Kelvin, Whats the best number

looking into buying a MH fixture, wanted to know which is the best kelvin rating?

 

What makes you think that Kevin would know the answer to that question?

J/K.

Well, sunlight at the surface is 6500K, a few feet down is 5000K. 10K is shallow, where many coral reefs naturally occur. 14K starts to get blue, 20K is pretty darn blue. Many folks use 10 or 12K MH with actinics to supplement the blue. Some like 1400K with actinics. It's a matter of personal preference.

I have T5's at the moment, b/c I only have a 55G tank, and for that, T5's suffice, but I have a 5 bulb fixture, and 3 are 6500 (daylight) and 2 are pure actinic. For my preference, I'll go bluer next time around. Maybe 2 6500K bulbs and 3 actinics.

When my 90 is up and running (any day now) I'm going to use the Coralife MH fixture I just bought with the 2-150W MH's (I'm pretty sure they're 10K bulbs), until it's time for replacement, then Im going to buy 1400K lights to replace them.

I think I'm going to like blue. . . .


You'll get a different answer from whomever you ask--and that's a good thing. I personally like the range of responses, as I can cull what I feel is valuable advice and go from there. Missionsix66 uses 14K lights I think and he loves them. You should see the pics of his tank. His corals are poppin!! Coral Reefer is a big fan of blues too.

I find looking at pics of folks' tanks, and asking them what lights they use is a good way to match the visual to the cold hard facts.

Good luck!

 

read this...Kelvin and Spectrum's

 

are those coralife pendants with 10k i have a friend who runs two of them over his 75g reef with amazing results for me i settled for the sunpod 150watt with 14k hqi's

 

thanks for the chart that helped

 

the chart helped thanks

 

No. It's a fixture that houses the HQIs and the PCs.

 

the pc's are dual tube actinic's? a LFS near me uses those over their coral tank and they keep a broad range of stuff under them with good results i like those becuase you can simulate sun rise and sun set, good luck

 

Exactly right.

 

I personally use 2 250w mh with 14000K accompanied by 2 110 watt super actinic 46.5" VHO bulbs. I love the color they give, good pure blue color and my corals seem to love it. As mentioned before this is personal preference, everyone has there own! Here is my tank thread ( http://www.3reef.com/forums/show-off-your-fish-tanks/bmshehan-s-55-a-45604.html ) if you wanna scroll through and check out some of the pics of my tank with the lights on. Good luck!!