Our mission

Do you use actinics with Phoenix 14K?

alve

alve

Guest
BARcard
Right now I have 2 x 250W 10k DE bulbs that came original with my Outer Orbitz light fixture. I don't know what brand it is since it doesn't mention it anywhere.

I ordered 2 Phoenix 14k bulbs to replace them. They have more blue in them than the 10k's but do you still run your actinics with the MH or is there enough blue to just run the MH and make colors come out nicely?

Thanks.
 
I have 4 54W T5's. Two of them are 420nm Actinic, the other 2 460nm Actinics. So if I understand you correct Jeremy, to bring out the greens I should run them as well?
 
I have a 150W Phoenix 14k and supplement with one 420nm and one 460nm T5 actinic. But I actually run them because I love to have the sunrise/sunset effect during my photoperiod. If it actually helps with bringing out color, that's an added bonus!
 
Depends on your taste. I ran a Phoenix 150W bulb by itself and it's a washed out blue. Switched over to 12k Reeflux instead and prefer the look.
 
I modded an Odyssea fixture (the new 250w electronic) and I now run 2x 250w Phoenix 14k and 2x 54w Giesemann T5's Pure Actinic and 2x 54w Giesemann T5's Actinic+

and my colros could not be better...


but I just bought a 125G tank, so my 75G will be taken apart for the new tank, and it will be SPS only :p
 
jmc74: is that odyssea fixture a 72" modek or 48" ? I was wondering how to do the t5 mod to it. Right now it's usng compact florescent actinics.
 
I received the bulbs today and switched them about an hour ago. Wow, what a difference!!!
The 250 10k's I had were much, much brighter. They lit up the whole room brigthly and you pretty much didn't need any lights on in the room in the evening. I did have to use actinics all the time because without it was an ugly yellow. The Phoenix bulbs have a LOT more blue in them and are a lot dimmer but the colors come out much nicer. Right now the room is a dim blue instead of bright.
I am thinking about running them most of the time without actinics and maybe in the evening when we are home a couple hours with. I still can't believe how much difference there is between those bulbs!!!!
 
I really like the "Actinic Plus" (also goes by ATI Blue Plus) it's not purple actinic, but blue and it makes corals pop with color, best thing of all is according to the RC thread on T5s they really put out quite a bit of energy compared to the "10,000K" bulbs, unlike Actinic03 which is for show mostly.
 
Does this mean you should run the T5's together with the MH to get more light energy (par?) for coral growth? I never thought about that, always thought that the actinics were mostly for show.
I assume that with these Phoenix bulbs, being much less bright than the 10k, coral growth will slow down and high light demanding corals will need to be moved up higher in the tank or won't do well?
 
Well while the T5s will provide extra PAR, I think the idea is to use them as "supplemental" lighting in such a way that you don't need to fire your MH bulbs 8 hours day, after-all how long is the sun directly over head in the wild?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top