johnoburns Posted March 18, 2010 Share Posted March 18, 2010 (edited) I'm looking to get a new bulb for my 34 Solana tank. It seems like the most popular ones are the phoenix 14k and the radium 20k. Pricing aside, what are your thoughts and experience? These would be the DE bulbs on a magnetic ballast. Edited March 18, 2010 by austinaquaman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+mcallahan Posted March 18, 2010 Share Posted March 18, 2010 Every phoenix bulb I've ever seen, I'm amazed at the color that it puts out. The tanks always look great underneath them. From what I've read of the reefluxes, people have the best luck with them an electronic ballasts. I have some reefluxes on the way, but don't have any direct experience with them or the phoenix. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zarathustra2 Posted March 18, 2010 Share Posted March 18, 2010 If you like the blue color or are not running actinics i really reccomend trying out SPS bulbs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+mcallahan Posted March 18, 2010 Share Posted March 18, 2010 If you like the blue color or are not running actinics i really reccomend trying out SPS bulbs. just watch for the UV burn... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zarathustra2 Posted March 18, 2010 Share Posted March 18, 2010 I've been running the mogul bulbs in both 175 and 400w and have not had a problem. I just moved to the 400w 20ks and my living room looks like a alien movie they are so blue. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnoburns Posted March 18, 2010 Author Share Posted March 18, 2010 If you like the blue color or are not running actinics i really reccomend trying out SPS bulbs. I don't have any atinics, just the standard disco ball MH fixture that comes with the Solana. By SPS you mean South Pacific Sunlight? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
offroadodge Posted March 18, 2010 Share Posted March 18, 2010 +1 for Mark, the NEW SPS bulbs arent made the same as the old ones. Just ask the Mannings. They have 4 new ones and they all have burned there sps corals. I let them borrow one of my OLD(like 4 yrs) SPS Bulbs and the burning has stopped. I dont have any experience with DE bulbs but the 20K SE MH Reeflux bulbs are BAD A___!!!! JMO Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+mcallahan Posted March 19, 2010 Share Posted March 19, 2010 +1 for Mark, the NEW SPS bulbs arent made the same as the old ones. Just ask the Mannings. They have 4 new ones and they all have burned there sps corals. I let them borrow one of my OLD(like 4 yrs) SPS Bulbs and the burning has stopped. I dont have any experience with DE bulbs but the 20K SE MH Reeflux bulbs are BAD A___!!!! JMO yep and dapettit got a pair and they burned his corals too. Hearing about how SPS handled the issue has me avoiding anything to do with SPS. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
medi Posted March 19, 2010 Share Posted March 19, 2010 I have run the 14K phoenix bulbs over my solana in both 150W and 250W. I love the color and with my 250 I get reasonable coral growth underneath. My only complaint with the 150W was that it just didn't have enough output to adequately light the tank, and it was obvious in the almost no coral growth that I had in the 6 months that I had it. I would recommend the phoenix, but only in the 250W. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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