# Looking for 70w MH bulbs -- Updated: cheap bulb comparison pics



## mette (Jun 3, 2005)

Hi folks. I need new bulbs for my double-ended 70w MH lamps, and I'd like to find some in the 5000K to 8000K range. I'd also really like to spend less than $50 apiece, but that might be pushing it. I know Ushio and Venture both make bulbs in these colors, but so far I have only found them in more common wattages (i.e. 150w). I've been striking out all over the internet -- any suggestions?


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## plantbrain (Dec 15, 2003)

Best service and prices:

"Arthur Altbregen" <[email protected]>

Tell him what you want and need and I think they run about 20$ or so, or 45$ for 2 bulbs in the 6500K range. Watergrass.net sells nice ADA like 8000K bulbs but you need to buy a few and pay for shipping, they can take a awhile to ship.

Same for the 8000K.

Both have good pricing.
Not an easy bulb to find.

Viper, the JBJ company that makes the 70W hood makes a 6500K, but I've never been able to find one.

Regards, 
Tom Barr


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## mette (Jun 3, 2005)

plantbrain said:


> Best service and prices:
> 
> "Arthur Altbregen" <[email protected]>
> 
> ...


Thanks a million, Tom. This is just the kind of lead I needed. I have ordered from Arthur's eBay store in the past, no complaints. I'll drop him a line and see what he can do. The Watergrass bulbs look good, too. If they will sell me some through their eBay store, then all I'll have to worry about is deciding between 6500K and 8000K. Not a bad position to be in.


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## roybot73 (Dec 15, 2007)

The 8000K Watergrass bulbs are _very _ green. I have a lightly used one available if you want to check it out -- I don't think I'll go back to using it. Almost pea soup green. I also have a 6500k that I had in for less than a week. Too blue for me. Shoot me a PM if you want to work something out...
For best & brightest color, I've found the Aqua Medic 10K (I think they're labeled 12k) to be the most pleasing to the eye -- unfortunately, not so much on the wallet That being said, I'll certainly fork over the cash for another when the time comes. They're that much brighter, with great color rendition so I think it's totally worth it.

Just my 2¢...


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## mette (Jun 3, 2005)

roybot73 said:


> The 8000K Watergrass bulbs are _very _ green. I have a lightly used one available if you want to check it out -- I don't think I'll go back to using it. Almost pea soup green. I also have a 6500k that I had in for less than a week. Too blue for me. Shoot me a PM if you want to work something out...
> For best & brightest color, I've found the Aqua Medic 10K (I think they're labeled 12k) to be the most pleasing to the eye -- unfortunately, not so much on the wallet That being said, I'll certainly fork over the cash for another when the time comes. They're that much brighter, with great color rendition so I think it's totally worth it.
> 
> Just my 2¢...


Thanks for the feedback, Roybot. PM sent. 

I was hoping someone on the board had tried out the Watergrass bulbs. In this price range, I expect less then stellar color rendition, but I would like to do better than intolerable. I do run some small PC bulbs alongside the MH, so I may be able to lessen the effect somewhat. 

On the other hand, I've tried a cheap Chinese 10K and an Osram 5000K so far. I hated my 5K at first for the same reason -- way too green. Now I prefer it. I also prefer straight 6500K PC to the 6500/9325K mix I used to run. Maybe I'm going blind. And maybe it's best to stick near 10K MH at any price range to avoid wacky CRI effects. Poor CRI seems to be one drawback (among several) to cheaper MH bulbs.


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## Darrell Ward (Jan 14, 2005)

Back when I did "the nano reef tank thing", I use to buy 70 watt Aqualine bulbs from www.customaquatic.com . I think they also sell Ushio or whatever they are called. Neither are really cheap, but the Aqualines are top quality German bulbs.


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## roybot73 (Dec 15, 2007)

http://www.businesslights.com/70w-10000k-double-ended-metal-halide-lamp-p-707.html

http://www.watergrass.net/en/details.php?pid=381&cat=2

http://www.dtpetsupplies.com/catalog/Lighting/Metal-Halide-Bulbs/Double-Ended-70-Watt-Bulbs/


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## Left C (Nov 15, 2003)

Bulb Man Inc. has 70w 8000K bulbs for $22.50. http://www.bulbmaninc.net/store/cgi-bin/cp-app.cgi?pg=prod&ref=HQI-DE70NDX PROLUME

There are other K values available too, I believe.


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## mette (Jun 3, 2005)

Left C said:


> Bulb Man Inc. has 70w 8000K bulbs for $22.50. http://www.bulbmaninc.net/store/cgi-bin/cp-app.cgi?pg=prod&ref=HQI-DE70NDX PROLUME
> 
> There are other K values available too, I believe.


