Saltwater & Reef

sonoma2nv · 01-25-2006, 01:07 PM

I just bought a 2x175w/mh with 2 110w vho's retro kit.I have 2uri antic lights.I need to know what would be better 10000k mh or 14000k.Man i wish i would of seen how much the bulbs cost before i bought it

lol.Thanks Derrick

Joester2k3 · 01-25-2006, 01:16 PM

I think 14000K would be better. I beleive thats the rating as to how deep the light will go and how well it will help your corals and such that need the light. I read somewhere on this forum before that most corals require I THINK 6000K and up but dont quote me on that my memory fails me sometimes. Im sure someone will correct me if im wrong as well as give u a better explination as to why

HTH

tecwzrd · 01-25-2006, 03:28 PM

Since you have the actinic lights I would go with 10K lights IMO. This is a good link to get ideas on how the bulbs compare with/without actinic.

Phyl · 01-25-2006, 04:04 PM

You may also want to take a look into the bulb/ballast combination on Sanjay's Site to see how the PAR (photosythetically available radiation) values compare. The K is the color temperature of the bulb. The bluer the bulb, the higher the K. Generally speaking the higher the K, the lower the PAR. That is not true, however with the CoralVue bulbs. If you could stand the blue-ness of their 20K bulb you get the best par.

The best performing bulb I've seen to date is the CoralVue ReefLux bulb. It has a very large spike in the blue wave length as well as spikes in the lower temperatures to help the bulb to appear more white while still giving you incredible colors on your corals. Some of the bluest of the blue corals I've ever seen have been under the CoralVue ReefLux 10K bulbs.

Good luck with your decision. Probably like asking people what their favorite underwear is!