Ballast's life in a 48" corallife pc?

Hello there, i have had my 260w. corallife p.c. fixture for about 4 years now and I was wondering when and if i need to change out the ballasts ever??

I just re-bulbed with 2 brand new corallife 10,000k's & 2 Corallife 03 actinic's, then compared their output with a pair of 55W. Jebo 10,000k...

It looks like the Jebo 10,000k 55w is ALOT BRIGHTER than the 65w 10,000k Corallife bulb's??!! (Jebo is more actinic also)

What do you think i should do, start running 55w instead of 65w??

Thank for the help!!

 

Yeah....I noticed that too. I do not think it has so much to do with the bulbs rather than the ballast installed. Man, I could be wrong on this, but that is my gut feeling. I know the bulbs can be overdriven to well over their described wattage. If you were to get a TEK-2 retrofit kit with icecap ballasts, you will end up overdriving your 54W T5s to 80W or more. So I think it is a ballast issue.

Now, there are differences in bulb quality. I know when it comes time to get good quality bulbs they are either going to be UVL or Giessemann. Probably UVL.

Try swapping out the bulbs.....Wait.......do you have two fixtures? The reason I ask, and I may have misunderstood the post, is that I have both a JEBO and Odyssea fixture. The Odyssea does not look at bright as the JEBO when I run them side by side.....

If you have, and are running, just one fixture, then my supposition is most likely incorrect.

I hope this post has been less confusing to you as is has for me.....Jeez......

 

The PC bulb should be chaged out approx every 8-9 months.
My ballasts are 1 yr old and still working fine. If the ballasts in your current 48" PC go, just replace them with a generic replacement ballast that fits. There is no point in spending money on an icecap ballast to run PCs.

 

Pc ballasts might last 5 years they might last one year, I have seen it all. Having 4 PC fixtures in my storage will testify to that!!
Luckliy I was able to get ballasts free from my ESU rep, it wasn't a biggie, but it just proves that when you outsource electronics to foreign companies that don't care about quality you will get bad batches now and then.
I am not trying to rip on anyone but a couple years ago now the Bio cubes where having issues, the ballasts were dying almost right out of the box. In my eyes that is not acceptable. Yes in life there is always mistakes but it really hurts a company and for that matter a LFS that supports that company when you start cheapening your product to get more $$

Thats why I say buy AMERICAN products whenever possible, if there ever is an issue which is usually slim the warranties are typically substantial!!

Sorry about the off topic rant!

 

Yes i have just the one fixture 48" with 4 65w bulbs.. i have been told that the ballast lose their output power after a few years, and you need to start using a lower wattege bulb like the 55w. to get more juice out of them??

also, I don't know if the JEBO 10,000k bulbs are of proper spectrum compared to CORALLIFE 10,000k bulbs for Corals??! The JEBO's look TOO BLUE..

THANK'S!!

 

Well, I wouldn't count on either brand to tell the truth. I wouldn't be surprised at all if the spectrums were off. That's why I am going UVL or Giessemann next time.

 

Ok thanks pharmrJohn, I just used a light meter on the corallife 10,000k and it read exactly that!!! On the other hand, the Jebo 10,000k read at 38,000k !!! WAY OFF!!!

Does this mean that the higher the Kelvin reading of the bulb the better for coral's, or more of a 'sunburn' for them???

just wondering???

THANKS AGAIN!