Thanks for the link, Left C. The specs and price on that bulb look ideal. Do you have an experience with it?


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## Left C (Nov 15, 2003)

I haven't used that bulb. There's some info about it on one of them forums. Which one, I don't know.


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## roybot73 (Dec 15, 2007)

I forgot about that one -- I'm going to stop into his store on my way home tomorrow and check them out. It's right around the corner from my office...

edit:

Just got off the phone with 'The Bulb Man' himself -- nice guy. Answered all of my questions courteously, and seemed genuinely interested in helping out.

The 8000K that's listed in the description is *not* the color temp of this bulb. He said it's more than likely in the 3000-4000K range, as the store specializes in industrial and home lighting applications, and would not carry anything with that high of a color temp in stock. 8000 (in this case) is the hours of life expectancy of the bulb.


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## macclellan (Dec 22, 2006)

If anyone has any decent 14k bulbs laying around that they aren't using that came with a fixture or whatever and wants to sell or trade them, shoot me a PM.


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## mette (Jun 3, 2005)

roybot73 said:


> Just got off the phone with 'The Bulb Man' himself -- nice guy. Answered all of my questions courteously, and seemed genuinely interested in helping out.
> 
> The 8000K that's listed in the description is *not* the color temp of this bulb. He said it's more than likely in the 3000-4000K range, as the store specializes in industrial and home lighting applications, and would not carry anything with that high of a color temp in stock. 8000 (in this case) is the hours of life expectancy of the bulb.


Straight from the horse's mouth -- that's pretty hard to beat, Roybot. And what do you know, the bulb life is listed as 8000K for whatever reason.

This bulb looks pretty awesome. Good CRI and lifespan, 6500K, about $40 after shipping, but big spikes in the blue and green that might look wacky. I may get one to compare to all the others. Eventually, I'll pick a bulb and order a match (my rig is 2x 70w), and be done with it. In the mean time, I'll try to post some photos of the trials.


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## roybot73 (Dec 15, 2007)

mette said:


> Straight from the horse's mouth -- that's pretty hard to beat, Roybot. And what do you know, the bulb life is listed as 8000K for whatever reason.
> 
> This bulb looks pretty awesome. Good CRI and lifespan, 6500K, about $40 after shipping, but big spikes in the blue and green that might look wacky. I may get one to compare to all the others. Eventually, I'll pick a bulb and order a match (my rig is 2x 70w), and be done with it. In the mean time, I'll try to post some photos of the trials.


You've got one on the way! That's one of the 2 bulbs that I hooked you up with. Should be there today or tomorrow!


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## mette (Jun 3, 2005)

roybot73 said:


> You've got one on the way! That's one of the 2 bulbs that I hooked you up with. Should be there today or tomorrow!


OK, I thought the 6500K bulb you had was this Watergrass bulb. That's cool. Maybe I should find another inexpensive 10,000K to compare to the Plusrite bulb I already have. Ideally, I'd like to compare 4 or more bulbs before making a decision.


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## roybot73 (Dec 15, 2007)

I sent you the 8000K Watergrass and the Venture 6500K. They arrived in Chapel Hill this morning. Be sure to post some comparison pics of your collection!


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## mette (Jun 3, 2005)

roybot73 said:


> I sent you the 8000K Watergrass and the Venture 6500K. They arrived in Chapel Hill this morning. Be sure to post some comparison pics of your collection!


They are here and looking great. I'm excited about that 6500K for sure. I have left you feedback on the deal. Thanks again, Roybot. I'll update this thread with some results shortly.


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## mette (Jun 3, 2005)

I am slow. However, I finally built the housing for my MH rig and test-fired the various bulbs I have kicking around. I like to build things, and I like keeping planted tanks on a shoestring, but the downside is everything takes three tries to get working. Anywho, the bulbs I tested were:

*5,200K Osram* purchased from a PT member (thanks again, Frozenbarb). Good quality, no hum, and unfortunately impossible to find. Too bad for me, since I only have the one and that's one less than I need. I paid $15. 
*6,500K Venture* mentioned here. Great quality for the price. Expect to pay $35 plus s/h. 
*8,000K Watergrass*, recommended right out the gate by Tom. They have recently added the 70w bulbs to their eBay store. Expect to pay $27 plus reasonable international shipping. 
*10,000K Plusrite* that I picked up off eBay. The seller is Trust Deals, AKA lightneed.com. I have ordered several bulbs from them, all good for the price. The 10K I have hums pretty good. I think I paid $20. 
6,500K on the left, 8,000K on the right:









10,000K on the left, 5,200K on the right:









I really like the 8K. To my eye, it looks close to the 6,700K/9325K mix I have been running. The photos aren't great -- the tank looks much brighter -- but the colors are pretty dead on. No photoshop except to crop and resize. It's easier to compare bulb colors in the photos if you block the middle third or so of the image with your fingers.

