Ushio 14K's too white?

[Dekon]

I just transfered my BioCube29 fish and corals into my new 65gal. I picked up a used 36" Sunpod MH fixture for it. It has two 150W, two month old Ushio 14K's in it. I know the bulbs are two months old because the person showed me the sales slip for them. The Ushio's just seem to white for me. My corals have seemed to have lost their pop; they just look brown. I have a good size colony of green button polyps, they were a nice green color, now they look brown. I had a 20" Sunpod 150W fixture over my BC29, and really liked to color and pop I got with a Pheonix 14K bulb. I guess my question is, will my corals get their pop back with time under these lights?

 

[JayM]

the phoenix is going to make a lot more blue.

 

[Behrmon]

Might want to consider the Hamilton 150 14's. I've been running this bulb for a few weeks now and it's a nice color with out going to Blue.

 

[yukyuklee]

phoenix is not that blue after it burns in...

 

[Andy V]

I did the same thing. I ended up switching to the Ushio 20k 150w. The corals will get their color back.

 

[Doherty]

Ushio 20k has great color..... Real nice blue, but they are not the best bulbs if you are looking for growth.

 

[Andy V]

Ushio 20k has great color..... Real nice blue, but they are not the best bulbs if you are looking for growth.

I agree. Growth was insane with the 14k. Not to hijack the thread, but is there a bulb with the Ushio 20K color with better PAR? I have no actinic supplementation, so getting my blue from the MH is important.

 

[stingythingy45]

Just from what I've seen from Ushio 14K.
It really depends on the wattage and ballast with color spectrum.
I find that the 250 watt 14K on my M80 ballast seem a little bluer than on a electronic ballast.

 

[s_kelley]

I thought the ushio 14k's were too yellow too. I added two 96watt p/c for actinics. Now I'm running two 250w radium 20k's and love the color I'm getting.
Your browning out could also be from adding the additional 150w to your tank. Your corals were used to a single 150w correct? Now you have two = 300w
I would wait a bit and see how things settle in. You can always add a small t5 strip for added blue too

 

[stingythingy45]

My biggest issue with the 250 watt Ushio 14K is my SPS grows way too fast.
I've also added 2 54 watt Super actinic retros as well.
I might consider going to a more bluish bulb the next time.
I'm not much of a frag cutting person and would like to slow the growth some.