MH Bulb Question...

[Airborneguy]

The fixture I just bought has two 175w MH bulbs. It comes with 15k bulbs. Is this the best Kelvin rating for a reef? I vaguely remember 14k being the prefferred rating. I already know I'm going to replace the CF bulbs because I'm not sure of the Actinics they are giving me.. I want to have one each of the 460 and 420 actinics.

 

[TRe]

i take it these are double ended bulbs wer talkin about?

 

[Airborneguy]

Yes... I made sure of that. I remembered reading from somewhere on here that the double ended were better for osme reason. This is my first foray into MH's.

 

[TRe]

im not sure if reeflux makes de in 175w but if they do i would definitly recomend them! if u have actinics go wth the 10k otherwise id go with the 12k's.... the prefered kelvin for a reef is 10k only without actinics theres no blue to them which is why alot of people prefer the 14k.... 15k is fine if your happy with the color but u wont notice as much growth as say a 10k bulb

 

[Airborneguy]

There are two CF 65w Actinics, so I'll look into the 10k bulbs like you said. With the fixture, you can use any 175w DE bulb correct? The Kelvin rating doesn't matter as far as the fixture/ballst is concerned.