Want to switch to Ushio.....need help

[tegee]

Hello:
I would like to switch out my (3) XM 250w 10k's. It is a bit too white and the color of my sps's has fallen off significantly.

To that end, I need some advice/direction. I have CoralVue electric ballasts and need to know what bulb you recommend that will fire nicely with my setup. I do like a bluer tank over white.

Do you have any suggestions for a sps dominant tank. Looking for good par and have decent growth and really want my color back in my corals. I know a lot to ask, but really need a slam dunk on a bulb as my frustration has been building trying to find the right fit.

Thank you and I look forward to your reply

[sdarmanto]

Hello tegee,

We've never tested the Coral Vue ballasts so I can't be sure as to how they will run the Ushio lamps. From what I could see from their website, it looks like the operating current from the ballast is 2.2A and we recommend at least 3.0A for the lamp current.

Regarding lamp color, the Ushio 14K will be bluer than a 10K but you will still see that your sand and rock will remain true white.

For true blue color then you will have to switch to 20K. Keep in mind that 20K lamps produce 50% of the visible light output and PAR when compared to 10K and 14K lamps. Because the spectrum is heavily weighted towards blue, the rest of the spectrum drops out. Your results will be bluer color but you may end up with slowed growth to the corals. You will also experience a steeper drop in light output and color shift over time with the bluer lamps.

I hope that answers your questions.

Craig Asato
Product Manager
Ushio America, Inc.

[tegee]

Thank you Craig....just the info I was looking for. What ballast do you recommend me running your bulbs on? Looks like whatever direction I go a ballast upgrade unfortunately is in the mix.

Thanks again for your help.....Tony

[petrio]

hi tegee i have used ushio 250 watts 10k bulbs on aqua medic ballast wich are magnetic and the bulbs are less yellow then the xm 10k my ballast pushed these bulbs hard burning them higher then 250 watts so i will think that on your ballast they will have even more white then yellow! good luck

[tegee]

Petrio......I want to switch to a more blue bulb. Maybe a 14k. Sanjay reports that the Ushio 10k on my ballast puts out 85 PPFD. I am worried that if I go to a 14k the Par will drop like a rock. My XM 10k's put out 115 PPFD. Unfortunately he did not test the Ushio 14k, so I do not know the Par value on that bulb.

I really do not have the $$$ to upgrade my ballast to a M80 or the Galaxy Select-a-Watt to be able to push all these bulbs better, so I am really trying to find a good 14k bulb.

Any input form anyone out there would be a great help......thanks.

[petrio]

try reeflux 12k from coralvue you will get the blue that you are looking for but as you worry it is not possible to get the same ppfd that you get from xm 10k bulb as xm 10k is the the highest par bulb in 10 k you can get!! i woun not worry to drop too par in the begining it will seem that the grow is zero then as soon as the corals get used to the lighting you will start to see growth again have you read the ppfd on phoinex 14k bulb with your ballast?

[tegee]

The ReefLux 12k is a bomb at only 52 PPFD. Too low Par for me imho.....

[hypnoj]

I want to follow this thread too. Very tough subject without a first hand view of these bulbs over a tank.

[TotalVapor]

I too am looking to see if I can run ushio 14K bulbs on the coralvue ballast and I have XM 10K bulbs.

This is what I can tell you using a Galaxy Select a watt (setting HQI) and a Hamilton M80 ballast we tested the Ushio 14K to the XM 15K. We got almost the exact same reading between the two ballast. It varied by 1 to 3 par total so not worth upgrading to a $185.00 ballast when you can get the Hamilton for about $90.00 if you shop around.

The Ushio (360 - 365) out performed the XM (254 - 261) by 100 par using a Hamilton reefstar reflector. We used a standard PAR reader. I forgot the brand but I have seen several other people here on RC use the same meter (agoee, i think).

The way we set it up was two 14" buckets and had the reflector suspended over them. Then put the probe below the light and waited about 20 minutes for the bulb to get nice a hot. Once it was hot we moved it around the area of the reflector.

Today I am going to take my 10K XM Bulb out to the shop and test that to compare to the Usiho 14K. This test will be with the Coralvue Lumen Bright 3 DE Metal Halide Reflector and the Coralvue 250W non-dimmable ballast (blue)

I will let you know how it goes.

[slow_leak]

Does anyone know difference between 250 DE Ushio 14K and 250 DE Hamilton 14K on M80 electronic ballast?

Just want to know the color and PAR

[slow_leak]

Manhattan Reef's Sanjay website had following data for my previous comparison.

for 14K's
USHIO DE 14K PPFD 84 CCT 9749 WATTS 328 AMPS 2.92
HAMILTON DE 14K PPFD 56 CCT NA WATTS 285 AMPS 2.75

for 10K's
USHIO DE 10K PPFD 84 CCT 9961 WATTS 306 AMPS 2.82
HAMILTON DE10K PPFD 112 CCT 8234 WATTS 2.86 AMPS 2.86

SO I am of opinion Ushio is a better 14K bulb if you have M80 ballast and like coloration which will be less blue than Hamilton 14K, I am assuming.

Unfortunately I bought defunct IceCap Reef Illuminations with internal Ballast and and stuck with that unknown device for some time. It also might explain acclimation issues I had with a few ORA frags early on with Hamilton 10K.