Halide Bulbs

[weezawoo]

My Halide unit was 2nd hand. the bulbs were 3 months old at the time. It wasn't started to be used until maybe a month ago.
When do I need to replace them?

Also what difference does the colour of the bulb matter?
All three are 20k at the moment, I see people mixing up the colours in T5s, does it work the same for MH? There are 2 compact bulbs that create a yellowy light which mixes in with the halides blue light!

 

[seffieuk]

My Halide unit was 2nd hand. the bulbs were 3 months old at the time. It wasn't started to be used until maybe a month ago.
When do I need to replace them?

Also what difference does the colour of the bulb matter?
All three are 20k at the moment, I see people mixing up the colours in T5s, does it work the same for MH? There are 2 compact bulbs that create a yellowy light which mixes in with the halides blue light!

I have never had halides, so the answer is one that has been gleaned over the years it appears that dependent on use the concensus is approx 10/12 months.

I have no idea about the colour though, did a quixk google and came up with this, hope it helps;

http/www.liveaquaria.com/PIC/article.cfm?aid=26

 

[weezawoo]

Thanks Seffie, just read that but its saying about measuring with a lux meter to know how good the light is!

I know people often mention about T5s to have blues and whites and then there are purples too. Didnt know how that worked for halides. I like the 20k bulbs but get confused when people mention about the different parts of a colour i.e reds and blues etc haha

 

[ben1987]

12 months is fine.

as for K rating, the higer it is the more blue it is. The bluer is is the less par you get so the slower the growth. 10K is quite yellow but packs the biggest punch. i like 14K BLV bulbs as its a nice blue and still has good PAR

 

[weezawoo]

Thanks Ben! At the moment I have 3 150w 20k bulbs. The compact bulbs im amost certain are 6500k.
Would you recomend I buy say a 10k to put the middle bulb section and run 1x 10k and 2x 20k?

 

[ben1987]

i think that would look daft to be honest! you would be able to see very deffinate colour differences over each 1/3rd of your tank. id stick with 3 the same. With 150W bulbs id stay closer to 14K so you still get some PAR

 

[weezawoo]

OK thanks Ben! When I replace them I will go for 14k but not much point wasting good bulbs atm

 

[demasonisrule]

I replace mine once a year. I run 250w's ATM, and originally I ran cheapy 14k bulbs, and now am running 15k XM bulbs. They look about the same, but the XM's get much better PAR, I don't know if they're available in the UK, but I'd highly recommend them.

 

[ben1987]

if you cant find them weez, blv bulbs are well priced and pretty good. i use their 12k bulb as i find the 14s a bit too blue