What k value gives the best acropora colour?

[Pomme]

What k value gives the best acropora colour?

I am thinking of adding more light to my tank and am wondering what k value gets the best colours out of acropor's. I am just looking for colour and dont mind about growth.

Andrew

[Ninong]

What k value gives the best acropora colour?

I am thinking of adding more light to my tank and am wondering what k value gets the best colours out of acropor's. I am just looking for colour and dont mind about growth.

Andrew

This is a matter of personal preference because beauty is in the eye of the beholder. What may be "best" for one person may not be the same as what is "best" for another.

My personal preference is for a combination of 10,000K and 20,000K metal halides with actinic supplementation. I have not seen any of the newer metal halides that have recently hit the market so I don't know about those. I am running 250w 10,000K HQI DE lamps with a small amount of actinic supplementation and would love to add a 20,000K metal halide lamp to give it a bit more blue but that may be impractical right now.

There are hundreds and hundreds of pictures of really nice reef tanks online now. Granted it is difficult to base your decision on pictures alone but the ones that look really nice to me are the ones running 10,000K & 20,000K halides with actinics.

[Pomme]

so do you think that a main light of 250 14k with actinic supplementation and 150 20k is a good mixture

[Ninong]

so do you think that a main light of 250 14k with actinic supplementation and 150 20k is a good mixture

I have no idea because I have no idea which 250w 14,000K metal halide lamp you are thinking of and, to be honest about it, which 150w 20,000K metal halide lamp. The only 14,000K metal halides I am familiar with are the ALS Sunburts lamps and I have a very unfavorable opinion of those. The only 150w 20,000K metal halides I am familiar with are the Ushio/BLV 150w 20,000K HQI DE Colorlites and I like their appearance (very blue) provided they are employed merely as a supplement to something stronger.

Getting back to the question of 14,000K metal halides: The 14,000K ALS Sunburst, for example, is a very blue lamp with not much total PAR. It is much bluer than the Osram/Radium 20,000K metal halides.

Unfortunately it is not possible to talk about metal halide lamps without knowing the brand name and having some familiarity with exactly what it looks like and what its PAR output is. This holds true whether you are trying to compare lamps of the same wattage or lamps of the same advertised Kelvin color temperature.

[Pomme]

yeah sorry it must be the pond issue again.

the 250 14k de is made by a company called arcadia:
Arcadia



And the 150 watt 20k de:
Marine Lighting

Blv

does this help?

[Ninong]

Yes, that helps a lot.

I'm not sure that Arcadia makes any lamps at all. I always thought that BLV (which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Ushio) made all of Arcadia's metal halide lamps. The BLV plant near Munich (which has two Japanese directors) makes lamps under various brand names.

I am not familiar with the 14,000K lamp so I have no idea what's up with that. I am very familiar with the 150w 10,000K HQI DE and 250w 10,000K HQI DE lamps and the 150w 20,000K HQI DE Colorlite because those are all made by BLV and sold by Arcadia in the U.K. I think. If I'm wrong on that I'm sure someone will pop up and say so. Who makes what and under which brand names is very confusing and the manufacturers like to keep it that way.

I think that a combination of their 250w 10,000K HQI DE lamps and 150w 20,000K HQI DE lamps would be excellent. I wish I knew something about their 14,000K lamps but I'm afraid I don't.

[Pomme]

if you were to do it and you had a single 250 watt 14k de and two 18 watt actinics, would you add one or two 150 watt halides?

[Ninong]

if you were to do it and you had a single 250 watt 14k de and two 18 watt actinics, would you add one or two 150 watt halides?

Sorry, I can't help you there because I have no idea what that 14,000K lamp looks like.

My tank is 120 gallons. I have two 250w 10,000K HQI DE lamps and two 55w actinic PC fluorescents. I would like to add either a 150w 20,000K or a 250w 20,000K lamp in the middle to give me some more blue.

[Pomme]

sorry for all the q's.

okay i think i have decided between two lighting set-ups. could you please suggest which you think would work best:

lighting 1:
use the existing light i have as is (so 250 watt 14k de and 2 18 watt actinics) and then add 2 of the stm 150 watt units with 20k de bulbs. this would give me 6 watts per g.

or,

lighting 2:
use the lighting i have but change the metal halide bulb to a 250 watt 20k de, and the get 2 of the stm 250watt units with 14k de bulbs. which would give me 8 watts per g.

[Ninong]

sorry for all the q's.

okay i think i have decided between two lighting set-ups. could you please suggest which you think would work best:

lighting 1:
use the existing light i have as is (so 250 watt 14k de and 2 18 watt actinics) and then add 2 of the stm 150 watt units with 20k de bulbs. this would give me 6 watts per g.

or,

lighting 2:
use the lighting i have but change the metal halide bulb to a 250 watt 20k de, and the get 2 of the stm 250watt units with 14k de bulbs. which would give me 8 watts per g.

I really don't know because I am not familiar with those 14,000K lamps at all. If they are anywhere near as blue as the ALS Sunburt 14,000K lamps then I think the total appearance would be way too blue. My 250w AB-10000 lamps are supposed to be an actual 13,000 Kelvin according to the manufacturer but they produce a crisp white light that I think could use some supplemental blue.

There is just no way to generalize about the appearance of metal halide lamps based on the manufacturer's claimed Kelvin color temperature because the appearance of different brands with the same claimed Kelvin color temperature is often very different.

[Pomme]

cool thanx for the help anyway. i think i will get 2 250 watt units and have 14k de bulbs in them, and then supplement this with some t5 actinics.