Finnex Phoenix Electric Company Metal Halide HQI 14000K DE Bulb for Aquarium, 150-watt

On my 5th bulb run them for 2 years. Great color and par value retention.

I bought this bulb as a replacement for the stock 150w OEM bulb in my Oceanic BioCube HQI. Oceanic says their bulb is 14k but it's really more like 6,500k at the most as it has a lot of yellow in it. This bulb has just the right amount of blue in it and I'd call it somewhere around 12k. In reading reviews people said it was too blue but the only way I could see that is if they wanted a daylight bulb.I've compared this side-by-side to my Ecotech Radion XR30w (Gen2) and I can make them equal in color by turning off the green and red on the Radion and lowering the white to about 50%. So that would be 8 Royal Blue LED's + 8 Blue LED's + 8 Cool White LED's (running at 50%).Overall, very pleased with the purchase as I'm generally not a fan of the color of most metal halide bulbs.

After installing these new bulbs in my outer orbits light I realized how over powering my 10k HQI bright white bulbs were, Only after 3 days I see colors in my corals that I haven't seen since I purchased them. I believe the 10K HQI bulbs were bleaching out a lot of the color in the corals, this 14k HQI bulb is not as brilliant bright white as a standard 10K but has a nice hint of blue to the light which simulates a deeper water look. I am not a lover of a tank that is too dark blue in color for lighting and was hesitant to try these and it took a couple of days to get used to the color change in the light but after seeing the colors pop on the corals in such a short time I will be sticking with these bulbs at the next replacement.

I've tried several different brands of metal halides in the 10 years I've had my reef aquarium and so far I am very pleased with this light. I've just put it in today and am already pleased with the color it's providing. My corals seem to be enjoying it to. My last lights were Ugio and while ok, they were a bit white. This light has a nice blue tint to it. So far I'm very pleased with the color and the quality for the price. Time will tell if this was the right light for my corals but I'm optimistic.

This bulb was replacing the original coral life 20k bulbs that came with the ballast and hood. This bulb has much better coloration and the blues are much higher, the 20k coralife bulbs seem to have much more white then blue. Recommend hanging these high above if it's the first time your corals and fish will see such an intense light. 12-14 inches at least to start, not to mention how much it will affect temp swings in tank, keep and eye on the tank first few days running to get an idea how the lights will affect temp. Great bulb, watch for temp swings!