Metal Halide Q&A

So what are everyone's thoughts/experience/spectral analysis on the Ice Cap MH DE bulbs? It's about time for me to order new bulbs and I was planning to place an order with Bulk Reef Supply. However, for 250W DE bulbs (14k) I'm limited to either Ushio, XM, or Ice Cap. I'm favoring Ushio over XM as it seems the consensus is the Ushio is "better", but I can find no quality info on the Ice Cap bulbs. I currently have Hamilton 14k's and I'm not too pleased with them. Growth is just okay and they're awfully blue for me. Thoughts?

 

Stickied!!!! (But still no response - bump so the sticky gets seen ;D)

 

ohh sorry i missed you!
Ice cap makes pretty decent bulbs, not the best but still up there none the less. Their PAR is pretty low so they dont get much attention. LiveAquaria actually uses icecap 20k.

If you want the blue look, I would highly recommend going with Phoenix 14k. It is called 14k but has the 20k color to make things REALLY pop almost as nice as the radiums. The PAR on the phoenix is pretty high too.
Ushio 14k is a very very light blue... kinda an icy white. XM has high PAR but IMO the colors are washed out.

 

My Hamilton 14k's are too blue/washed out for me. I was going to do Phoenix 14k's next, but BRS doesn't sell them.

Sounds like the Ushio would suit me then, thanks.

 

alright sounds good... just FYI with ushios, growth is awesome but if you want the secondary pigments to come out you will need actinic

 

I run 420 actinics already, but considering swapping to LEDs for supplementation.

 

good choice. i run Ushio 14k with LED and its a great combo, you will really love it!

 

Have a 150 w MH mounted on legs about 6 inches above a 24 gallon nano tank (difficult configuration to change. When I bought it I was only running it about 5 hours a day to keep from overheating. Bought a $10 clip-on fan from Target and now I can run all day without overheating. Of course, I'm using about a 1/3 of a gallon a day in fresh makeup water. MH is plugged into a thermostatically controlled strip plug with a thermocouple in the tank, so if the fan fails the lights will cut out before the tank overheats. Had to build this setup myself using parts from Radio Shack, as the only one I could find made for aquariums was $135, made this one for about $30.

Steve W

24 gallon Nano with 150 w MH and 28w T5 actinic

 

Very nice Steve! Maybe you can make a build thread on 3reef so others can follow your achievements?

 

I am currently running 2 250w DE aquamaxx 14k bulbs on lumatek dimmable ballasts. The lights seem a bit on the dim side, but have good color pop. If i switched to a ushio 20k would this give me a bit brighter look.
I am also running 2 35w t5s 1 uvl aqua sun and 1 ati ab special to brighten up the tank. I am probable a bit mor interested in coral color than growth, but would like to keep decent growth at the same time. I may also consider a phoenix, but I heard they look washed out on e ballasts. Also open to any other buly recommendation you may have.
Thanks