Coral Colors with 10K

Suzy wrote: Reef tanks are not about creating a natural reef! it's about finding exotic, colorful and fansy-pansy specimens, right?

I sure hope not

As for Jon and Jake--- I think I agree with most of what you said.  But I do disagree with Borneman on that intensity is more important than spectrum.  Hmmm, I'll have to think about that.  Currently I do believe that many corals get over-illuminated (in terms of photosynthesis) in our tanks.  However maybe they still color up better. 
I'm not really sure.  But yes I certainly do agree on water quality issues.

I guess I wanted to start this thread because I've seen several tanks run with only 10K in the past.  However they all looked quite yellow to me.  This tank, well it doesn't.

Also- Whether or not those corals naturally have those colors in the wild is all about perception.  I guess I'd say yes they do.

Adam

How does Eric's bulb look next to a 14K bulb?

My father-in-law just bought a couple Reeflux 10K bulbs.  The glow of his fish room viewed from the sidewalk looks like 20K or 14K bulbs (very blue tint).  But looking into the tank they look pretty white.  Definately more white then the XMs he replaced.  But I think the color might be similar to the Hamilton 14Ks I tried.  My eyes "make" it appear white, but when you take a picture with your digital camera it take a lot of white balance to get the blue out.

His bulb does give off a very nice white, with a very small hint of blue.  No yellow whatsoever.  His tank has done incredibly well also after switching to these bulbs.

He has some guy in New Orleans making them for him.

I'm running the pheonix 14k and his bulb is no where near as blue as mine.