Best Metal Halide Talk

OK I am thinking about Metal Halide (MH) Lights and need your opinions.
It will be a eballast or electrical Ballast.
Are all electric ballasts the same?
Can they use every kind of bulb but HQI?
I know the e ballast will save you $ every month and run cooler and make your bulbs last longer.

If they are pretty much the same ballast then why not go with the cheapest one?

The 400 watt and 250 are $10 dollars difference.
I am thinking about the dual 250 eballast setup so does anyone know a cheap place to get these?
http://cheapcorals.com/index.php/cPath/31_59_65

http://oceanencounter.com/Merchant2/...gory_Code=ICMH

[Matt Rogers]

Wow that first link has cheap PFO ballasts!

Did you see these?

http://www.championlighting.com/e/en...g/hqiebal.html

What kind of bulbs do you like?

[quote author=Matt Rogers link=board=lighting;num=1075418968;start=0#2 date=01/30/04 at 16:07:14]Wow that first link has cheap PFO ballasts! *

Did you see these?

http://www.championlighting.com/e/en...g/hqiebal.html

What kind of bulbs do you like?

[/quote]
Yeah I saw Champion and think they are a little high priced.
Why is it so hard to find a dual 250 watt E-ballast?
[quote author=Matt Rogers link=board=lighting;num=1069978270;start=0#1 date=12/17/03 at 09:20:51]I'll come back when I have more time, but check out some of these great links:

http://www.cnidarianreef.com/lamps.cfm

Note the par ratings toward the bottom.

Also check out some of the lighting links here regarding ballasts and bulbs:

http://www.3reef.com/cgi-bin/yabb/Ya...g;action=links

[/quote]
Matt this was taken from another thread here.
Which lead to another link at RC that I have not finished reading but very interested in the Ice Cap ballast with Iwaski bulb? now. Or the coral life ballast with CV bulb I think it was.
Still looking but from what I saw Ice cap was kicking butt . I think I am understanding it but what do I know.

Your second link. Hummm this is the second time I have seen your link take me to a place I have never seen before! Do you have some hidden pages here at 3 reef?
Where are the normal menu links to those pages?

I just noticed on that cheap coral page that they have some really good deals.
One was the RIO 1400 for 18 bucks

Also the hard to find John Guest quick fitting and bulk heads.
http://cheapcorals.com/index.php/cPath/75_156

Overflow box was cheap
http://cheapcorals.com/index.php/cPath/75_165

Back to lights MH.

[Iceman30]

What bulbs will the E-Ballast run?
Each ballast will run all mogul base or double ended HQI bulbs of that wattage that are currently on the market. You do not have to have these ballasts tuned to run a specific bulb. That means if you purchase a 250W E-Ballast, you can run any 250W mogul base or double ended HQI bulb on that ballast.
NOTE: We will not warranty any E-Ballast used with 12,000K Sunburst lamps. We don't not sell or recommend this lamp. We have tested this lamp and find it unstable. It will not light on a 400w or 250w E-Ballast. Our test have also shown this bulb to explode on a 175w E-Ballast. We have also had several customer complaints about this bulb.

This is from the Champion site on the E Ballast, it will run HQI bulbs...if you want some of the best PAR figures, almost the intensity of a 400 watt MH, remember if you DIY, you need to provide a glass UV filter under the HQI bulb...I had an Ushio 10k HQI, PAR near 400 watt MH bulbs...kept sps in 24" deep tank, on the bottom, clams too grew like crazy..VERY BRIGHT WHITE, may need actinics, I did.

I am thinking about going with the XM20 that pro builder recomends. It give a nice blue color and he says his corals are growing better with those the XM10 which has a better PAR.

Check this out
http://www.cnidarianreef.com/lamps.cfm

[Matt Rogers]

I remember that link, that's a great one!
A lot of people were talking those XM bulbs up not long ago on RC for what that's worth.

Meant to tell you I found the IceCap setup you like at marinedepot's site.

Matt ... what no link to the Marine depot lights?
You slacker....

[Boomer]

Nautilus

That was a nice link on bulb comparison, here is another one with lots of info. It is nice to see that the Iwasaki's I introduced into this hobby more than a decade ago are still King. Bt the way, one should really not be comparing lights, based on appearance/comparison, as it is very misleading. Kelvin temp is also very meaningless as a guide, it is PAR that counts. Kelvin means almost nothing, other than bringing out some more coloration that may be more appealing to the human eye, it means most of nothing when it comes to growth. One just needs a high PAR and an acceptable K temp.



http://www.coralreefecosystems.com/ltg_bulb_color.htm