Which 250 watt MH bulb to get?

[tenshi]

I plan to get 24 inch deep aquarium and plan to get 250 watt MH. But I'm not sure which one to get. :roll: There's the 10,000K Ushio, the 10,000K Aqualine, and the 10,000K XM. I'm setting up a poll for quick reference, but would also like to get your input on why. I would be running them on regular PFO ballasts and SpiderLight reflectors and URI VHO Actinics if that makes a difference. Your input would greatly be appreciated.

Thank you,
Tenshi

 

[liquid]

Did you check out the back issues of Advanced Aquarist? Sanjay had a couple articles on some of the above mentioned halides: http://www.advancedaquarist.com/index/

Shane

 

[MattM]

FYI - the 10K "Euro" from Hamilton is an Ushio.

Also, neither the Ushio nor AB fires 100% reliably on a standard ballast. We normally recommend an HQI or pulse start.

 

[tenshi]

No, I hadn't looked at the article in Advanced Aquarist liquid. I'll take a look at it. I also didn't know that Ushio and the Hamilton were on in the same (Marine Depot has them listed as two different bulbs) or that the Ushio and the AB (AB=?) fired more reliably on a HQI or pulse ballast. Thanks for the info Matt. Keep the poll going, I would really appreciate more of your input.

Tenshi

 

[Anonymous]

They are all made by the same company according to the folks an Inland Reef.

 

[cdeakle]

None listed...

I like the 12,000K sunburst

 

[tenshi]

They are all made by the same company according to the folks an Inland Reef.

Alright, but how com the XM is a whole lot cheaper? Is one made better than another... ? What made you buy the one you have?

None listed...

I like the 12,000K sunburst

Alright I'll list it for you, but what makes you like it better than the others. I've heard that the Sunbursts sometimes don't fire at all, what has been your experience? Is the blue in the Sunburst that much more noticeable?

Tenshi

 

[MattM]

O.K., we never said they are all made by the same company, but many are.

BLV is based in Germany, but they have a factory in Belgium, so they are the source of many of the "Belgian" bulbs. BLV-licht is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Japanese company Ushio, so technically, BLV and Ushio are the same company.

Aqualine Buschke and AquaMedic are the same company.

Aqualine Buschke and Ushio are different companies, but many people lump their bulbs together as "German."

The 12K Sunburst are Chinese made. The same OEM company makes a bulb sold as "10K Euro" and it is the same as the "Blueline" brand sold by Champion. I believe XM is also Chinese, but not sure if it's the same company.

Hamilton sells Ushio bulbs both with the "Ushio" label and their own label. Thay also sell a Chinese bulb that is listed as 10K with their own label, so it's tough to keep them straight.

Hamilton 5500K bulbs are made by Venture Lighting and are listed as 5000K, 5500K or 6000K depending on who you buy it from.

Iwasaki bulbs are made by the Japanese company Iwasaki. They aren't relabelled by anyone else, but you sometimes see them refered to under Iwasaki's U.S. brand "Eye Lighting."

Confused yet?

 

[Anonymous]

Just to add to Matt's post-

Venture does make a 10K bulb now - but I personally haven't seen it fired so I can't comment.

The XM is an Asian made bulb and that explains the low cost. I don't think any of the newer bulbs from Hello Lights have been tested to offer any real certain opinions on them though traditionally all Asian bulbs have suffered from very blue output and horrid par as opposed to say the Radium bulbs out of Germany (often marketed as 20K's here in the US) which are blue but still have at least an acceptable par.

24" is pretty deep. IMO I would suggest going with a proven performer i.e. the German bulbs or even blue fluorescent supplemented Iwasakis. It depends on the type of corals you want to keep.

The reliability thing with the Germans, about 60-70% of the bulbs fired just fine - the others would start up get to about 30% brightness then shut off because they just weren't getting enough voltage to fire. Hence the preference for a Pulse Start or HQI ballast.

cheers

 

[tenshi]

WOW!!! This thread is becoming a wealth of information for me!!
I hope its useful for other reefers, too.

