12,000K T5 Bulbs for a reef?

anyone use or know of 12K T5 bulbs? I never knew they exsisted. Got a Odyssea fixture for dirt cheap but it has (2) 12,000K bulbs. I guess i should replace them as i fear it will feed my hair algae?

 

What makes you think the 12k bulbs would do that? A lot of reef aquariums have anywhere from 10k to 20 k bulbs????

Jim

 

Diver, if they are worn out, they can cause a bloom. I think the Kelvin reading goes down as they age, no? Ugh, I left flourescent and have never looked back.

 

I like 11000k bulb myself.

 

The closer to the red end of the spectrum will cause microalgae to grow more than towards the blue/purple end.
You should do fine with 12k bulbs...alot has to do with the eye appeal of your tank-what color do you wish to replicate(deep water reef or possibly a shallow lagoon or tidepool)?

 

That would be a good reason to replace them. If they are old and worn out

Jim

 

Well the 12K adds a lot of brightness, but i hat the design of the light. Ballast is to close to the light so i am going to have to mount it on the tank. THe leg bracket is not wide enough to fit securely on the lip of my tank. But it was cheap

 

WayneG

You can get them from Foster & Smith, thier called white actinic

 

Bulbs around the 12k range are also available from ATI as the aquablue.
Geisseman makes one in this K range as well.

Both of these bulbs are very nice, and arguably the best bulbs in out there for t5ho.

 

i had the 12000k ones by Geisseman.they were very bright.too bright for most of my leathers so i switched back to ati.i got a better look and healthier corals.i'm still not sure what i'm going to get next.i need a better actinic.mine makes my blues look bright green.oh by the way.i have 4x54watt bulbs over a 55 galoon tank