400W Coralvue E Ballast

NewSchool04

New member
I'm thinking of switching out my 400W Coralvue dimmable electronic ballasts and downsizing to 250W. I'm gauging interest to see if anyone is looking for this ballast. I have three that bought almost exactly a year ago and I've run them 8 hours per day, I bought them for $150 and selling for $100.00 a piece.

They work great, no problems at all.
 
As you know I am looking forward to upgrading to a 180.. So I also must ask why the change? Is 400 over kill? I love my DE 250s but it seems that all of the great tanks out there have 400s..
 
Man I wish I could say it was overkill or that I'm "tryin to copy" badazz's tank :) , but it's an energy and $$$ issue with me now. I love the 400's and if I was a millionaire I would burn them for long periods of time, but I've got to really start tightening my reef budget.

I provide financing for businesses buying capital equipment and as everyone has seen, things are slow out there. I'm starting to really feel the pinch.
 
Pat,

I assume you will have to buy new ballasts (it may be time for a bulb change so that cost is negligable), will the $ saved in energy make up for the additional cash paid for the new ballasts?

If anything, I would suggest shortening your photo period. 400s run for 5 hours use the same energy as 250s run for 8 hours. There's a theory out there that corals have a finite amount of energy they can create during any given photo period and that this amount of energy is acheived in a shorter time frame than we leave the lights on (I believe you do this already with 2 4 hour time periods). You may find that running the 400s for 5 hours will be enough light/PAR output for the corals to thrive. Check out the TOTM, he rums his 400s for only 5 1/2 hours per day and leaves the VHO actinics on longer for viewing.

Just trying to offer a different view. HTH.
 
Yeah Chris, I'll have to buy new ballasts and bulbs. I figured the ballasts would basically even out and then I'd be in the hole for the bulbs. My 400W bulbs have only about 2 months on them so I was hoping that I could sell those and buy new 250's for a loss but not that bad.

I've read about the shorter photo period and I've seen plenty of tanks with success with this method but to tell you the truth, I never thought of going this route. It definitely gives me something to think about. I'll check out the TOTM article again and thanks for the heads up.
 
Before I nuked my tank I was only running my 400's (xm 20k's) for 5 hours a day, and I was happy with the growth and color. You could also stagger on/off times, giving sections of your reef a 1 hour break or so. I did that also with no problems, and I believe menard does?
 
Did you run any actinics when the halides were off Pat or just 5 hours MH and done?

I stagger all my lights coming on 1/2 hour from left to right and then they all take an hour break midday. 4 hours on, 1 hour off, 4 hours on.
 
I had the 4 VHO's on only up until the halides turned on. I actually liked the look of the dark section in the tank...the fish tend to congregate there.

BTW...I've got the 250W 10k Reeflux bulbs on HQI ballasts...very nice color. White with some blue. Not sure how that color will hold up though, I only ran it for a quick test.
 
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