250 watt metal halide, which kind??

[flfireman1]

Okay so I decided on a 250 watt metal halide to supplement the pcs on my tank now. This is was pretty much the unanimous opinion of you folks here on my thread on lighting my 92 gallon corner bowfront.

Now my question now is, which one is better? I was leaning towards an icecap retro kit. But wanted to know if there were any likes or dislikes of the other brands out there. I was thinking the electronic ballast would be a better choice, due to running cooler and burning more evenly factors. But again, I wanted to know the experiences of you folks with different ballasts. I understand PFO, coralvue and coral life make decent ballasts and if any of these was better or as good as the icecaps for the money.

To complicate things, is there a specific kind/brand of bulb which is better than another? I was leaning more towards a 20K, but could be persuaded into another type.

THanks
Eric

 

[ReefWreak]

The Icecap won't run the bulb cooler, the ballast itself will be cooler. I like the IceCap, I've got it, but next time I need to replace a ballast, I'm going to go with the PFO HQI, just to get that extra punch out of the bulb (the HQI ballast overdrives the bulb, therefore getting more light out of it, at the cost of the bulb burning out/getting old faster).

And it'll be your Power Compacts that supplement your new Metal Halide

The brand/bulb will be what color you like. 20k will be BLUE! VERY BLUE! unless you get the HQI, which will make it less blue, more white, but still VERY BLUE compared to other stuff.

I'm a big fan of 10k main light MH (VERY WHITE!) and having the PC/VHO/T5 supplement be the blue/violet in the tank. It works for me as well as others, but to each their own.

There are a few people with beautiful tanks who run only 20k, there are some who run 14k, there are some who run 10k. It's totally a color preference, but you must also realise that when you go to higher K bulbs, you get less growth out of your corals as well. 10k will grow corals faster than 20k (generally speaking).

The bulb/ballast combo also depends on if you want double-ended or Single Ended bulbs, both with their own reflectors, and some but not all ballasts are compatable with both.

I suggest you clicking the "RK Mag" button or surfing the forums, as there are hundreds of pages written about types/colors/combinations, some official, some not, but there is WAAAY too much to ever describe on here..

Hope that helps..

 

[chinoxl3]

I run 20K Radiums on a magnetic ballast supplemented by 2X55 10K and 2X55 Actinics. Radiums and XM's are the best out there, IMO. Although you will have to pay a little more for the Radiums.

Chino

 

[ReefWreak]

Chino, is your tank 18",20", or 24" deep? I've always considered getting radiums, but I just worry that they won't provide enough light for my SPS. Any problems anywhere in the tank with light not penetrating far enough? Are you running reflectors?

 

[chinoxl3]

Its a 90 Gallon, 24" deep and yes I use deflectors. I put all my light loving corals on the top. I have more than enough light with 2 X Radiums.

 

[flfireman1]

ReefWreak

Thanks for the info, unfortunaetly the search option has been down for sometime now. But I have been doing my research on the subject.

So does the PFO ballast also run as cool as the Icecap?? How about electrical use, does one burn more electricity than another???

 

[ReefWreak]

The PFO will burn more electricity than the IceCap. I've discussed with people on the lighting forum about this, because it drove me nuts. They kept saying that 400w (or 250w in this case) is 400w is 400w, whether it's from VHO, T5, halide, PC, etc. I think that in most cases that can be a decent generalization, however looking at the specs of the ballasts themselves, the 250w PFO HQI ballast puts out 374 watts to the bulb, where as the IceCap electronic puts out 256 watts to the bulb (both bulbs are XM 10k, information taken from Sanjay's reeflighting page at http://www.reeflightinginfo.arvixe.com/selectballast.php ) so you'd be using more power with the PFO than you would with the electronic. You gain a little bit of efficiency ( 4% or so) with the electronic ballast, but you're drawing less power and putting out less light than the HQI, but it's up to you.

 

[Husky_1]

FLFireman, if you are ever in the Palm beach area, feel free to stop by the house. I tell you in my tank with an IC 250 and a XM10k my wife said it was way to bright, she prefers the Ph 14k.

I am not saying my setup is perfect, and it may not be at all what you are looking for. At very least it will be a data point to what you do not want to do. Personally the one thing about my lights that I do not complain about is the intensity. Color, well that is still being worked out.

 

[ReefWreak]

Dale, are both of those DE with new style IceCap 250w ballast?

I'd be interested in seeing the color difference and intensity difference between the DE and SE. I also just got the luminarcs too, so they'll both look like spotlights.

 

[Husky_1]

Hey Eric, they are DE's...I am not sure if they are the new style ballast, but the ballast was bought new in August if that helps. Anyway, you are welcome to come check it out. Its easy enough to throw the XM bulb in the reflector..

 

[ReefWreak]

The way to tell the old versus new style of the ballast is if it's in a giant metal heatsink like the coralvue ballasts, or if it looks like the blue box with sharp edges, like the IceCap 660 VHO ballast.

 

[Husky_1]

Must be the new style, it did not have a heat sync, is blue and has ridges.

 

[ReefWreak]

well, the blue with ridges is what I meant by a heatsink. The entire outside is now a heatsink, versus the old ones which had that silver aluminum "heatsink" zip tied to the outside.