[MntReef]

I have a 25 high LPS/Softie tank that I'm going to convert to SPS. I'm thinking about using a Reefsun 250W MH or 250W HQI with 14000K bulbs. I'm not wanting to fork out the extra $$ for actinic supplementation, so that's why I'm thinking this direction. Anyone have any experiences or thoughts with this set up? Are the Hamilton 14000K 250W HQI's the same color as the regular Hamilton 14000K's? I really like the look of the regular 14000K bulb. Are the HQI's significantly brighter?

I've also condisered the PFO Mini 250W HQI Mini Pendant, but I don't think I'll like the look of the 10000K without actinic supplementation, and I'm conncerned that the 20,000K will be too blue. Anyone seen or compared these?

I like the idea of a built-in ballast that I can hang above my tank, so thats why I'm leaning toward the Reefsun. Anyone have some good ideas about hanging a pendant without attaching it to my ceiling? The back of my tank is fairly close to the wall and sits on a metal stand, the stand is 30" high. The tank is 24X12X20.

[Ninong]

You can see what many different 250w lamps look like, both without and with actinic supplementation, here: http://www.cnidarianreef.com/lamps.cfm All of those are SE 250w lamps but the appearance of DE 250w lamps should be similar. As you can see from the charts, the nice blue coloration of the 14,000K lamps comes at the cost of a lot of PAR compared to 10,000K lamps. Most of the 10,000K lamps have more than double the PAR of the Hamilton 14,000K lamps.

[MntReef]

I have viewed that site many times. I struggle because I don't like the look of a 10000K bulb alone, although I know that the PAR is higher. I was hoping to avoid using actinic supplemention. Any good ideas? How important is PAR to Acros? I'm thiking it's a factor in growth rates; what about color, etc? I may not want fast growth rates in my small 25 gal tank anyway. What would you recommend for me? I was hoping to keep my light conversion to around $300. I'm currently runnning a JBJ Formosa Delux with 2X55W PC.

[Ninong]

Think of PAR as just another way of measuring intensity, only it's a measurement of the wavelengths that really count -- photosynthetically active radiation. The only significance of the numbers in that chart are as a comparison between the various lamps of the same wattage. As you can see, the 6500K Iwasaki lamps produced the most PAR as expected by they also had the most yellowish appearance, as expected.

There is no simply answer to your question. I'm running two 250w AB-10000 HQI DE lamps with just two 55w PC actinics and I'm not thrilled with the appearance. It's a crisp white. It's just not bluish at all. I would like to add a single 20,000K lamp to my setup to improve the overall appearance but I don't think I can handle that right now due to problems with overheating. I don't have a chiller.

My personal choice, right now anyway, would be for a combination of 10,000K and 20,000K lamps with either VHO or T5 actinic supplementation. That assumes a fairly unlimited budget and a tank with a chiller.

For your particular tank, you might want to look for a fixture that combines a single 250w 10,000K HQI DE lamp with T5 actinic supplementation. That would give you a lot more intensity than a 20,000K lamp and the actinic supplementation would give you a little blue, too. Sunlight Supply recently started making just such a fixture: http://www.sunlightsupply.com/aquari...re-combo.shtml I have no idea what they look like other than the picture on their website but a combination of a 250w 10,000K HQI DE lamp with two 24w T5 actinics should look nice.

[MntReef]

I have seen the new Sulight Supply Maristar in action at the LFS here in Utah. It's truely state of the art, and seems to produce a nicer crisp white/blue look than that delivered by the AB Aquaspacelights that I've seen. Although I would still like to see more actinic than the Maristar generates. They are very intense however! The problem is that the 24" version is $600+, about twice what I'm looking to pay.

BTW, where are your lastest pics of your 120 Starphire? Your recorded odessy has been invaluable to someone who has struggled to find useful information on Starphire tanks. I plan to build a 225+ starphire into the next house I build.

[Ninong]

I haven't taken any pictures of my tank in the past couple of months for two reasons: (1) My sister's digital camera is broken, and (2) My tank is still recovering from a temperature spike incident several weeks ago.

[MntReef]

Lets say that I go with a Hamilton 400W pendant with 14000K or the 20000K PFO 250W HQI mini pendant for my 25 gal high (20 inches deep). Do you think either of these will give me a PAR that is workable for acros and clams?

[Ninong]

Originally Posted by MntReef

Lets say that I go with a Hamilton 400W pendant with 14000K or the 20000K PFO 250W HQI mini pendant for my 25 gal high (20 inches deep). Do you think either of these will give me a PAR that is workable for acros and clams?

I can't imagine using a 400w lamp for a 25-gal aquarium. This has nothing to do with whether it is a good lamp or not and everything to do with management of heat issues. I would never try anything like that myself.

My personal choice for a 25-gal tank would be a 150w 10,000K HQI DE lamp (either AB or Ice-Cap). The 150w 10,000K HQI DE lamp from AB-Aqualine is really a 13,000K color temperature and it probably has more of a blue-white appearance than other 10,000K HQI DE lamps. It also has a considerable amount of PAR for being only 150 watts. I would have to look up comparisons measured under the same conditions but it would not surprise me to learn that the 150w AB-10000 HQI DE lamp has more PAR than any of the 250w 20,000K HQI DE lamps.

Joe Burger recently posted his test results of a wide assortment of 250w SE metal halide lamps and according to his test results there was a big difference in PAR between some of those lamps. http://www.cnidarianreef.com/lamps.cfm

His chart is a bit complicated because he tested the lamps with several different ballasts but you can see at a glance that the 14,000K and 20,000K lamps had much less PAR than the 10,000K lamps -- he lists the AB-10000 as AB13K. AB-10000 is the brand name and it was not changed even though AB-Aqualine claims that the actual color temperature was changed to 13,000K several years ago.

Getting back to your dilemma, if your number one priority is a nice blue coloration regardless of PAR considerations, I would suggest a 250w 20,000K metal halide lamp. I am not familiar with the newer 250w DE 20,000K lamps so I can't tell you much about those. I have seen the Radium 250w SE lamp in person and it is definitely more bluish looking than the Radium 400w SE lamp. Radium calls their lamps "blau" (German for blue), but we call them 20,000K. They are just being honest in recognizing that it is impossible to assign a meaningful Kelvin number to anything so monochromatic. Manufacturers have a tendency to just pluck these Kelvin ratings out of thin air.

Either a good 150w 10,000K HQI DE lamp or a "good" 250w 20,000K lamp will work for SPS and clams provided you place your SPS and clams in the upper part of the tank. This would hold true regardless of the size of the tank. It's just that smaller tanks present more severe heat issues than larger tanks and most people are hesitant to attempt anything too strong over a small tank because of the heat. A 400w metal halide lamp generates a lot of heat.