Good Deal on Hamilton 250 watt 10K Metal Halide Bulbs

[F1rebird]

Check it out, these are like $90 bulbs, I picked up two of them, very fair on shipping.
I was due for bulbs and wanted to try 10K's and stumbled across these!

Metal Halide Bulbs

 

[jmkarcz]

Looked long and hard... but I think I'm gonna buy into the de bulbs. Thanks for looking out for the deal though!

J

 

[F1rebird]

Why the D.E??.....You been out of town or your computer broke?
Not much posting out of ya?

 

[jmkarcz]

You know, new system... setup this, setup that, fix this and that, where's that program????, and install, install, install.

I read somewhere that the double ended bulbes lasted a bit longer... like 12-18 months - and that's all their using in Europe.... They always seem to be a bit ahead on a few things. (and because I got a recomendation from Gooch.) I'm not married to any system now, that one seemed good place to start.

Have you heard something, I will probably buy next week.

Jason

 

[RCS]

I like the DE bulbs as well. Output is good, they're smaller and easier to work with than the SE I think, and they are supposed to last longer.

I'll throw a quick plug out for an RC sponsor: I've been very happy with my EVC setup from Ocean Encounter. You can't beat it for the price. A triple 250w DE setup with electronic ballasts and bulbs ran me under $800 delivered.

 

[jmkarcz]

Because I have a 75 gallon reef upstairs, and I dream of a 120... I was going to go with 2 @ 250W pendants. I was looking at the PFO HQI DE's with the Electronic Icecap ballasts . Gooch recommended the Pheonix 14k's and I think I will try those. If I ever upgrade to the 120, these should work. If I upgrade to the 120, they'll carry over. If I scrap a tank upstairs altogether, and move into the 300 downstairs, I can add an additional.

I didn't want to hijack the thread, but should I be worried about the heat on the icecap ele ballasts? I have a hard time buying the heat dieapater for the 30$ each or so, and the boxes, since my brother works for an aluminum fabricater, I thought I would wait for them to come in and if someone says yes to the heat question, I will have him fab a box I can mount in the basement with a fan...

By the way, if anyone needs to know....

I was at radio shack, and they have a small muffin fan that runs on 115vac (wall current) that is SOOO easy to just patch in and run off your devices power cord. I was having problems (in my mind) with the amount of heat thrown off by the Lights of America Flood over the fuge, It was so hot, that you could barely hold your hand on the plastic. I cut a hole in the side, a vent for the exit air, and fished the wire inside and wire nutted it to the end of the power cord.

Works great. it's been on for 9 days now, the plastic is barely above room temp.

20$ - uses less electricity than a couple of those moonlights leds.

Jason

 

[RCS]

I would check out the EVC ballasts, all of Sanjay's tests show they run the bulbs with more output than the IceCaps. Mine are dead silent and you can keep your hand on it indefinitely even after running for a few hours.

Not sure on the difference between bulbs (there's a site out there that shows the same tank with different bulbs) but I like my 14ks, though they're also EVCs. Not sure on how the actual color output compares to the Phoenix though. Nice white-blue color that really allows colors to pop and provides good growth. I think they look better than 10ks, without the dimness you find in most 20k bulbs.