XM Metal Halide Bulbs

[clowntrigger]

Do any of you have any first hand knowledge of XM bulbs? These things are dirt cheap. Is it money wasted?

[Tim Marvin]

I used 2 DE and they would not fire on my icecap ballast or HQI/PFO pulse start. I practically gave them away and the person that bought them said he got them to fire. They are very ballast specific. I think it was an M81 or M91 ballast. I was not impressed with them when I saw them fired. They looked dimmer than the Geissman MegaChromes I am currently using. I hear Coralvue make a pretty good halide and we just happen to have a distibutor on this site. 360Reeffarms, Greg is just getting up and rolling, but with his other parners I expect to see some very good things coming out of the farm within the next few months to a year. Greg will be running mostly top end colorful frags thought so if your looking for the plain old colt or xenia don't bother to call. He will have eye popping zoo's acropora and other type colorful corals.

[RobertG]

I have the bulbs Tim is referring to. I think they are OK! They seem to be inconsistent in color. I have one right next to a megaCHR 13K. I would just say there OK & not much else. Jim had the mogul bulbs & 400 watters. They looked very diff. in comparison to the DE.

I plan on trying the coralvue.

[R.Allard]

i like the 250 watt XM 20k s in mogule base. other than that i run 10 k ushios and the combo of the two is a great mix.

[dan]

thats all i use is the XM. 2- 250w 10k and 1- 400w 20k. i also have the mogule base type.

[Tim Marvin]

So there! I guess if you use them the mogul base has it.

[GaryP]

I just switched to XM 250 watt, 10K, Mogul bulbs.

I've noticed my growth on the SPS already starting to take off. My Xenia is sort of freaking out over the increased PAR value, but I'm sure that is temporary.

Gary

[clowntrigger]

Thanks for the input. I just picked up three 400 watt mh pendants with electronic ballasts. The bulbs, Blueline 10K, may have 6 months of life left, I was thinking about the XM bulbs, they are super cheap compared to all the others out there.

I have to tell you, you guys on this site have really inspired me to switch my fish-only tank over to a reef.

I appreciate all of the input.

[GaryP]

Lets see how much you are thanking us in a year. Its like handing out free sample of crack in a playground.

Gary

[clowntrigger]

You've got to remember, I get pretty good deals! Have you seen the pictures of our propagation tanks?

[Tim Marvin]

What are you guys propagating? I'd like to see and hear more....

[clowntrigger]

Joshua-
Right now I have 440 watts of VHO, just bought a set of halides for to move over to the "dark side", reef.

Tim-
We are going to propagate whatever we can get our hands on. We just received 3 more boxes of corals the other night. We will let them sit in the the system for a couple of days and then start slicing and dicing. We are still ramping up our inventory. I ordered 20 plugs of zoanthids yesterday, I should have them tomorrow, they are all supposed to be a different color. There are some pictures of our system out here in a thread started by don-n-sa under "vendor expereriences".

[Dozer]

Lets see how much you are thanking us in a year. Its like handing out free sample of crack in a playground.

Gary

LMAO! :lol:

[360Reef]

I can get you 400w mogul Coral Vue bulbs (10,14,20K) for $60. I don't know what the price of the XM's are but let me know if you are interested.

-Greg Houston
360 Reef Farm
512-659-4843

[clowntrigger]

How do these bulbs compare to the XM bulbs?

I will keep that in mind, thanks.