hotter then DE that's what sold me on the DE HQI's. I also know that 250W of DE HQI's equals about 300+ Watts of SE. The other things you mentioned, bulb life and overdriven I'm not sure about.
 
shrmnator

shrmnator

Member
Originally Posted by acrylic51
There is a difference in color......They burn hotter, and are overdriven and shorten bulb life, which IMO really isn't worth it......
HQI's burn hotter?? or the SE do?
my HQI's run much cooler then the SE..
 
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