Bulb Decisions

[kimmeewoo]

I'm making final decisions about my lighting design. Should I use 10,000K German 250w bulbs alone without actinic supplementation, or should I use 6500 Iwasakis with actinics? I do not currently have a way to provide actinic supplementation, so I would need to buy another setup for them if I go that route.

-Anybody using 10,000Ks with no actinics?
-If I use actinics, how long will the bulbs last?

[naser]

its me again.... those pics i sent you are both with atinics.. the 10k with atinics is a nice color. the 6500k is still alittle yellow for my liking. ive got a 12000k bulb that i could take a pic of in case you dont want to go with any atinic? let me know.

[PerryinCA]

Personally I think that running 250w 10k leaves some intensity to be desired. I like the look of the Iwasaki + some actinic. You do save about $100 on lamps when you go the EYE route, and that could be applied to the actinic. On top of that the iwasaki will last two years compared to the 1 year of the 10k. Now HQI is a different matter, but then you are going to lose a fair amount of coverage compared to the Iwasaki with a parabolic reflector.

I say Iwasaki + Actinic is the best bang for the buck.

-Perry

[Ironreef]

If you don't already have pc/vho or no lighting you may want 10k without actinic. But the vho looks nice. You can always add some later but for now i would try 10k. But I like 6.5 with actinic it's seems alot brighter.

[chromis]

your corals need the actinic anyway, go for the iwasakis. A 10k bulb really is no comparison to to an iwasaki