bulb selection

[bobbittle]

Just curious what you guys would suggest for my setup...

29g reef tank, would like clams and sps throughout tank, was planning on a 250w SE MH retrofit kit with a 20k bulb, which bulb would work best? I like blue but not overlly blue.

[jasonfrey]

Hi,

If you are planning on having a halide only pendant, i would recommend a DE (double end) halide setup. Get some more light, smaller pendant size and more dependable bulbs usually. SE works fine too though.

IN the 20K DE, it's a personal preference. I think the 20K AB bulb looks the best compared to XM and Coralvue. Then the 14K Aquaconnect looks as blue as the 20K AB but more intense. The Hamilton 14K i think looks nice, because it's just a little blue, not too much. THe 20K Geissman should be nice too, but i've not used one before.

If you go SE, your choices are limited in the 20K, have Radium or XM. Radium is brighter and more blue, but XM is a good value and has shown good results with corals. There is a 14K aquaconnect SE and a 14K hamilton available in SE. There is a 13K Geissman but it's not blue at all, more like a 10K.

Hope this helps.

thanks

[reptoreef]

I'm adding a 250 watt DE AB20k on a Hamilton HQI ballast.

[bobbittle]

Thanks Jason, it's going in a canopy, not a pendant, so that's why I'm going SE because I don't really want to mess with the UV glass. Is there a PFO 13k bulb? I thought I'd seen that mentioned somewhere, but perhaps I'm wrong.

[jasonfrey]

A retro kit SE would work just right then. PFO quit carrying the 13K lamps, not sure who the manufacture was on those, i think Venture, so they might still be around. PFO does have some 400's left i think, but no 175 and 250's.

A bulb that is similar in appearance to PFO is hamilton 14K. It's an asian import lamp, but it's done quite well this year, very few problems. So it's defect rating is just as good as the Ushio etc. Not sure on spectral output etc, but I like it far as looks goes.

thanks