Cheap Hqi bulbs on ebay? From China

[Highside]

Has anyone seen these super cheap hqi bulbs on ebay? They are about $20 for 14k and 20k bulbs. The picture shown says 220v on the box. Are these going to need a special ballast?

Here is a link.
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/HQI-70W-20K-...hZ005QQcategoryZ46314QQtcZphotoQQcmdZViewItem

 

[gflat65]

Yeah, I'd say that if it's a 220v, it is European/Asian, so I would think you'd need a different ballast. Those are only 70W, though, so it is for a smaller system.

 

[Highside]

Any recomendations on what is the best bulb? 14K, 20k? brand? I am leaning towards a 20k just to supplement my pc's and bring out the color a little. I like the tank really blue anyway. If i'm about to make a mistake please let me know.

 

[gflat65]

That is a sticky subject. What ballast are you running (brand, model, type, etc.), what wattage bulbs, and SE or DE? Lighting is not an easy subject. 20K's plus actinic can be overkill (though PC's are more of a clear blue than a purply blue), unless you really like a lot of blue. I run 14K Phoenix 250W DE's with VHO's and it is fairly blue. Any bluer and it would be to much for me. The camera already has a tough time with these lights...

 

[Angela Short]

I will never run a cheap china bulb again. I thought I had a bad brand new electric ballast because of them. Premium aquatics even replaced the ballast and the same thing still happened. Would fire randomly, if it felt like it. I thought some magnetic ballest were bad also because they wouldn't even fire them but 50% of the time, if that. After talking with a servid guy at PA and he asked me what type of bulbs I was using did we figure out the problem. He said they are made very cheap with no quality controll measures. China bulbs were notoriouse for not fireing consistanly, especially till they were burned in well. Mine have a few months burn on them and they fire most of the time now. I notice one doesn't fire maybe once every 10 days or so for no reason and be fine the next day. So neddless to say I am going with name brand next go .
I was about to pull my hair out for awhile trying to figure this issue out. Especially since I wired the ballast in I kept thinking it was me but there is only so many ways to screw on a wire nut, ya know? Some things are best to pay more for I found.

 

[Highside]

The best price I have found on ballast are at ballastwise.com. I am looking at a 70 watt electronic ballast. Looks like they are made by dexin. The bulb will have to be a DE. The only ones I have found are Ushio, aquamedic, reef grow, illuminate, and the chinese bulbs.

 

[cee]

The 220 V refers to the ballast, not the bulb. There are many DE bulbs offered for that price or less on the US ebay site as well. I've run the Chinese SE bulbs, and they work fine. Color's not the greatest, but they are plenty bright, reliable (IMO), and dirt cheap ($5 US is what the seller paid for them, BTW). Also, there are eballasts that can be had on ebay from China for about $50-$60 and they look exactly like the CoralVue ballasts, except perhaps the missing CV sticker

Dave