sfsuphysics
Supporting Member
lightneed.com The website (link to ebay-store)
I thought I'd start a new thread on these since every other thread happens to be in a "oh my damn lights..." or "Odyssea...." and people might not want to look in those threads
I finally got around to having all the bulbs I ordered installed on various tanks.
Talked with Art, he managed to combine bulbs for shipping purposes since his site wasn't equipped to "add to cart" (it's basically Ebay with buy-it-now), but he emailed me a bill, shipping was $7 (which it seems to be for any order) and dealt with everything through paypal (via CC).
I ordered the following bulbs, each was $20.
150W-HQI DE 20000K
175W-SE 20000K
250W-HQI DE 20000K
Jeremy was spot on on his assessment of what they look like, they look like a 12000K, not quite Reeflux 12000K, but basically a hair bluer than a perfectly white bulb, no hints of yellow at all. I can immediately see the difference compared to the 14000K Phoenix bulbs (nearly 1 year old), as my orange digitata looks a little more brown now, so they really don't have that really strong fluorescence peak in them that 14000K - 20000K bulbs have. Keep in mind other colors seem to be quite nice though, blues, reds, purples, my sunset is a much more deeper orange, not too bad at all.
Best thing about them, is that they all look fairly consistent regardless of the wattage or ballast, my 150W is on a HQI magnetic ballast, the 175W is on a really old Advanced magnetic ballast, and the 250W bulbs are on an AquaMedic pendant's (I think) electronic ballast. Often you might see a wide range of color difference between the same brand at different wattages, this doesn't seem to be the case, but then again only so many ways white can look.
Sanjay did some tests on a 175W 10000K version, and while they don't rank up there with the beasts like the Ushio and XM 10kK they do hold their own in about the middle of the list as far as output. The downside is that they rate closer to a 6500K bulb than a 10000K bulb, so I'd guess there's quite a bit of yellow tint to it. However I'm sure this is easily fixable by simply getting a bluer bulb and realizing the kelvin ratings are really skewed towards the cooler colors. So your 20000K is really a 12000K, I saw a 22000K bulb, on the website, and I might just order one for kicks and giggles to see if that one has a little more blue to it.
Not quite sure if I'm going to keep using this on my stony tank, simply put I like the fluorescence that the bluer bulbs have, it's hard to tell if this bulb is brighter than the Phoenix, for two reasons, one the Phoenix nearing a year old and it's on an electronic ballast so they basically reduce the output to the bulb in order to save the ballast (unlike magnetic ballast which keep cranking out the output steady at the expense of more current flowing through it), and the Phoenix is bluer, so that could be fooling my eyes.
However that being said at $25-$30 (including shipping), these bulbs are a good bang for the buck, assuming the longevity holds up, considering even cheap MH bulbs seem to cost $60, and not so cheap ones run upwards of $100+! So I think I'll keep using this for softy tank (my anemone seem to like it), and definitely going to use these over a frag tank (where it's really hard for me to justify spending premium money on a bulb). So might be some food for though if you have a MH purchase coming soon, and you're not quite sure what bulb you'd like to try, its worth a go, and if you're a cheap ass like me, swapping them out on a more frequent basis might be more desirable at this price point (Just too bad these really need to be treated as hazardous waste like CFL bulbs)
I thought I'd start a new thread on these since every other thread happens to be in a "oh my damn lights..." or "Odyssea...." and people might not want to look in those threads
I finally got around to having all the bulbs I ordered installed on various tanks.
Talked with Art, he managed to combine bulbs for shipping purposes since his site wasn't equipped to "add to cart" (it's basically Ebay with buy-it-now), but he emailed me a bill, shipping was $7 (which it seems to be for any order) and dealt with everything through paypal (via CC).
I ordered the following bulbs, each was $20.
150W-HQI DE 20000K
175W-SE 20000K
250W-HQI DE 20000K
Jeremy was spot on on his assessment of what they look like, they look like a 12000K, not quite Reeflux 12000K, but basically a hair bluer than a perfectly white bulb, no hints of yellow at all. I can immediately see the difference compared to the 14000K Phoenix bulbs (nearly 1 year old), as my orange digitata looks a little more brown now, so they really don't have that really strong fluorescence peak in them that 14000K - 20000K bulbs have. Keep in mind other colors seem to be quite nice though, blues, reds, purples, my sunset is a much more deeper orange, not too bad at all.
Best thing about them, is that they all look fairly consistent regardless of the wattage or ballast, my 150W is on a HQI magnetic ballast, the 175W is on a really old Advanced magnetic ballast, and the 250W bulbs are on an AquaMedic pendant's (I think) electronic ballast. Often you might see a wide range of color difference between the same brand at different wattages, this doesn't seem to be the case, but then again only so many ways white can look
.Sanjay did some tests on a 175W 10000K version, and while they don't rank up there with the beasts like the Ushio and XM 10kK they do hold their own in about the middle of the list as far as output. The downside is that they rate closer to a 6500K bulb than a 10000K bulb, so I'd guess there's quite a bit of yellow tint to it. However I'm sure this is easily fixable by simply getting a bluer bulb and realizing the kelvin ratings are really skewed towards the cooler colors. So your 20000K is really a 12000K, I saw a 22000K bulb, on the website, and I might just order one for kicks and giggles to see if that one has a little more blue to it.
Not quite sure if I'm going to keep using this on my stony tank, simply put I like the fluorescence that the bluer bulbs have, it's hard to tell if this bulb is brighter than the Phoenix, for two reasons, one the Phoenix nearing a year old and it's on an electronic ballast so they basically reduce the output to the bulb in order to save the ballast (unlike magnetic ballast which keep cranking out the output steady at the expense of more current flowing through it), and the Phoenix is bluer, so that could be fooling my eyes.
However that being said at $25-$30 (including shipping), these bulbs are a good bang for the buck, assuming the longevity holds up, considering even cheap MH bulbs seem to cost $60, and not so cheap ones run upwards of $100+! So I think I'll keep using this for softy tank (my anemone seem to like it), and definitely going to use these over a frag tank (where it's really hard for me to justify spending premium money on a bulb). So might be some food for though if you have a MH purchase coming soon, and you're not quite sure what bulb you'd like to try, its worth a go, and if you're a cheap ass like me, swapping them out on a more frequent basis might be more desirable at this price point
(Just too bad these really need to be treated as hazardous waste like CFL bulbs)
