PDA

View Full Version : Best MH Bulb Kalvin? 10k or 14k?


cleverbs
04/13/2015, 03:27 PM
What is the best 10k or 14k for growth, This is for a frag tank so I dont mind that it doesnt look as pretty as a 20k radium :)

I have read many times 10k is the best I just want to make sure. Do I lose color at all in the actual coral under a 10k? I dont want to grow out frags under a 10k and move them to my display under radiums and have them look terrible.

cloak
04/13/2015, 03:52 PM
The XM 10K's seem to be pretty popular. The colors won't pop like they would under the Radiums, but growth will be good.
For a 14K bulb, the Phoenix bulbs used to be pretty popular as well.

Spinelessspade
04/13/2015, 04:02 PM
Sorry to the OP for hijacking you're thread but what about best K rating for a mixed reef containing mostly softies and LPS

cloak
04/13/2015, 04:18 PM
They'll all work, (65K, 10K, 14K, 20K) but you tend to see the best growth with the lower Kelvin ratings. The bulb does tend to take on more of a yellow appearance the lower you go though, so this might not be to your liking. You might have to supplement it with some T5 actinics or some blue LED's to really bring out the color of the corals. Check out the link below. This should answer some of your questions.

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/subject/lighting.php

Spinelessspade
04/13/2015, 07:14 PM
Thx cloak

whiteshark
04/13/2015, 07:27 PM
FWIW, I have an SE XM 10K running on an icecap electronic ballast which is one of the highest PAR producing combinations. It is yellow, noticeably so. Colors don't really pop until the T5s come on. That said, growth has been very good.

Here is a Red Dragon frag over about 4 months:

http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g282/whiteshark_2006/IMG_4686_1.jpg (http://s59.photobucket.com/user/whiteshark_2006/media/IMG_4686_1.jpg.html)
http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g282/whiteshark_2006/IMG_5424.jpg (http://s59.photobucket.com/user/whiteshark_2006/media/IMG_5424.jpg.html)

The first shot is under LED. There was an adjustment period and it didn't really start growing from the before shot until maybe two and a half months ago. So that is about 70ish days worth of growth.

Bpb
04/13/2015, 09:26 PM
I kind of feel like it depends on what you're trying to grow. A lot of what we keep comes from deeper water where they don't ever receive any wavelengths outside the blue end. I've only got experience with radiums and xm10k bulbs. Under the 10k bulbs some things really blew up with growth and others actually stn and died. Some things just stopped growing and bleached, but resumed growing and regained their deep color when I switched back to radiums. Some things slowed to a stop in growth when switching back to radiums. Mixed reefs are tough to make everything happy with lighting. Not everything has evolved to flourish under the same spectrum. Stuff is adaptable, sure, but when you try various bulbs you can see what corals prefer a deeper blue and what ones prefer more of a full spectrum shallow water light

cleverbs
04/13/2015, 10:02 PM
Well I'm only worried about sps. It's just for an sps frag tank so I don't care what color the bulb is.

Peter Eichler
04/14/2015, 12:19 AM
What you might gain in growth cover the course of growing out a frag a little bit you'll probably lose during the time the coral adapts to new lighting conditions. Radiums can grow SPS startlingly fast... Grow your frags out under similar conditions to your display IMO. In fact, why aren't you growing them in your display to begin with?

cleverbs
04/14/2015, 08:15 AM
What you might gain in growth cover the course of growing out a frag a little bit you'll probably lose during the time the coral adapts to new lighting conditions. Radiums can grow SPS startlingly fast... Grow your frags out under similar conditions to your display IMO. In fact, why aren't you growing them in your display to begin with?

Well right now my display is being torn down and replaced because the brace broke so they are in there. however After its all back and set up ill put them in my display but when I frag them off in the future I will not be keeping the frags in my display, I will let them grow in my frag tank.

Mythicalelf
04/14/2015, 09:12 AM
6.5&10K good for growing and 14-20K more blue tint and slower growth rate but some find more pleasing visually. They all will grow them though.