250 mh se bulbs

BigBadBlenny

BigBadBlenny

Member
hello. i am looking for a good stand alone bulb. i have been looking at the threads about mh faq but i cant decide. i am getting ice cap e ballasts me thinks. and i will be keeping all kinds of sps

venture
radium
xm
megachrome coral

any thoughts on these guys??
 
What is most important to you?
Growth?
Blue/White appearance?
Coral fluorescence?
 
what is a good ballast for the ac14k? is the new icecap e ballast gonne be good for me? should i consider another ballast
 
premium aquatics has them, they have their own sub-forum here I believe.
the bulb is best run with an HQI ballast but I'm also trying to decide between that or an SLS galaxy ballast.
 
Radium/Galaxy

Radium/Galaxy

I am running thr Radium/Galaxy 250 combo, I love the look, but growth is just ok, my next purchase will be aqua connect.

the Dual Galaxy ballast rocks, runs cool and energy efficient!!!
 
i run the mechachrome coral on an hqi ballast. thought it was to blue at first, but after burning in its really crisp white/blue. it has the highest ppfd on sanjays testing. at least what i could find. i tried all kinds of combos on the lighting page and went with the bulb due to color and ppfd. i think the hellios buld was almost the same ppfd, but the color would be real white.
 
ok i have found 2 places that carry the ac 14k bulbs. they also carry icecap e ballasts and galaxy. so i need to pick what match up and fgo with it. i am also getting lumenarc 3 or minis.
 
i was going to try the ac bulbs but went with mechachrome, i would only use an hqi ballast. thats my opinion. i tried to research both hqi and electronic and i guess both have pros and cons. i chose hqi for par and color, but some say the electronics give the bulb a little more life.
 
hqi ballasts are for de bulbs, sorry i thought that was what you had. radium does suggest an hqi ballast with their bulb though. i used this combo myself for atinics over a 150, and for daylight had 2- iwasakis on mag ballasts of course. the hqi will overdrive any other se bulb, and i would say shorten its life.
 
no, an hqi ballast will not overdrive an aquaconnect SE bulb. that's what it's made for. the radium on the other hand wasn't really made for an hqi ballast.
 
A 250-watt HQI (ANSI M80) ballast is a high current ballast. All Double-Ended 250-watt metal halide lamps are designed to this specification. Most European 250-watt Single-Ended metal halide lamps are designed to the same specification as Double-Ended MH lamps.

Here is an article that has a chart showing the recommended lamp and ballast combinations: http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2007-03/sj/index.php
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10064528#post10064528 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by anemoneguy
i run the mechachrome coral on an hqi ballast. thought it was to blue at first, but after burning in its really crisp white/blue. it has the highest ppfd on sanjays testing. at least what i could find. i tried all kinds of combos on the lighting page and went with the bulb due to color and ppfd. i think the hellios buld was almost the same ppfd, but the color would be real white.
Click to expand...

You can say that again.. proof is in the pictures! :) Here are some with my 13K 250w SE Giesemann Megachromes.

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1033086&perpage=25&pagenumber=36
 
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