175 watt vs 250 watt

[alton]

If you run radium lamps on M80 ballast yes you have a lot of PAR but at the same time you are using 350 watts of power, almost double that of 175w. I run 250 watt Radium lamps on Coral Vue ballast and they are less blue than the 12K reeflux they replaced. And after 9 months the lighting loss is not that bad with great growth from SPS to LPS corals(SPS on the rock and LPS on the Sand). I ran a 250 watt 12K reeflux lamp in a Lumen bright fixture with a coralvue dimmable ballast dimmed all the way down over my 40 gallon breeder and it worked great with no heat trouble. Typical rule is under 20" go with 175, 20 to 27 go with 250, anything deeper 400. Today with the selectable ballast you can borrow some older lamps from friends and try out and see what works for you?

 

[karsseboom]

If you run radium lamps on M80 ballast yes you have a lot of PAR but at the same time you are using 350 watts of power, almost double that of 175w. I run 250 watt Radium lamps on Coral Vue ballast and they are less blue than the 12K reeflux they replaced. And after 9 months the lighting loss is not that bad with great growth from SPS to LPS corals(SPS on the rock and LPS on the Sand). I ran a 250 watt 12K reeflux lamp in a Lumen bright fixture with a coralvue dimmable ballast dimmed all the way down over my 40 gallon breeder and it worked great with no heat trouble. Typical rule is under 20" go with 175, 20 to 27 go with 250, anything deeper 400. Today with the selectable ballast you can borrow some older lamps from friends and try out and see what works for you?

Yeah but m80 is the correct ballast for that bulb. It is an hqi bulb made to run higher wattage. The bulb is not really 250 its more like 300 Watts.