Your going to have to go back to Venture 5k eventually.
At that point, I may just move over to the dark side, errr I mean LEDs.
Do I need a new ballast?
- Thread starter Mr. Wiggles
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At that point, I may just move over to the dark side, errr I mean LEDs.No! Don't you do it! Lmao
I promise, it's no good over there. I actually started keeping coral with t8s from home depot, then diy leds, and moved to halides, and man...I love halides. I do have a few leds fixtures, but I just don't like them. The heavy blue weighted light not only isn't my cup of tea, the polyp expansion is less. The spectrum of most lights is too heavy blue weighted and unnatural. Cool white leds even are bluer than natural conditions. Warm white is actually not bad though. For SPS, I actually prefer the 3,200k for growth, and some thing do actually look better than they do with leds. Alot more alage though, as one can imagine.
Mr. Wiggles
Member
Thanks for all the help. I just tried the new light and it seemed to fire up just fine on my existing ballast.
I'm willing to bet that means they are either discontinued or soon will be. I can't even find 175w Ushios anymore and those were the last "major" brand available at PA, all gone now.
Side story here, there's a LFS near me that specializes in FW and ponds. They do have a very small and expensive selection of SW (think single, green R. Florida for $60). I hadn't been there in years until recently when our youngest daughter wanted to set up a FW shrimp tank. I tagged along just to see if their marine selection had gotten any better over the years (it hadn't). Anyway, while I was there I got talking to the guy and the conversation turned to lighting. When I mentioned I was still running MH he said that about a year ago, they threw away a bunch of brand new MH bulbs because they weren't selling.
I noticed the Hamilton Cayman Sun reflectors are on sale too. Maybe it's the final final push to clear inventory.
Hamilton I believe is done with everything but bulbs moving forward.
I just ordered 10 years worth of replacement bulbs from Champion. They’re only 10k but they have 150, 250, and 400 HQI’s in stock in the SPS brand (I’ve used them before and seem to work pretty good)
They also have a 400 watt mogul in stock at $10 a piece @griss
They also have a 400 watt mogul in stock at $10 a piece @griss
No 175 watt thoughI just ordered 10 years worth of replacement bulbs from Champion. They’re only 10k but they have 150, 250, and 400 HQI’s in stock in the SPS brand (I’ve used them before and seem to work pretty good)
They also have a 400 watt mogul in stock at $10 a piece @griss
I’m now good for at least 10 years with no upgrade. But any upgrade I think I might use LEDs. If anything, I still use the same bulbs for my coral quarantine so, if that ends up being the case, I’m good for 20 years lol
When I saw those on sale, I was like this is awesome, as I was getting ready to spend about $1k at Hamilton on bulbs
When I saw those on sale, I was like this is awesome, as I was getting ready to spend about $1k at Hamilton on bulbs
I think 175W is about toast. I'd suggest looking very hard and stocking up. Same with hqi bulbs. Especially 150w. Mogul bulbs may stick around for a while longer, but hard to say. Most commercial lighting is switching over to LEDs over halides. I don't really see the advantage. Most of the street lamps and flood lights are so poorly made, the 50,000k hours is a fantasy.No 175 watt though
I have halides on 4 tanks, but on my main frag tank, I use CERAMIC metal halides. 315w bulbs. They only came in 3000k and 4200k. But, they are near 200lm/watt. Blow leds to
. They run cooler than standard halides and the 4200k are basically perfect to only supplement with a little 450nm blue leds. They easily last 2 years before losing output. I believe it as, the break in from new is neat 2 month for them. I bought 20 bulbs, so...40 years worth. 
I have 4 ballasts as well. Core and coil, so should be able to get new capacitors if needed as well. Of course low K bulbs means a bit of algae.
I’ve seen the 315 on Amazon. The only “next” thing is stocking a couple ballasts. Might switch to electronic with the HQI setting if I can find them at a decent price. Have a hard time paying more for a ballast than I did for my entire metal halide set up lol
Yes, but the generic ones are iffy. I tried one, liked it, and whwn j went to get more, no longer existed. I use the Phillips bulbs. Even Hortilux (RIP) started selling rebranded Phillips bulbs before prefecting thier own.
FWIW, I ordered (10) 175w 10k Plusrite bulbs. Still waiting on the shipping notice.
It looks like the place I got them from has other kelvin and wattages. Their website can be a bit difficult to search but, for the price, thought it was worth the chance.
www.interlightus.com
It looks like the place I got them from has other kelvin and wattages. Their website can be a bit difficult to search but, for the price, thought it was worth the chance.
Interlight | Replacement Specialty Light Bulbs | Batteries | Medical
Shop high-quality replacement light bulbs for all your needs. We offer a wide range of specialty bulbs, including LED, halogen, fluorescent, xenon, HID, and incandescent options. Find the perfect energy-efficient or specialty bulb for medical, automotive, projection, and UV applications. Explore...
www.interlightus.com
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Grrr, got a call from Interlight. Their supplier of these bulbs is no longer in business BUT, they found another supplier. Unfortunately, the price with the new supplier is $3/bulb more and they are not Plusrite bulbs but, made to Plusrite specs. I pushed to get them to honor the price on their website but, they said they simply couldn't do it. I went ahead and kept the order. If figure, even at $16 per bulb, it's worth trying them.FWIW, I ordered (10) 175w 10k Plusrite bulbs. Still waiting on the shipping notice.
It looks like the place I got them from has other kelvin and wattages. Their website can be a bit difficult to search but, for the price, thought it was worth the chance.
Interlight | Replacement Specialty Light Bulbs | Batteries | Medical
Shop high-quality replacement light bulbs for all your needs. We offer a wide range of specialty bulbs, including LED, halogen, fluorescent, xenon, HID, and incandescent options. Find the perfect energy-efficient or specialty bulb for medical, automotive, projection, and UV applications. Explore...
Thanks, I actually had those in my cart first, when I went to check out, their shipping was much higher than Interlight.
Now I'm really getting pissed off.
- January 21 - I ordered the bulbs at $13 and change a piece.
- January 25 - Informed they need to use a different supplier and the price would increase to $16 and change.
- I told them to go ahead and process the order at that price.
- February 3- Still no bulbs and not even a shipping notification.
- Logged onto the website, and they show my order at $23.84 per bulb.
- Called and got a message that all agents are busy, leave a message.
ETA - they now have them listed at $23.84 on their website.
Sounds like a run around
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