Kessil

New Lights!

pixelpixi

pixelpixi

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Today I bought an IceCap 660, end caps, and bulbs from Mario (xcaret). Thanks Mario! I got them installed and they work great!

Unfortunately, I'm not totally happy with the color and I was wondering if anyone has advice. With the halide on it's still very white. I kind of expected that two VHO actinics (95 watts each) would balance my 250W 6500K bulb reasonably well. Instead, it just looks slightly bluer than before. They're fairly high up (13" from the water surface) which I think is part of the problem, but unfortunately I don't see a way to install them any closer. Would adding reflectors help significantly?

With actinics only... holy fluorescence batman! The pavona, merulina, GSP, and zoas in particular just POP. It's awesome. The light looks surprisingly purple, though. I guess I was expecting it to be more blue.

Are there any other bulbs I should try? Should I try new bulbs? The bulbs appear to have slightly different colors. Maybe one is burning out?

Other than that, I guess I'll switch to a 10,000K or 15,000K halide and learn to love purple.
 
I don't think 2 VHO would be enough for 6500K MH bulbs. Why do you need to use 6500K bulb? I think 10K would be good enough for grow.
 
Ah IC.. Lighting can be a PIB. Get the right color is hard and costly sometimes. I suggest you to borrow/buy some used bulbs and test them out.
 
Elite is right about trying out some used bulbs. i've gone that route and it'll save some $$. I'm in the same boat you were, I have 250W MH + 2 VHO. For a blue look I like the hamilton 14K w/ VHO actinic. i've tried Reeflux 12K but side by side the hamilton is much better IMO, plus more PAR. I have an XM10K and it's a clean white. i have a pretty used XM10K you can have if you want to see the color. it's over 9 months old, so not as high PAR as new, but that'll give you an idea of color.
 
[quote author=Raddogz link=topic=5703.msg71480#msg71480 date=1230222641]
6500k is pee yellow - xm10k might do the trick with the actinics.
[/quote]

Hahaha. Nice.

CookieJar: Yeah, I think trying some bulbs out is a great idea. Bryan graciously offered to lend me some too. I think I probably want to go with a 14 or 15k, but if I decide to try out 10Ks I might take you up on that!
 
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