[Marcus Watts]

Very interesting chat today Jas, cheers.

I been checking up in a place I used to get light bulbs from and they rave about 600w 7200k (sunmaster bulb, single end screw in)

Firstly why is no-one on 600w as it seems to be a very punchy set up that can be hung high enough to get full coverage while not loosing any output for over 4ft. - on a light mover rail the light would travel the whole length of the tank and back again - one light per tank then.

7200k seems a good coral grower bulb following on from our talk about 6500k? have you heard of this rating or is it just the tomato growers who are on it?

then.......they rate digital/electric ballasts as very good and magnetic as outdated, budget, hot and inefficient - does this hold true with tank lighting?

cheers m8, its so funny too - similar ballasts, exact same reflectors, basically half price or even better from a tomato growing shop !!

[jason@jasonsaquatics]

Hi Marcus

Was Good chatting today m8 as always .

To Answer your questions i don't have any facts but at a guess i would say the 600w would have to hang to high above the tank due to the to high a wattage and this means on the bog standard tank in a house the light spill would be to much .Also there maybe a heat issue as on most tanks peeps like an even light spread over the tank so even if the light was raised there would still be a lot of shadows so 2 lights would be better than one.

When it comes to the K rating 6500k would be better than 7200k.
We have messed with the gasses in a lot of lamps to add a lot of blue to make it more satisfying to the eye or have a higher k rating for certain corals .The 7500k would still like the 6500k be off that satisfying look ,and for those who don't care about that satisfying look why go for 7200k when you can have a lamp even closer to natural daylight and have a 6500k

I do agree that the electronic ballast is a better choice however some lamps run better on a magnetic ballast .


Yours


jas