14K or 20K....which do you like best

time to replace my MH bulbs. I have seen the 14K bulbs and like the cooler blue appearance. I currently have 10K and it is so harsh white! I have 4 250W bulbs 10K.

However I was wondering if I like the 14K would I like the 20K more?

Anybody have 20K? Do you like them?

Plus where is the best place to get quality MH at a good price?

 

20 is too blue in my opinion 14k is just right however from what I have read is that there is slower growth the higher the k is so personally im thinkin of downgrading to the 10k for a year or so and when I got some good lookin big corals go back to 14k. Good Luck

 

personally it depends on the bulb/ballast combination.

for example: i'm running dual 400 14k sps on a pfo pulse start ballast. Really nice "ice blue" So perfect to me that I don't have to run actinics.
I have seen the same bulbs ran on a hamilton magnetic ballast and they are bluer than most 20 bulbs I have ever seen. Too blue in my opinion

 

I am running 2x250w radium 20k halides and i love them. the blue color that it gives my tank is what i was looking for.

when was deciding what bulb to get i went to my LFS (well not so local 1.5 hrs away) and they had different bulbs set up over their tanks so you could get a good view of what you were going to get with different bulbs. I found this to be amazingly helpful.

now that i have run 20ks i could not see myself with anything other than them.

 

I know alot of people don't like the blue hue from the 20k but I've been using mine for almost a year now and love it. Am going to stick with the 20k with my next bulb change.

 

I run two 400w 20k and love it and try marinedepot.com they have great prices on bulbs. Ask for a catalog the give like 20% off t5 and mh bulbs.

 

I am running 3 250W 14K's with 4 54W T5 actinics, and even then, I would like it slightly more blue. I may step up to 20K.
Yes, the higher K rating does slow growth. But it enhances color. I personally will take slower growing more colorful colors any day. Less work I have to do constantly fragging (still had to do that weekly anyways), plus the corals look so much better.
As for the best place to get them, I would go with AAT.

 

If I could stomach the color full time I would go even lower to 6500k Iwasaki bulbs, baring that 10k's. If you think 10K's put out some serious PAR and explosive growth you haven't yet played around with anything lower.

That said, I can't stomach the color. It makes everything look as ugly and boring as possible. I switched out my 10k halide for a 14k and went from 2x 6500k T5's and 2 Actinic to 4x actinic.

 

I run now 150 watt Phoenix and I think they give a blue similar to 20k with better par. I ran xm 20k and they were a blue/purple color. Marinedepot and hellolights.com are the 2 best for price.

 

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