MH Color Choice

[hurrifan]

I have set up a 180 AGA with 400 W MH. They came with 5500K bulbs. These bulbs are kind of yellow. For SPS and LPS what are the best bulbs. I have heard people use 6500K with vho or actinic pc's. Some use 10000K and 12000K alone. What is the best combo? Please help so I do not continue to waste my money.

 

[monkeyboy]

For SPS 6500k Iwasaki's would do you just fine with supplimental actinic VHO's. W/out VHO's i would try a 10k. 20k blubs are a little blue and produce much less PAR than a 6500k. But then again, Dr. Mac grows brilliant colored frags under 20k lamps...

 

[MattM]

Actually the bulbs you have are just fine. Add some blue PC's and the color will clean up to a nice white. We've found that each 400W 5500K bulb requires a pair of 28W actinic PC's to look white.

The 6500K Iwasakis that Monkeyboy suggests will have slightly higher PAR, but they are also yellower and will require more blue to correct the yellow.

 

[hurrifan]

I will be running 2 72" 160 Watt VHO actinic blue bulbs with the 5500K's. Will this make the color white enough?

 

[MattM]

Will probably make it way too blue, but you'll have to try it and see for yourself.

On one of our display tanks we have two Custom Sea Life 400W pendants. Each pendant has a 400W 5500K Hamilton bulb (you might have Venture bulbs, but they're the same), and two 28W PC blues.

So we have a total of 56W blue per MH bulb. Your proposed setup will have 160W blue per MH bulb. Almost three times the wattage. VHO bulbs are a little less efficient than PC, so your lumens per watt will be slightly less, but you will still have a very blue tank IMO.