Hey everyone,
So I am now returning to the hobby after a brief hiatus, I used to have a 30g Custom AIO with 20" 150w Sunpod 14k Phoenix bulb. Now I'm coming back to the hobby with what's considered a pico reef. I have a 5.5 gallon currently running a 6700k bulb but I feel it's not enough. Hopefully by this weekend I will be upgrading to a 70w Sunpod.

Now here's my dilemma, when I had my 150w I new the way the colors looked because I happened to have a 14k ushio, 14k Phoenix, 14k PowerPaq and a 20k Ushio. From my understanding on a 70w these colors may be different. I wonder if you guys can help me out with some pictures of the following bulbs on your tanks.

70w MH's of:
14k/20k Ushio
14k/20k Phoenix
14k/20k Of whatever you have.

Here's a pic as of a few days ago

Phoenix doesn't make 70w MH bulbs, unfortunately.
I have personally used Astralux 14k, Ushio 14k and Ushio 20k.
Honestly, I didn't think that any of them measured up to the Phoenix 14k that I used in my 150w fixture.
I've always been kinda disappointed with 70w MH bulbs, unfortunately.
The 2 14k ones I tried looked straight white with no real blue in them.
The 20k had a nice blue, but was a little too blue.
I liked the Ushio 20k the best out of them all.
Don't believe I have any pics under them, unfortunately.

when i was running a 70w viper the current 14k bulb was the bluest 70w i was able to find, even bluer than the ushio 20k.

my 14k phoenix rocks out with it's socks out.

but for the price of what your gonna pay for the sunpod, go with evil66's par38 led bulb (it's only $130)

I need to see pictures of this thing in use. I've seen how a sunpod looks but no luck on the par38

look at evil's 40 breeder thread, he's using several of them over that tank.

I have seen those but I want to see the actual one bulb in action.

this is the 20k model i believe, on dhauts tank. bulb is aprox 20" above the tank. PAR rating exceeds that of a 250w mh

Thank you! Would I have to put it up that high?

yes, or wait till evil releases the newer model with wider optics, then you could lower it a bit