Phoenix 14K 250W DE vs 20K 250DE

[CNDReef]

I don’t know about the 6500k from Hamilton but I know a guy local to me that runs the 10k on his tank then after 18 months he switches those bulbs over to his grow out tanks and puts new bulbs on the display...his corals in the grow out tanks grow great!


Corey

That actually seams like a great idea of getting more life out of the bulbs since the color shifts to yellow and the corals don’t really care about what we see , just what they need.

 

[cwk84]

If you are talking SPS most come from very shallow water and are exposed to these colors and UV. There are some completely exposed at low tide to what ever the sun throws at them.

LPS and softies mostly see little to none. Probably the biggest challenge in this hobby is trying to keep corals from all different depths and zones.

Most corals collected for the hobby are collected from shallower depths just because it is easier so most probably get some. Depends on the coral .

I posted this picture in another thread:

Also look at the corals on this p[age exposed. There are pretty many colorful ones in both pictures:
The better ones would be cherry picked for the hobby. That is one reason we see so many colorful ones in the hobby. No one is collecting the brown ones.

A Response to ABC’s Media Watch’s “Shoot the Coral Messenger” Flimflam!

Guest essay by Jim Steele Director emeritus Sierra Nevada Field Campus, San Francisco State University and author of Landscapes & Cycles: An Environmentalist’s Journey to Climate Skepticism Gre…

wattsupwiththat.com

So the couple purple ones are the healthy ones? I’d like to see a 6500k SPS tank with rich colors.

 

[Bpb]

That actually seams like a great idea of getting more life out of the bulbs since the color shifts to yellow and the corals don’t really care about what we see , just what they need.

I have a friend that ran an acro dominant tank for a while, and during that 4 year span, he used the same 10k oddysea 10k mh bulbs. For 6 hours a day. Yes. For 4 years. He had the most dramatic growth of any tank I think I’ve ever seen. Colors were meh

 

[cwk84]

I have a friend that ran an acro dominant tank for a while, and during that 4 year span, he used the same 10k oddysea 10k mh bulbs. For 6 hours a day. Yes. For 4 years. He had the most dramatic growth of any tank I think I’ve ever seen. Colors were meh

I thought a 10k bulb or even 6500K will color up corals more?

 

[biecacka]

The guy I am speaking of is a huge SPS grower known all over. It works for him.

Corey

 

[Sea MunnKey]

My all time favourite MH bulb is the Aqua Medic 250W DE 20K aside from Phoenix 14K

 

[cwk84]

The guy I am speaking of is a huge SPS grower known all over. It works for him.

Corey

So his main focus is growth, not color? Does he have a website?

 

[shred5]

So the couple purple ones are the healthy ones? I’d like to see a 6500k SPS tank with rich colors.

To me color is not a indication of health.

 

[cwk84]

To me color is not a indication of health.

Why do corals brown out in less than ideal conditions?

 

[shred5]

Why do corals brown out in less than ideal conditions?

Let me rephrase that: Basically a coral that is more colorful or less colorful than another is not a indication of health. Color can be a indication of health though.

Brown color is not always a indication of health.. There are allot of corals that are just brown that are perfectly healthy... A coral can turn brown because of lower light because it needs more zooxanthellae to produce food for itself but does not mean it is unhealthy.
Honestly we do not know if a colorful coral is more healthy or not either.

A color shift can mean something is wrong. A bleached coral or coral with little color can indicate a issue..



Just like polyp extension it does not necessarily mean a coral is healthy either. Best polyp extension I have seen was right before a coral RTN'ed.

 

[A. grandis]

To me color is not a indication of health.

Color is a good part of the equation to indicate healthy corals. Specially for the hobby.
Proof is that you wouldn't buy a "colorless healthy coral", would you?
Even if it's a brown coral, it needs to have the good brown coloration to be defined as healthy. Some corals are actually brown by nature.
Agree?

 

[A. grandis]

Why do corals brown out in less than ideal conditions?

Some corals are brown by nature.
Some others will loose the ability of keeping their natural pigmentation because the light offered to them lacks in what they receive in nature from the sunlight. Halides will have most of the aspects sunlight offers, like the good intensity together with UV and IR (people see IR as heat only, big mistake).

 

[A. grandis]

So his main focus is growth, not color? Does he have a website?

Pictures? That would be great.

 

[cwk84]

My tank finally finished its cycle and the water cleared up. I'm aware that my corals look like sh... due to my old tank crash. So here is the picture with T5 supplementation (actinic/blue plus):

It is not as "blue" in person. It is more yellow/white. The anemones look brown and lifeless under these bulbs. I had them in my nano tank under 4 T5s and they looked really nice. Maybe they are also not as "healthy" as I thought they were. I googled some RBT pictures taken in their natural habitat and they look super flashy in natural sunlight under water so I guess I will have to wait and see if they color up. I'll post another picture with the Ushios when I get them.


For comparison, this is a tank with the same bulbs on the same blue wave M80 ballasts that I have.

See how much cooler the spectrum is? It's a really icey white with a tad of purple. These are the same bulbs. Mine do NOT look like that not with nor without T5s. How can there be such a dramatic difference? I think he even has the same fixture just smaller. Ballasts the same, bulbs the same, fixture the same, yet his look more like xenon lamps whereas mine look like Home Depot E27 living room bulbs with some windex blue T5s.

 

[A. grandis]

Same ballast? Same bulbs?
Answer: the difference is in the camera or Photoshop.

 

[cwk84]

I'm familiar with photoshop. There are limits as to what you can do to pictures in terms of color. Less saturation, black and white effect with low opacity, color adjustments will all change things but if the base picture isn't anywhere near what you want to illustrate it won't work. I just tried it with the picture I took. No matter what I do, it will not look like that.

 

[CNDReef]

Just tried adjusting your picture with snapseed but since I can’t visually see your tank it’s hard

 

[Bpb]

Yes the difference is in the camera and likely the bulb age may be at play also. For what it’s worth your tank looks like a 14k tank shot with a cell phone. It doesn’t look like anything is wrong with your bulbs. That overall hue looks correct. As you and everyone have said it sounds like you just need to rework your setup if you’re wanting to go with halides, and get electronic ballasts and 20k bulbs, or just go all t5 or leds if you need to go bluer

 

[TheGreatWave]

Be honest you guys, it's not the camera, it's not photoshop. MH is easy to photograph.

MH will never look as good as a T5/LED tank. (Sorry) You will never find a MH bulb to look like a picture of said bulb on the internet. It's strictly luck of the draw that you will like it if you haven't used that particular bulb before.

There are only 1 or 2 bulbs that a majority of people like, the rest most people think look terrible.

Remember one of the biggest proponents of MH here keeps a big tank of zoas, so don't listen to the nonsense about needing MH to grow SPS etc. (Not my rules)

If you read between the lines, even @Bpb is basically telling you ya, it's supposed to look like that.

A coral growing facility can buy a 1000watt MH for $300. A coral growing facility can buy 1000watt of Radion LED for $10,000.

For some reason a coral facility will pay 30 times more for a LED light. Hmm.

 

[Bpb]

If you read between the lines, even @Bpb is basically telling you ya, it's supposed to look like that.

No lines to read through. I’m flat out saying the hue of his bulb appears normal. He was just hoping for bluer, as most people are when they come from leds to metal halides.

But don’t get me mixed in with your insults. I’m not berating people here. Keep me out of it