XM bulbs

[caseyjaydarling]

Anyone ever used them? i'm thinking about a 10k

casey

[maxwellwhothunk]

YES! They are great! Their par rating is nice for the price, I use the 10,000k lamps as well. I am sure you will enjoy them.

Just an FYI, the 20,000k XMs have a lower par rating, so they are less used.

[caseyjaydarling]

Do you use actinics with it, or would it be fine without them?

[maxwellwhothunk]

I actually use PC Actinic and PC 10,000k lamps (110w of each), however, when I buy new PC lamps I will replace them with all actinics.

I personally like to have the actinics there just in case I need them, for instance if something goes wrong with my metal halides I can at least run the PCs. It is also nice to have so you can recreate nature... to some extent, that way you can have your dusk and dawn periods.

[caseyjaydarling]

cool, thanks

[Doctor_Reef]

Sounds...great....I will think about them but have a years supply of Pheonix 14K bulbs.....

[gman0526]

Ushios 10k are very good too. Great par readings. What ballast is this going to be fired with?

[caseyjaydarling]

I'm thinking about getting a coralvue electronic ballast, 250w. still not sure if i'm going SE or DE yet.

[gman0526]

If you're thinking about 250 watts check this out:

http://www.cnidarianreef.com/lamps.cfm

[caseyjaydarling]

yeah i've been studying that site :) the xm 10k looks to have excellent PAR. and according to his picture, it doesn't look too bad even without actinics

[maxwellwhothunk]

Thats a great site George, they must have updated it since the last time I was there. When I visited there were only a comparison of about 4 or 5 lamps.

[Doctor_Reef]

Ditto's....on the site George!!!

[gman0526]

Let's just say that Joe is a reefhead :lol:

[gman0526]

Here's Sanjay's just as, if not more detailed:

http://www.reeflightinginfo.arvixe.com/

[specsgirl]

I too run the XM's...love the 10k...thinking about going with the new 14k..we'll have to see.

[icereefer]

I still Like that Reeflux 10k, by coralvue.
crisp white bulb good Coral growth.

[maxwellwhothunk]

let us know how that goes if you decide to go that route! I would love to know, I am thinking of making that switch in the future too!

[Cindarian]

if you truly want to save yourself sometime and money, The PFO standard Ballast had a better rating on Power efficency then 3 of E ballasts. After reading the whole 50 plus pages of the thread on Reefcentral. A Cost comparison was done on each ballast during run time. PFO standard Tar was more cost effective over the long haul. That amazed me, So I bought some to see myself. Well its true. It ran less power the my ARO eballast, So bought 2 more. Man was thread a saver for me, I estimated about 200 bucks a year saving over what I was doing before. But its your choice, But I think it may require another look.