13000K bulbs

I am running 2 x250 fixture on a 46G bow front. I just bought these new bulbs and they were expensive 10000K Metal Halide Bulb - Aqualine AB, Double Ended

It it a MUCH more yellow look than I was expecting. I was using 14k bulbs previously. Is there a break in period for HQI bulbs? So far no neg impact on my soft or stony corals. My green slimer seems to be growing faster but the colors on my fish are not popping like they use to. Has anyone else ever tried these bulbs? I understand they are relatively new.

 

i was actually surprised when I talked with a lighting manufacturer in Macna. I love the look of the 14k bulbs but wanted to increase the growth by switching to a 10k bulb. They showed me some charts etc and basically said that the growth rate is not all that different between the 10k and the 14k. The main difference is the appearance. The 10k is definately more yellow (some of the older reefers love the color) and the 14k is softer, blue color. We have this battle in our house, I love the blue and inwall hates the bluish color.

We kept the 14k bulbs in our grow out tank. We are then going to switch to 20k bulbs when we want to color up the frags better when we sell them. There was a big diffence between 14k and 20k on the growth rate of corals!

 

The 14k was a faster growth rate I presume?

 

oh yeah i am sorry. The higher the K the more blue, hence slower growth. That was why I was so surprised when Pheonix bulbs showed that the 10k and 14k was not all the different in growth rates

 

There is no standard on kelvin temps in this industry. The AB 10000 does test out at nearly 13K depending on ballasts if memory serves me. The Ushio 14K test our at 14K, the Iwasaki 14 K tests out at 14K, dang near every other 14K on the market is a true 20+K. Manufactures will litteraly put whatever they want on a blue bulb. There is one manufacturer that even markets a 10K bulb that tested out to be 20+K. There are no guidlines to marketing aquarium bulbs.

Although I think the Phoenix is the best DE bulb on the market
(so much that my tank was used on the box), it is a 20K and if you look at it on a spectrometer it looks very similar and almost identical to a 250 watt Radium 20K. It had massive PAR nearly that of a 10K so growth should be similar.

 

OK... thanks for the info. I am going to remember that for the next time I buy bulbs.