Product Review: Spectral Analysis of CoralVue Reeflux 120000K and and Reef Optics Metal Halide Lamps

by Sanjay Joshi | Mar 15, 2007 | 0 comments

This article presents the spectral analysis of the six lamps and their corresponding ballasts as listed in Table 1. These lamps were tested using the identical setup to all my previous tests, thus allowing for direct comparison between the lamps.

Table 1: List of Lamps Tested
Lamps	Ballasts
CoralVue 400W Reeflux 12000K	PFO-HQI Taiwan – HQI Standard Magnetic (M59) IceCap (Electronic) Blueline (Electronic) Coralvue (Electronic) EVC (Electronic)
CoralVue 250W Reeflux 12000K	PFO-HQI Standard Magnetic (M59) IceCap (Electronic) Blueline (Electronic) Reef Fanatic (Electronic) EVC (Electronic)
CoralVue 175W Reeflux 12000K	Standard Magnetic (M57) Icecap (Electronic) EVC (Electronic) Lumen General (Electronic)
Reef Optics 250W 10000K Reef Optics 250W 14000K Reef Optics 250W 20000K	PFO-HQI Standard Magnetic (M59) IceCap (Electronic) Blueline (Electronic) Reef Fanatic (Electronic) EVC (Electronic)

CoralVue 400W Reeflux 12000K

Table 2: CoralVue 400W Reeflux 12000K performance on all ballasts
Ballast	Power Watts	Input Volts	Input Amp	PPFD	CCT	Efficiency PPFD/Watt
Magnetic	422	121.6	3.87	96.2	NA	0.2280
Taiwan HQI	468	121.3	4.08	133.6	NA	0.2855
CoralVue	449	121.2	3.80	125.5	NA	0.2795
EVC	428	122.2	3.61	120.8	NA	0.2822
Icecap	426	122.1	3.58	116.0	NA	0.2723
Blueline	386	121.3	3.27	101.5	NA	0.2630
PFO-HQI	544	120.9	5.30	159.0	NA	0.2923

Figure 1: CoralVue 400W Reeflux 12000K Lamps on all ballasts

CoralVue 250W Reeflux 12000K

Table 3: CoralVue 250W Reeflux 12000K performance on all ballasts
Ballast	Power Watts	Input Volts	Input Amp	PPFD	CCT	Efficiency PPFD/Watt
Magnetic	263	122.1	2.68	45.2	NA	0.1719
Reef Fanatic	262	122.3	2.23	52	NA	0.1985
EVC	269	122.5	2.29	54.4	NA	0.2022
Icecap	255	122.4	2.31	51.1	NA	0.2004
Blueline	255	122.9	2.17	48.1	NA	0.1886
PFO-HQI	335	122.3	2.93	74.7	NA	0.2230

Figure 2: CoralVue 250W Reeflux 12000K Lamps on all ballasts

CoralVue 175W Reeflux 12000K

Table 4: CoralVue 175W Reeflux 12000K performance on all ballasts
Ballast	Power Watts	Input Volts	Input Amp	PPFD	CCT	Efficiency PPFD/Watt
EVC	187	123	1.6	43.8	NA	0.2342
Icecap	182	122.4	1.66	40.5	NA	0.2225
Magnetic	168	122.2	1.96	25.1	NA	0.1494
Lumen General	182	122.7	1.66	40.8	NA	0.2242

Figure 3: CoralVue 175W Reeflux 12000K Lamps on all ballasts

Reef Optics 250W 10000K

Table 5: Reef Optics 250W 10000K performance on all ballasts
Ballast	Power Watts	Input Volts	Input Amp	PPFD	CCT	Efficiency PPFD/Watt
PFO-HQI	344	120.8	3.1	104	7746	0.3023
Blueline	256	121.3	2.19	74.8	14245	0.2922
Icecap	257	122	2.34	77.2	16007	0.3004
EVC	266	121.8	2.28	82.4	11050	0.3098
Reef Fanatic	263	121.5	2.26	79.3	12291	0.3015
Magnetic	293	121.8	2.8	74.2	12145	0.2532

Figure 4: Reef Optics 250W 10000K Lamps on all ballasts

Reef Optics 250W 14000K

Table 6: Reef Optics 250W 14000K performance on all ballasts
Ballast	Power Watts	Input Volts	Input Amp	PPFD	CCT	Efficiency PPFD/Watt
PFO-HQI	342	121.5	3.02	54.4	NA	0.1591
Blueline	256	122.5	2.18	38.9	NA	0.1520
Icecap	258	122.6	2.32	41.3	NA	0.1601
EVC	264	122.7	2.24	38.9	NA	0.1473
Reef Fanatic	262	122.8	2.23	44.2	NA	0.1687
Magnetic	296	121.4	2.82	45.9	NA	0.1551

Figure 5: Reef Optics 250W 14000K Lamps on all ballasts

Reef Optics 250W 20000K

Table7: Reef Optics 250W 20000K performance on all ballasts
Ballast	Power Watts	Input Volts	Input Amp	PPFD	CCT	Efficiency PPFD/Watt
Reef Fanatic	262	121.4	2.25	45.4	NA	0.1733
EVC	266	120.9	2.29	43.5	NA	0.1635
Icecap	258	121.4	2.34	44	NA	0.1705
Blueline	256	122.1	2.18	42.5	NA	0.1660
PFO-HQI	349	121.4	3.08	59.8	NA	0.1713
Magnetic	297	121.6	2.82	52.6	NA	0.1771

Figure 6: Reef Optics 250W 20000K Lamps on all ballasts.

Conclusions and Discussion

As seen from the data, the Reef Optics 20000K and 14000K have very similar spectrums and 20000K has slightly better output. Comparison to other lamps rated at 14000K and using a 250W HQI ballast shows that the PPFD range for these lamps on this ballast is from 109 to 64, and this lamp falls outside the range at the low end. For the 250W 20000K Reef optics lamp, the range of PPFD on a HQI ballast for all other lamps is from 106-67, and this lamp also fall outside the range at the low end. The Reef Optics 250W 10000K lamp is within the range of the other lamps tested with the HQI ballast but falls towards the high end of the bottom third.

The Coralvue 12000K lamps are also poor performers in terms of PPFD values especially the 250W lamp. The data shows that the Coralvue Reeflux 175W lamp performs only slightly lower than the 250W lamp. The 400W Reflux 12000K will spectrally appear quite blue as shown by the spectral plot, with output very similar to lamps sold as 20000K.

There is basically nothing in these lamps that makes them stand out among the crowd of low cost, low output metal halide lamps that have recently swamped the hobby. Additionally, its becoming quite clear that there is a large influx of lamps rated from 12000K-15000K that have very similar spectral characteristics of a blue lamp with the large spike at around 454 nm with lower output’s else where. A user preferring a blue look is probably better off with lamps being sold as 20000K.

Sanjay Joshi

Sanjay Joshi in real life is a Professor of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering at Penn State University. He has been a reef addict since 1992, and currently keeps several reef aquariums at home including a 500G SPS coral dominated reef. He also co-manages the 500G aquarium at Penn State. He has published several articles in magazines such as Marine Fish and Reef Annual, Aquarium Frontiers, Aquarium Fish, and Advanced Aquarist. In addition, he has been an invited speaker at several marine aquarium society meetings in the US and Europe. He received the MASNA award in 2006, for his contributions to the marine aquarium hobby.

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