Anyone else confused on which bulbs?

Well I consider myself to be a fairly intelligent person, but in over two years I have not found a really good way to figure out which MH bulbs are going to look the best in my tank.  Right now I have two 400W Ushio 14K and even though I thought they would have a decent "blue-ish" color to them, to me they still seem too white!  I'm ready to replace them but am torn between moving up to an Ushio 20K or switching to an XM 14K or 20K.  Really wish I could try out a pair before spending money on them.  Anyone else find this part of our hobby a bit frustrating?

 

I would go with the XM 20k's it's what i run and i believe they give you the highest PAR rating for the buck.

This website is handy for picking the best bulbs for growth.
http://www.reeflightinginfo.arvixe.com/

 

yeah the xm 20k bulbs are a good color, you would like them. they are cheap too.
when i seen the 20k bulbs on einsteins tank i sold my brand new xm 10ks for a loss.
the 20k bulbs believe it or not look really good with more actinic supplementation .
they have kind of a neat purple look to them.

 

I don't suppose there is anyone near Muscatine I could borrow a pair from for an hour just to see what they actually look like in my tank before buying.......?

 

kinda hard to find 400 watters around here.

go into the pictures section here and look at waverz pictures, and einstein has a full tank shot with the 20ks too.

those pictures are pretty much the way they look.

over the years ive had a couple different 12-14k bulbs and have always been dissapointed at their color, i always strayed from the 20k bulbs because in pics they look way too blue, but they really arent like that at all.

i know what you are talking about a white looking tank too, everything just looks washed out for some reason.

when i had those xm 10k bulbs, it was like someone was holding a welder in my livingroom, when i turned 4-96 watt actinics on you couldnt notice a difference, those babys had to go.

 

Total Chaos

I have some used 400watt 20kXM bulbs...I always keep 1 or 2 around in case one breaks...

You can have a pair of them for 10..0 each if you would like...
They wont be good fro long as they are close to the end of their color life but they can give you plenty to determine if you like them.


Let me know...I am in west Davenport BTW

einsteins

 

PM'd ya einsteins

 

I like the 20k Hamilton Tech bulbs. THey work great and are very blue in color.Very dependable. Not sure how they compare in price to others they are about 70.00 each for 400 watt.