Attention all 10k 150w de bulb lovers

[Steve Ruddy]

I haven't seen any discussion of the Iwasaki Aqua2 20K . IMO this bulb should have been called the Aqua2 10k. It definitely is in that ball park. Based on my experience with Iwasaki bulbs in general this may be the bulb to purchase for all of those liking and using a 150w 10K de bulb. I will be doing a 150w de bulb visual color comparison shortly so you can see were this bulb falls.

 

[mps9506]

Good to hear. I don't have much experience with the 150 DE bulbs yet. I did just start using them in my store tank. Currently using the Corallife 10k, actually not that bad color rendition IMO. Price isn't good though
What is the price point on the aqua2??
Mike

 

[Steve Ruddy]

I don't have much experience with the 150 DE bulbs yet. I did just start using them in my store tank.

I think you will like them. I use them for many display tanks. For aquaculture I use the 150w 50K Aqua. Retail price is $75-85 or more not on sale. I expect the price to come down if they start selling in any type of decent quantities.

 

[dwall174]

Originally posted by Steve Ruddy
I will be doing a 150w de bulb color comparison shortly so you can see were this bulb falls.

Good to know!
I'm currently trying to decide between two 150 watt DE’s or two 175 watt SE bulbs! For a 18” deep tank with mainly softies.

 

[mps9506]

dwall,
I have been very impressed with the 150 watt DE. It visually looks very close, if not better than my 250watt SE setup.
The bulb choices in the 150de category are increasing as well.
I will always recomend these or SE setups now.
Mike

 

[dwall174]

Yea I have been leaning towards the 150 DE’s! It’s just coming up with the extra $$$

Originally posted by mps9506
Price isn't good though
What is the price point on the aqua2??
Mike

For now they will just have to stay on my wish list until after the Holidays! I figure it should take until April to get to get caught up on all the bills.

 

[mps9506]

Doug,
I don't believe the price difference between the 150 and 175 is too much. the main cost difference is going to be in the reflector/pendant that you choose to use. With the SE you save money because you can essentially use a bare mogul socket. However if you invest in a quality reflector setup with a SE you are going to be spending almost as much as a DE pendant setup.
I know my PFO Parallel reflectors with sockets built in cost only $25 or so less than a quality DE hanging pendant.
BTW I believe Champion Lighting had some pretty good package deals going on. I'm sure some of our other sponsers do also.
Mike

 

[Boomer]

I will be doing a 150w de bulb color comparison shortly so you can see were this bulb falls.

How and with what type of optical light detctor ? I hope it is not just your eyes or a simple LUX meter

 

[Steve Ruddy]

How and with what type of optical light detctor ? I hope it is not just your eyes or a simple LUX meter

The bulb color comparison will be visual only. I as well as others have posted technical data of metal halide bulbs including DE bulbs. What I will be showing is how all the DE bulbs look visually compared to each other over the same aquarium. I don't beleive technical data can give you a good enough idea of how the bulb will acually look. It's been proven we can grow Acropora under 4300K bulbs but do we really want to display them under that spectrum?

 

[Boomer]

I don't beleive technical data can give you a good enough idea of how the bulb will acually look

No, but looks wont' tell how coral will grow either, as the human eyen has a real issue with seeing light, which is quite different from corals. One should not be using/buying lamps based on what "you see", altough I know many like a more natural color that the humam eye sees. Me too Corals do best under something like a Iwasaki 6500K lamp, but to the eye it is rather yellow-green. All of this the reason I like the XM 10K


It's been proven we can grow Acropora under 4300K bulbs but do we really want to display them under that spectrum?

Yes, we did that 2 decades ago with MV

 

[Steve Ruddy]

No, but looks wont' tell how coral will grow either

Obviously a visual color comparison can't demonstrate how a coral will grow. Corals will grow under all the bulbs available. Unless your trying to win a growing race doesn't it make sense to pick a bulb that shows off your corals in a way you prefer?

 

[Boomer]

Unless your trying to win a growing race doesn't it make sense to pick a bulb that shows off your corals in a way you prefer?

We can say that depends on ones point of view. If one is striving to produce a natural environment in which corals grow, which is about which most talk about, then a 6500K Iwaskai is almost a prefect duplicate. It appears we all want to duplicate a natural reef, as close as possible, until it comes to light, where many seem to want to throw it aside, reason "I don't like the color", even though it is the natural color on most reefs. Yes, I agree it is nice to show of corals. If one wanted to do that, everyone would be using a Grow-Lux /Enhancement bulbs, which really show off color So, we are like stuck some where in between

 

[VINA DEL MAR]

We also have to remember that corals comes from different depths of the reef.Saying that duplicating with bulbs the sun above water when in fact what we like to keep is creatures below the water is what gets me.Some corals just utilizes some colors of the spectrum while others prefers the full side.
Many of this test are done on tanks but very few are done in the reef environment to provide us reefers with a little more accurate and perfect reading.
With that in mind get a bulb that's somewhere neutral that pleases you and also benefits the corals.

VINA

 

[BigReepher]

The 6500K bulbs produce the closest reproduction of what one sees while diving on a coral reef, IME. However most people prefer the stunning colors produced by a higher kelvin bulb. So like Boomer says we are caught somewhere in between. Well most of us anyway, your always gonna have your diehard 6500K and 20K-50K users. It's a matter of personal preference for most of us. As far as coral growth goes I've seen incredible growth from tanks using 6500K bulbs. I use 150W DE 10K Icecap bulbs on a tank 20 inches deep. They produce a very crisp white color that I've grown to love and so have the corals. I'm glad to see the selection of 150W DE bulbs is increasing. Happy Turkey Day BTW.

 

[Boomer]

.Some corals just utilizes some colors of the spectrum while others prefers the full side.

VD, that really isn't true, 55 %, of he light in seawater is absorbed in the first meter. At 10 meters there is only 15 % left. This means that most of the light corals get is blue-green to yellow-green. The average coral reef is only a few meters. Corals have a preference for light, I don't know of any that are full spectrum, as their chlorophyll range is narrow and only within certain band widths. As K increases that full spectrum is lost. 20-50 K lamps are no where near full sepctrum.

. It's a matter of personal preference for most of us.

That is it in a nutshell BR and usually the human eye is responsible for it

 

[mps9506]

I'll have to look arouind, but there are some good plots of the absorbtion spectrum of chlorophyll a, c2 and peridinin.
It's actually pretty useful info when selecting bulbs if you can find the spectrum anaylsis of the bulb, and it is in the same units. Just overlap the charts and see if the bulb produces light at the corresponding wavelengths.
I believe you can find such plots by S. Joshi, and possibly Morgan.

FWIW, I don't choose my bulbs like that , I choose what I think looks best over my tank, strictly aesthetics. I claim nothing natural about my glass box housing corals.
Mike