Another lighting question

[da6d2003]

Instead of hijacking someone elses thread, here's mine.

Light color in my zoa tank SUCKS. Purple death, PPEs and Jokers look brown. Growth is wonderful. I just don't like brown. If I switch the PCs to 50/50 and turn off the hqi the colors are back to purple.

I've tried everything I can think of.

This is the fixture I'm using.
Coralife aqualight pro (now modified)
2x 55 watt pure actinic pcs
1x 250 hqi
Ballast Aqua medic, ocean light 250, 290watt, class 1.

Bulbs I've tried:
phoenix 14k
radium
aqualine 10k &20k (10k looks like doodoo)
hamilton 14k
ushio 14k
xm 15k & 20k

Is it my balast? Do I need to go to single ended? Please help me

 

[pookstreet]

I don't know if a ballast alone will make all those bulbs look bad. I have the Phoenix 14K on 2 tanks and everything looks fine, the 250W is in an ROIII pendant driven by an IC electronic ballast and the 150W is in a Current Sunpod. I use an Ushio 20K on my LPS/zoa tank. It's a really nice deep blue and it's in a Hamilton Reefstar pendant. For me personally, the Ushio is the preferred bulb for the zoas b/c of the color.

 

[Azurel]

I use the 250 14k Hamilton's and have great color.....Not sure why with all those bulb you have tried that you can't get great color out of your stuff.....Hell that looks like you have tried just about every bulb on the market. I run mine on a Icecap 250 electronic ballast....Have you ever tried to go with 20k MH and change the PCs to 50/50? This way the MH is giving you the actinic spectrum and the PC will give you your white spectrum? Don't know how that would look but just an idea....

 

[twon8]

the hqi will burn the pheonix brighter than an icecap, so it might be worth it to put an electronic on there to see what that looks like.

what size tank is this?

a t5 blueplus bulb would make things look really good imo

 

[da6d2003]

This is a 40 gallon tank. I've done the t5 thing and I can't live without the shimmer of the halides. I thought it made my tank look like a sterile office. Too flat. Great for photography though.

 

[minibowmatt]

what about XM 10K and 2x55w Actinic03? that should mellow things out, give good growth and should hold good colors. VHO actinic would be awesome..

 

[da6d2003]

what about XM 10K and 2x55w Actinic03? that should mellow things out, give good growth and should hold good colors. VHO actinic would be awesome..

I tried the pcs with the xm and the aqualine 10k. The MH is just too yellow and bright to be phased by the 03.

 

[da6d2003]

I scored an electronic ballast yesterday locally. I'll mess with that this weekend. I also learned an important lesson. Microfiber will do nasty things to a hot HQI.

 

[twon8]

This is a 40 gallon tank. I've done the t5 thing and I can't live without the shimmer of the halides. I thought it made my tank look like a sterile office. Too flat. Great for photography though.

im not suggesting only t5's, just one or two as supplementals; a blueplus bulb makes even a 6500k lamp look good

 

[da6d2003]

im not suggesting only t5's, just one or two as supplementals; a blueplus bulb makes even a 6500k lamp look good

Oh... doh!

That's an excellent idea twon. That will be my next step if the electronic ballast doesn't work.

Thanks

I wonder if I can cram 4x 24" t5s into this unit?

 

[da6d2003]

the hqi will burn the pheonix brighter than an icecap, so it might be worth it to put an electronic on there to see what that looks like.

WOW! Thanks twon. Hooked it in last night and it's been running for a few hours now. I had no idea what a difference that would make.

Good call.

 

[surfn]

go to single ended bulbs

 

[da6d2003]

go to single ended bulbs

Geee, thanks

 

[twon8]

WOW! Thanks twon. Hooked it in last night and it's been running for a few hours now. I had no idea what a difference that would make.

Good call.

so do you like it better this way?

 

[da6d2003]

so do you like it better this way?

Yes I do. I still think I'm going to replace the pcs with t5s though.

Thanks for that idea too.