time for new PC bulbs, suggestions please

[Merkur]

Its time to replace the bulbs in my 4x96 watt CSL PC retrofit setup.

aiming for the goal of maxium light available on this setup will you guys give me some advice on bulbs to buy, personnal experiences, asthetic opinions, corals kept,and of course, best vendors.

TIA Tim M Hovey

 

[Gatortailale1]

If you are keeping the CSL PC hood with the 4 96w bulbs, I would put in 1 row/ 2 bulbs of acct. blue; 2nd row 10,000k. The 10k offers nice nice spectrum to help growth.

vendor: http://www.championlighting.com/
or
http://www.championlighting.com/cgi-bin/catalog.cgi?page=Products/Lighting/pclamps.html&cart_id=8726358.27164

 

[Merkur]

I was actully thinking about going with a 4x10,000k scheme. anybody have any idea what this will look like?

can somebody describe the color of the 10,000k CSL pc lamps?

 

[Gatortailale1]

I'm under impression/ belief that the blue acct. help with photosynthesis and coral growth. I may be wrong.

 

[Merkur]

this is a topic worth debating, though as they are right now, i have "blue" pc bulbs, with nothing "actinic" about them.

 

[Jase]

Merkur,

I tried pretty much every combo in my setup, and ended up with 3 6700k, and 1 of the old 7100k blues. I wanted as much PAR as possible as I grow mostly acros.

For looks alone, the old 2 & 2 combo works best for me.

I think the new o3 stink. they are almost purple, and don't seem to complement the daylights well.
JME, etc

 

[Gatortailale1]

I guess I need some clarity, do you have a 6 foot tank with 4 bulbs or a 3 foot/4ft with 4 bulbs?

I have a 125 /6ft and I got 49w and 2 55w on a board inside a all-glass canopy. (My own retrofit) There I run row of 7100 act. blue (55w) and row of 8800 and row of 10,000

 

[Merkur]

90 gallon, 48x18 inches.

 

[LINK]

I have a 180 and I built a lighting box and installed 8-96W PC Bulbs (running off 2-Icecap 660s). On the first Icecap I have 2 true actinic and 2 10,000K bulbs. On the second Icecap I have 4 10,000K bulbs. It is a nice bluish-white. In the AM when the first Icecap comes on, it is a little too blue for my taste, but when the second icecap fires up about 20 minutes later, it looks very nice. HTH

 

[davelin315]

I run 4 actinics and 2 daylight (96W) and was told that the daylights tend to burn corals in PC lighting conditions. This was told to me by a very successful LFS which ran PCs and MHs and VHOs on various tanks. They said that even the corals raised under MH got burned under too much PC daylight.

 

[Lefty1]

Lampsnow.com has more "actinic" looking bulbs than the CSL "true actinic". Also the customer service at Lampsnow.com cannot be beat. If you go with the 4 10000K let us know how they look.

RR

 

[bowfront]

If you have the room in your canopy you could add 2 VHO actinics and run all 4 pc's as daylights. If you want the highest PAR go with 6700k's. Otherwise mix and match to suit your eyes. With that combo you will grow most if not all SPS's without a problem.

 

[HARRISON]

On my 40 gallon tank I run 2 55watt PC's. One is a 10k and the other is actinic. I think it looks pretty good. If I was smart enough to post a picture I would let you see. I can e-mail you one if you like. I just got a new digital camara with the advice of this board...Thanks guys!!!

My new 80 gallon came in today! guess who is feeling the flu coming on for tomorrow