new phoenix 14k came in today!!

So I'm new to mh. Picked up my first fixture a few weeks ago. The bulbs in it were prob old as dirt. I used them till I had spare cash to get new ones. I must say even with old bulbs I couldn't believe how well my coral responded to them. Everything opened up bigger then I have ever seen especially anemone and mushrooms. Well my new bulbs came in today (99 bucks for 2 shipped in two days from SOS lighting ) wow I had no idea what I was missing with not having new bulbs. Very happy with the color. Still waiting on actinics to come in but it already looks like I'm running them with the blue tint these things give off.

Here are some zoas these are just the mh on no actinics. Gives them great color. Everything looked washed out before.

 

very nice!

 

Looks good!

 

Give them a few weeks or even a month to fully gain there real color. When i got mine, the ballest i had made it blue as crap. Then about 3 weeks later in got more white and was perfect. But it looks great! Congrats!

 

Nice that is where i bought my 250w 14k from also. Looks pretty good though

 

Thanks. Looks more blue in person but happy with it.

 

I was in the same boat as you! Bought a used MH set up for the first time, thought it looked great, but figured the bulbs were old so replaced them w/ phoenix 14k's after a few months. Couldn't believe what I had been missing LOL, it made my old bulbs look yellow.

I agree with Zoanthids21, mine were very blue the first few weeks but has a perfect balance IMO now.

I took this with the new/old bulb together.

 

On my 56 I was running a bulb that came with a fixture I got on the cheap
(some ebay special fixture with dual 14w actinic T5 or something)
And it was alright, but not very blue. I got the 14k phoenix and man
is it blue in comparison, I would almost say too blue as I was used to a
warmer tone but after a while I got used to it, and would say its still
maybe a little too blue with the t5 actinics but the corals love it.