Brands of Bulbs.

Rockadile · Apr 4, 2011

i recently aquired a marineland pro series light system with near new bulbs for a great deal.

Only issue i have is the DE halide bulbs are 10k and I just have a hard time witht he color of them. So I am wondering what brand people tend to go with and why, and a good place to order.

btkrausen · Apr 4, 2011

Depends on how "blue" you like your tank. For 14k, a lot of people, like myself, use the Phoenix 14ks. I also like the Reeflux brand of bulbs as well.

Rockadile · Apr 4, 2011

what about the marineland bulbs? My lfs suggested them although without having much knowledge on this I did not want to just take their word for it.

fsu1dolfan · Apr 4, 2011

I don't know much about marineland bulbs and whether they are any good. Personally I would go with phoenix bulbs 14k. Great price and very nice color.

btkrausen · Apr 4, 2011

Yeah, never heard of the Marineland bulbs either. The Phoenix are great, and are pretty cheap IMO. Plus, its been measured lately that they could potentially run up to 18 months with little par drop difference from 12 months.

Rockadile · Apr 4, 2011

I went with the phoenix bulbs. they were pretty cheap

sf_ramsden · Apr 5, 2011

Good choice. I have seen many tanks in person, and for MH I like 14k Phoenix best

drainbamage · Apr 5, 2011

moving this over to the equipment/lighting discussion forum :smile:

fsu1dolfan · Apr 5, 2011

btkrausen said:
Yeah, never heard of the Marineland bulbs either. The Phoenix are great, and are pretty cheap IMO. Plus, its been measured lately that they could potentially run up to 18 months with little par drop difference from 12 months.

Really!?!?! Very cool i did not know this. Is there are thread regarding this? I'll see if i can find it...

ThaBeast · Apr 5, 2011

I've tried a few and like the Phoenix 14K best. I got them from premium aquatics, who is a sponsor here. I've seen the reeflux at a couple of frag swaps and they look really good as well. Not knocking marineland bulbs, but I've never ever seen a post on any forum stating that the user was pleased with them.

Paul_N · Apr 5, 2011

I ran 250w phoenix 14k DE on my 75 for over 3 years and loved them. I switched to SE setup and have Reeflux 250w 20k. The look is very similar to Phoenix 14k on my lumatek switchable ballasts since it overdrives them. The only thing is that one of my Reeflux died at 6 months. I want to try XM 20k on these ballast also to see how they look. I also would like to try aquamaxx 14k as they are suppose to have the same look as Radiums.

btkrausen · Apr 5, 2011

FWIW, when I replaced my Phoenix 14k bulbs after a year, and put brand new ones in, I didn't visibly see any difference in color. To me, that means that I replaced too early, which means these bulbs could def go longer than 1 year.

Paul_N · Apr 5, 2011

btkrausen said:
FWIW, when I replaced my Phoenix 14k bulbs after a year, and put brand new ones in, I didn't visibly see any difference in color. To me, that means that I replaced too early, which means these bulbs could def go longer than 1 year.

When I tore down my 75gallon, my DE Phoenix were at 24 months. I only ran mine around 6-7 hours per day. No algae outbreak, colors looked great, and growth was the same.

CJO · Apr 5, 2011

Phoenix bulbs- premium bulbs at a bargain price!

btkrausen said:
FWIW, when I replaced my Phoenix 14k bulbs after a year, and put brand new ones in, I didn't visibly see any difference in color. To me, that means that I replaced too early, which means these bulbs could def go longer than 1 year.

Without using a PAR meter, it is really hard to tell. Our eyes are not very good at detecting changes in light levels. I've read that you can't really tell a difference until there is a 50 percent difference in light level!

CJ

Paul_N · Apr 5, 2011

CJO said:
Phoenix bulbs- premium bulbs at a bargain price!

Without using a PAR meter, it is really hard to tell. Our eyes are not very good at detecting changes in light levels. I've read that you can't really tell a difference until there is a 50 percent difference in light level!

CJ

There is another thread with a link to a study and it shows that most of the drop off in par occurs in the first 3 months and then until month 18 the drop off was minimal. I got to find the link.

btkrausen · Apr 5, 2011

CJO said:
Phoenix bulbs- premium bulbs at a bargain price!

Without using a PAR meter, it is really hard to tell. Our eyes are not very good at detecting changes in light levels. I've read that you can't really tell a difference until there is a 50 percent difference in light level!

CJ

Agreed, thats why I added visible difference in my post :) I figured there would be some difference, but to my naked eye, I couldn't see it

btkrausen · Apr 5, 2011

Paul_PSU said:
There is another thread with a link to a study and it shows that most of the drop off in par occurs in the first 3 months and then until month 18 the drop off was minimal. I got to find the link.

Yeah, I remember reading that as well. I couldn't remember who posted that up, but I remember commenting on it.