Alright since someone mentioned:

24" is pretty deep. IMO I would suggest going with a proven performer i.e. the German bulbs or even blue fluorescent supplemented Iwasakis. It depends on the type of corals you want to keep.

I plan to mostly keep SPSs and a couple to a few clams but there will be some softies and LPSs for variance. The tanks demensions will either be 72x24x24 or 96x24x24 with a 4" DSB, all depending on what my wife feels will look better in our new home once we get in there.

Keep the opinions and info coming!! I really appreciate all the help you guys are giving us.

Tenshi

 

[Anonymous]

You might want to consider the Coralvue 10k. I have heard they are a good bargin with good results. Check this out

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthrea ... did=254667

 

[Anonymous]

IMO.

I have a 250W PFO HQI pendant running a Ushio 10K DE bulb. I love the crisp white light.
_________________
Entourage Forum

 

[Anonymous]

With 20" of water to penetrate and the desire to do SPS and clams I'd consider going to 250W double ended or at the very least 250W Iwasaki's then. Otherwise if you haven't bought the ballasts yet - then I'd consider upping to 400W and running the germans with some supp blue. Remember the general rule of thumb of one bulb for every two feet of tank length for even light distribution.

 

[cdeakle]

Tenshi,

Thanks for adding ot to the list. I personaly really like my 250 watt 12,000k sunburst. It has a awesome glimmering shards of light and the blue color is great too. You dont need actinics but I added them anyways of course.


The bad thing so far though is the first bulb burnt out after only 3 monthes.
Aquatic light was awesome and gave me a free replacement and didnt even charge me a pro-rated price. The replacement had been up for almost 3 monthes so we will see.....

 

[Modo]

WOW! That link that Wazzel posted is great. It actually help reinforce my original idea of going with a magnetic ballast and Usuio 10k bulbs.

Thanks for starting another good information sink for lights! I can't get enough.....and that's not sarcasm either.

 

[Anonymous]

tenshi- so you are limited to mogul bulbs as opposed to DE's correct?

 

[tenshi]

Actually, I'm not limited to a Mogul socket. The only reason I was thinking about it was because they were cheaper to set up than the DEs, but after doing alot of research on Advanced Aquarist's Online Magazine I'm having to think this over again. It seems that from what I read the DEs deliver more punch per watt than the Moguls.

Let's see if I went for a PFO HQI 250 watt ballast, Spiderlight Reflector with Mogul Socket and cord, and 10K Ushio Mogul Bulb it would run me $287.85 with shipping at Marine Depot, $299.71 with shipping at Reef Splendor, and $329.26 with shipping at Inland Reef.

If I went with a PFO HQI 250 watt ballast, PFO HQI Mini Pendant, and Ushio 250 watt DE bulb it would run me $330.90 at Marine Depot, and $383.84 from Reef Splendor.

So it turns out that I would only save myself $43 per lighting set-up. Since the tank I'm looking at will either be 6' or 8', I'm looking at a savings between $129.00 to $172.00 for the complete MH set-up. I'm starting to think that $172.00 would be worth it to get the DEs. What do you think?

Tenshi

 

[MattM]

...and $329.26 with shipping at Inland Reef.

Minor correction, $305.75. Shipping is free on PFO stuff.

Cheers!

 

[tenshi]

Thanks MattM for the correction on the price.

Tenshi

 

[-JB]

The AB and Ushio SE bulbs are both probe start, so they should work fine on a standard PFO ballast. The only bulb I know of that is a pulse start, that would need an HQI ballast, would be the Radium. I've used both AB and Ushio, personally I like the Ushio. I have an XM10K bulb that is burning in, I'll have info on it next week. It looks to be a pretty bright lamp. But I'll have to wait till it's burned in.

I have never seen the Sunburst but understand it is pretty dim in it's output.

The coralVue 10K is almost as bright as the Ushio but not yellow at all, It's a very nice color if you do not want to go the "blue" route of the radium/XM.

The XM doesn't have as much PAR as a Radium lamp but the spectral analysis looks to be better than the radium.

Personally I think 250 SE MH are fine on a 24" deep tank. I run them on mine and have not had any problems keeping SPS or clams.

HTH