Anyone running XM 20K on PFO HQI Ballasts?

[drummereef]

Anyone running this combination? Got pics?

 

[drummereef]

Anyone?

How about anyone running XM 20K's on any ballast?

 

[drummereef]

^^^

 

[BeanAnimal]

pictures are kind of pointless.... as they are just to many variables to overvome. If you want to determine a bulbs color, you will have to look at it with your own eyes.

As for XM 20K bulbs... I ran the 20K XDE 150W bulbs for about 6 months. They were on a BlueWave HQI ballast. Very nice blue color, very horrible PAR and almost no growth. Almost all of my corals browned up.

Check out Sanjays site for PAR numbers.

 

[mpdharley]

I've run XM 20k bulbs for about 2 1/2 years now and I like them. My latest tank is running them on the PFO 250watt HQI ballasts and pendants. Here's a link to some pictures:

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=880367&perpage=25&pagenumber=13

Look about half-way down that page (pictures from 1/13/2007) and you'll see the pictures taken without the flash. The pictures on the next page were taken with a flash.

 

[drummereef]

mpdharley - THANK YOU! That's what I'm talking about. Awesome tank.

Do you feel the lamps look less blue than on a standard magnetic or electronic since you are "overdriving" them? How's the bulb life expectancy so far? No actinics, correct?

I think this is the look I'm going for w/o having to get 400 watt ballasts (and a chiller).

 

[mpdharley]

Thanks! I run them for about a year, but I may change to run them for about 10 months.

I recently upgraded to that new tank and had my 125 (old tank, running XM 20k DE bulbs in an Aquaspace light 6' fixture) and was able to compare the 1 year old bulb to the new bulb (color wise). The old bulbs had definitely lost their blue and gone yellow.

That may have been because they weren't on an HQI ballast (all I know about the Aquaspace light ballast is that it was a German ballast -- at least I think it was), but I don't know. I'll be keeping an eye on them after about 10 months.

 

[dippin61]

no reason to really. i just ran the numbers this weekend on sanjays site, because i was thinking about going with the xm 20k on HQI ballasts.

your only gaining about 6 ppfd, and losing a spike in the 460nm range compared to the mag ballast driven ones.

XM 20k on mag ballast is 73 ppfd
XM 20k on HQI ballast is 79 ppfd

not worth the extra money in ballasts, and more often bulb replacement

 

[drummereef]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9341176#post9341176 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by dippin61
no reason to really. i just ran the numbers this weekend on sanjays site, because i was thinking about going with the xm 20k on HQI ballasts.

your only gaining about 6 ppfd, and losing a spike in the 460nm range compared to the mag ballast driven ones.

XM 20k on mag ballast is 73 ppfd
XM 20k on HQI ballast is 79 ppfd

not worth the extra money in ballasts, and more often bulb replacement

I knew the PAR wasn't that different between HQI and Magnetics, but I was more interested in bulb life and color temp. I love how XM 20K's look on 400 watt ballasts but wondered if the 250 watt XM's would look equally as good running on HQI (overdriven)?

 

[jtravis2]

www.precisionmarine.com/html/es100.html

 

[drummereef]

mmmkay? How does a venturi skimmer help me with ballast questions?

 

[jtravis2]

It doesn't! I was having problems posting on RC last night and this was met for another thread.
Sorry

 

[drummereef]

:lol: no prob.