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View Full Version : Another XM 15,000K MH Thread


pvtschultz
02/22/2006, 10:27 AM
It has been a while since I have been active in the RC community, been a hectic year at school so far. Anyways, last year (around September or October I think) I ordered a pair of 175W XM 15,000K lamps for my 90 gal tank mainly because I was hoping for color and PAR levels between the 20kK and 10kK lamps and a bargain price. This was of course before any PAR data was available on the lamps but I assumed that XM would follow tradition. Boy did they mess that one up. Anyways, I really like the color of them and only use my actinics for 1 hour a day now, 30 min in the morning and 30 min at night, with the remainder of the day under just the halides.

Question: Have they done anything to bring up the PAR on these lamps since their initial release or is it a lost cause? I will be purchasing now lamps some time late this summer or early fall and hope to get a little more growth out of the few corals that I have in the tank. They are growing, but I'd like to see more but keep the color. Money will be a bit easier to find then so if XMs are out, what about other brands of lamps that have the PAR, run on Magnetic ballasts, and don't require a large spending limit Visa card?

Julio
02/22/2006, 10:54 AM
from what i understand they have fixed the problem, but in your case i woudl go with teh Iwasaki 14K for great PAR and coloration.

pvtschultz
02/22/2006, 10:57 AM
Yeah, I just searched up the Iwaski 14K lamps and Sanjay's tests are very promising. I think that I have found my next lamps. Thanks Julio.

weege1
02/22/2006, 10:58 AM
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6800537#post6800537 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Julio
from what i understand they have fixed the problem, but in your case i woudl go with teh Iwasaki 14K for great PAR and coloration.

Where do you get the Iwasaki 14K's. I have not been able to locate them.....

Thanks,
Luis

Waylander
02/22/2006, 11:10 AM
http://www.coralreefecosystems.com/ltg_bulbs-mh.asp

surfnvb7
02/22/2006, 11:14 AM
i love the color that my XM 15k's put out. my corals look amazing. I have had my bulbs since june right after they came out.

i'm not too concerned about the whole growth factor. i'd rather everything look very good than grow to the point where i have to start trimming in my main tank.

my only BIG complaint, is that i had 2 of these bulbs. and one of them went completely yellow/white around november, bleached out a ton of corals. which means that bulb really only lasted 5-6months before a huge fall off in color. my other bulb is fine, and is very blue most of the day until a couple hrs before they turn off, where they look kinda yellow.

its my understanding that this is a normal problem XM has, with quality control on XM bulbs. in which they dont all perform the same.

the XM 20k is a ton brighter than the 15k.

Julio, can you elaborate on what exactly XM fixed about this bulb?

again, LOVE the color, but not bright enough, and poor quality control.

PiNaPLeX
02/22/2006, 11:25 AM
I was thinking about running 2 250watt XM 15ks in my 90g. I will also be running 2x54w T-5 actinics. I haven't bought the MH bulbs yet, but would anyone recommend this setup as long as the T-5s makeup for some of the PAR that the XMs don't have?

rutz81
02/22/2006, 11:40 AM
XM is supposedly coming out with new 14K Aqualite's in MArch. They cost a lot less then the Ushio's, but, results are still to come. They had the 15K's and not really sure why they went to a 14K model instead, except for the fact they took a ton of bashing on the 15K's.

Personally, when I get my next bulbs, I'm probably gonna try the Ushio Aqualite2's, currently I have XM 10K's, but, hey if I can get some more PAR from my 175's, why not...