Please help with MH light question

[johnnjen]

Hey guys, Well we got the MH hung. wow thats alot of light.

But my question is this. With the halide on it makes my tank look Green. everything is green. almost like a yellowish green.

With my florecents on it makes the take look normal. but with out it the MH light makes my tank look horrible

Is this normal? is something wrong with my light?

Thanks

JNJ

 

[ChrisRD]

What lamp is in it (ie. brand, Kelvin rating, wattage, etc.)?

 

[johnnjen]

the light is a sylvania m52 r I am not sure on the kelvin rating but it is a 250w bulb

 

[Meloco14]

Hmm, I don't know anything about Sylvania bulbs, but if it was made for saltwater aquariums it should be fine. MH bulbs tend to need a burn in period, so give it a week or so and see if the color changes. You may want to look for a spec sheet on sylvania bulbs and see what the kelvin rating is, thats what we commonly use to judge bulbs in reef tanks. Anything around 6000-10,000K should be a yellow-white. Higher temperatures go towards the blue end of the spectrum.

 

[johnnjen]

ok here is what I found out about this bulb

Base Type: Mogul (E39)
Color: 4,200K

It doenst seem to be correct kelvin rating does it?

Can someone point me in to the right direction for a better bulb that will take the same kinda base type that way I can just replace the bulb...

thanks

JNJ

 

[Anonymous]

Based on the color temp you have listed it should be a greenish yellow. The lower the color temp the more yellow, the higher the colore temp the more blue. Bulbs rated around 10,000k are usually considered whiteish and the ones around 20,000k are considered blueish. You can offset the yellow by adding actinic bulbs or get a different bulb. If it were me I would get something in the 10,000k to 14,000k range. I have not used mogul bulbs before so I can not reccomend one.

 

[johnnjen]

Based on the color temp you have listed it should be a greenish yellow. The lower the color temp the more yellow, the higher the colore temp the more blue. Bulbs rated around 10,000k are usually considered whiteish and the ones around 20,000k are considered blueish. You can offset the yellow by adding actinic bulbs or get a different bulb. If it were me I would get something in the 10,000k to 14,000k range. I have not used mogul bulbs before so I can not reccomend one.

Well then that expains it then that is what the color is in my tank..

Thanks so much for all your help..

now I gotta get another bulb from somewhere..


JNJ

 

[Anonymous]

No prob. Check out some of the RDO sponcers. I have orderd from a few and had good experiences.

 

[Meloco14]

Yeah, I would recommend getting a bulb that is at least 10,000K. That will be a nice crisp white. If you want it a little bluer go to 14 or 15,000K. If you like a lot of blue then 20,000K. I would say on average most people use either 14,000K MH bulbs alone, or 10,000K MH bulbs with actinic fluorescent suppliment. You can get bulbs from any online supplier, or probably your LFS. Personally I like www.hellolights.com. They are a reefs.org sponsor, and I have always had great service from them.