400 Watt Galaxy?

[Alex T.]

tegee,

I love my 400 watt Galaxy/Radium combination. You will sacrifice a little in par, but the color of these bulbs on Galaxy ballasts is incredible. Much more crisp than I expected. Even the colors of my fish are enhanced.

I hate buying things twice, but this was definitely worth it.

 

[MSHUR]

Runing this combo for 2 years and i love it. Color is great, crisp blue. I do replace radiums every 8 month. I just added reef bright LEds strips ( blue) and i was amazed how corals pop with colors that i have never saw in my life...simply amazing!

 

[tegee]

Thanks Alex and Mshur......

Do you think I can obtain the same "400 w Radium" look in 250w Radium/Galaxy setup? I have three LumenBright reflectors over a short 5' width and I am afraid (3) 400w will be overkill for my application.

What do you think? I am ready to make the investment in Galaxy ballsts, but want to make sure I am going in the right direction.

 

[raynist]

Neither the Galaxy or the Lumatek "dimmable" ballasts have any affect on par readings on the 250 hqi,superlumen settings(Radium 250, Iwasaki 250). I got the same readings on both settings. The 400 radium gained about 5% on the superlumen setting.

Then there must be something wrong with your bulbs, ballasts or par meter.

There us a significant increase in light (both to the eye and my par meter) using the iwasaki 250w de bulbs and Phoenix 14k's. When I get my par meter back I will document it, but the increase was more than 10%.

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1822322&highlight=select+a+watt


Check this thread and look at james77's post to see the difference the hqi setting makes.