I'll probably pick up another 8K and put the rest of the bulb menagerie up on the swap shop. In the mean time, I'd be interested to hear what color temps other folks prefer. Thanks for reading.


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## MedRed (May 20, 2008)

I use 10,000k only for HQI... anything less is too yellow/green... and I can't stomach yellow/green. My 10,000k Ushio and my 10,000k aqua medic give me excellent color rendition.


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## roybot73 (Dec 15, 2007)

Nice comparison!

Here's mine FWIW...

Here's 8K Watergrass vs 10K (actually 13K) AquaMedic. All camera settings were _exactly_ the same. The only editing was some image sharpening and resizing -- no color adjustments made.
8000K Watergrass








10KAquaMedic









8000K Watergrass








10K AquaMedic








*Note the over exposure on the AquaMedic pic -- it is really _that_ much brighter!


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## god91234 (Feb 11, 2008)

10 K is so Bright it hurts my eyes... in my HQI its 8K or nothing lol.... any thing less WAY TO yellow more and it looks so bright i need sunglasses to look at my tank i went threw a try ever bulb avail phase ended up sticking with 8K


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## mette (Jun 3, 2005)

MedRed said:


> I use 10,000k only for HQI... anything less is too yellow/green... and I can't stomach yellow/green. My 10,000k Ushio and my 10,000k aqua medic give me excellent color rendition.


The lower K bulbs I tried (5,200 and 6,500) were both too yellow-green for my taste, but the 10K has a sort of sickly blue tint that is equally off-putting to me. I would describe the 8K as slightly reddish-white. I think the main issue here is that I didn't try a single bulb over $40. A lot of folks like the high-end 10K bulbs, and I bet I would too. I'm just not interested in spending $65-90 per bulb. 

Another thing that hasn't come up is ballasts. I expect different ballasts will run the same bulb at noticeably different color temp. As always, you get what you pay for. I'm running 70w NAIS electronic ballasts -- I hear they're good quality. 



roybot73 said:


> Here's mine FWIW...
> 
> *Note the over exposure on the AquaMedic pic -- it is really _that_ much brighter!


Thanks for posting those. That's a sharp looking tank and a good point, too -- the Osram 5,200K is without a doubt brighter than the other three bulbs. The 8K is a little on the dim side, and that may be another disadvantage to running cheaper bulbs. It would be interesting to hook up the kill-a-watt and a light meter. It may be that higher-end bulbs are worth the extra cash if they draw the same amount of juice but give a better watt/lumen payoff. 

What equipment are you running the bulbs on in these photos?


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## MedRed (May 20, 2008)

yeah mette. I've seen different 10k bulbs with different outputs. I think the coralife bulb is really blue. The Ushio and Aqua Medic 10,000k's are not blue. They have a very crisp light and bring out blues, reds, and greens super well.


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## roybot73 (Dec 15, 2007)

mette said:


> The lower K bulbs I tried (5,200 and 6,500) were both too yellow-green for my taste, but the 10K has a sort of sickly blue tint that is equally off-putting to me. I would describe the 8K as slightly reddish-white. I think the main issue here is that I didn't try a single bulb over $40. A lot of folks like the high-end 10K bulbs, and I bet I would too. I'm just not interested in spending $65-90 per bulb.
> 
> Another thing that hasn't come up is ballasts. I expect different ballasts will run the same bulb at noticeably different color temp. As always, you get what you pay for. I'm running 70w NAIS electronic ballasts -- I hear they're good quality.
> 
> ...


Thanks for the compliment!
The fixture is an AquaMedic 70W OceanLight pendant with (somewhat noisy) stock magnetic ballast. I'm not _entirely_ sure about this, but I think I've read that the magnetic ballasts "overdrive" the bulbs a bit, resulting in more output than an electronic ballast (and a higher electric bill...).

It's worth noting that the AquaMedic bulb has *2* emitters (electrodes?) within the bulb, whereas the others only have one. I'm guessing that has something to do with the increased output?

With the superb color rendition (almost perfect as natural sunlight) and powerful output that that bulb provides, I'll have no problem whatsoever paying +/-$80 for a new one when the time comes.


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