New 400 Watt Bulb

[Dace]

I Dropped by Stan's (Smcooler) house last night and was able to take a look at his new lights which look awesome, After seeing the way his lights made the corals look it made me want to get more blue in my lights, the Reeflux's I'm using now don't appeal to me anymore because i have noticed that my blue based corals look awesome but my reds look Pretty bad. I do have to say that i will still be keeping 10k bulbs for the next 8 months (2 months with my existing bulbs and 6 months with some new Reeflux) because i am getting good growth with the RF bulbs and i do have a ton of frags. but in 8 Months i will be going fully 20k's with the 4 vho supplements.
Now to my question
What 400watt 20k bulb works best off a Coralvue Ballast and gives a good look to the tank, I know this is personal preference, but i want to here what you ppl may think.

 

[jackson6745]

Dave FWIW, the only 20k 400w that I tried on a coralvue ballast was the radium........and that looked terrible. Way too blue. That bulb looks totally different on an HQI ballast.

 

[Wes]

what bulb is Stan using now?

 

[mshur]

I use helios and i love it....but, i run it of HQI..

 

[Dace]

Dave FWIW, the only 20k 400w that I tried on a coralvue ballast was the radium........and that looked terrible. Way too blue. That bulb looks totally different on an HQI ballast.

Thanks rich, the radium look awesome on a Pfo Hqi Ballast, but those ballast are too hi on electricity and they over drive the bulb so the bulb needs to be changed to frequently, an not to forget that the bulb is pretty pricey.unless you have lots of mu la, it's hard to keep up with those bulbs, i wish i could afford keeping those bulbs on my thank. cause they look awesome

 

[Dace]

I use helios and i love it....but, i run it of HQI..

what ballast, are they SE bulbs, How much do the bulbs go for

 

[Dace]

what bulb is Stan using now?

honestly, i forgot. but he went with DE bulbs now

 

[mshur]

what ballast, are they SE bulbs, How much do the bulbs go for

I run SE bulb of HQi. I get more pAR. i also try this bulb of IC and they were good too , but with less PAR

 

[Dace]

I run SE bulb of HQi. I get more pAR. i also try this bulb of IC and they were good too , but with less PAR

thanks, are you using pfo hqi ballast

 

[smcooler]

running 400 watt de icecap lamps 20k. frag system 8 lamps vho all icecap.


stan

 

[latino277]

I have been running a 400w 20+k ushio off of a standard pfo ballast and love the color.

 

[Tim]

I`m running 12k SE 400w reeflux w/coralvue ballest and t5 atinic. I was running 10k reeflux but I like the 12k`s much better.