Advice on going from 14K to 10K Halide

We have a marine reef aquarium that has been using 250w 14K metal halide hamilton lighting. We are not happy with the life of the hamilton bulbs however Coralife only offers these bulbs in 10K and 20K.
Will using a 10K or 20K bulb endanger my corals? Will I need to supplement with actinic or white light? or supplement with compact florescent?
We would like to switch to coarlife bulbs but do not want to hurt our reef aquarium.
Please help!

 

MH Bulbs

Coralife bulbs are not the best quality bulbs anyway. I have been using Phoenix 14000K bulbs and they give off a beautiful blue purple color. The 20000k coralife is too blue and dark and the 10000k would need suplementing with actinic if you like some blue in your tank
Adam

 

Pm tangster for some MH bulbs he sells. Dont know the specifics just know they look nice! I know otty uses them in his tank and a few others.

 

i don't think anything will be wrong with the 10k also i don't think you will need to supplement with actinics if you don't mind your corals color getting a bit darker(this isn't a sign of bad health). corals grow faster in the red spectrum. in the blue spectrum they get more colorful(which is why people like actinics).

 

When using a 10000 k bulb you get more of the look you would get out in the wild when you don't supplement actinics. 6,500 k is more like it but 10000k is closer than 14. With 10 k's you tend to get better growth and honestly in my opinion with proper tank conditions the colors is better. The big difference is you get the actual color with 10k than you do with 14. Be sure when you make the transition, to raise your fixture up about a foot and slowly lower it over a few weeks to make sure there's no light shock.

 

I have read many tests on reef centrals web site. Check their lighting section for Sanjays testing. They claim that 10ks XM or ushio give you some of the best light for hard coral growth. You must supplement them with actinics though.
Most of the time I use 250 watt xm 10ks and 96 watt 460nm pcs and vhos on my sps tank. I run the actinics on earlier and off later than my metal halides.
For a little better color I do like the newer 12k bulb that I am currently trying in my tank.
I have used 14k and 20k in the past. For me growth on sps seems slower with these lights .

 

If your going to switch to 10k bulbs I would only go with XM or ushio bulbs. Coral life are crappy bulbs. I used to use a 10k Ushio and I had amazing growth. I am wondering why you are switching to a 10k though. I would stick with a 14k and try a different brand. I would try XM they make a great 15k mh bulb. But if you wanna try the 10k I would def. go with either Ushio as my first choice or XM for my second choice on 10k bulbs.