Halide Q & A

I'm looking for a little guidance on a build I'm doing.* The tank is a Red Sea Reefer 525XL.* 59" long x 22.6" wide x 22" high.* My plan is to do a halide system with RB led supplement.* My plan is 2 150 HQI 10k bulbs in Helios' reflectors.* The Halides will run of m81 ballasts.* The supplemental leds will be 10 luxeon RB running at 1000ma and 3 Semileds Hyperviolet 3.0 running at 700ma per halide.* This will make a total system of 30 RB leds and 9 hyper violet leds.*

*

I am will be keeping sps, lps and a clam.* I am going with a 150w halide over 250 because of heat issues.* I don't want to have to run a chiller and the 150 will put off much less heat.* I feel like an M81 ballast vs a 250 electronic ballast will be pretty close in comparison minus the heat output.*

*

Could I get away with only 2 halides?* I currently have on 150 halide on an m81 ballast with a Helios reflector on a 60 (24x24x24) cube and the leds are turned down to 50%.* The light grows coral like mad and has great color.* I don't have dead spots or extreme hot spots.* The light seems to fall off quickly outside of the tank which makes me believe I may end up with dark spots on the ends (I'm ok with this) and in the middle (I'm not ok with this) on a 59inch tank.

*

Are there any electronic ballasts that can match up with the M81 ballast?* I am also considering a Lumen Bright Mini reflectors.* Anyone use both the Helios and lumenbright mini.* I am worried that the mini might throw the light around too much, including out of the tank. I might have to pick up a lumen bright mini and experiment on the 60 gallon.*

*

Critique my design, give me your opinion, let me have it!**


Here's my current light.
2f5229186bf16d183beb37ceba371bd8.jpg
b2c9e61e30073216091e05857d443ef6.jpg
 
biglurr54 said:
I'm looking for a little guidance on a build I'm doing.* The tank is a Red Sea Reefer 525XL.* 59" long x 22.6" wide x 22" high.* My plan is to do a halide system with RB led supplement.* My plan is 2 150 HQI 10k bulbs in Helios' reflectors.* The Halides will run of m81 ballasts.* The supplemental leds will be 10 luxeon RB running at 1000ma and 3 Semileds Hyperviolet 3.0 running at 700ma per halide.* This will make a total system of 30 RB leds and 9 hyper violet

The 10k 150's will be more than enough light.

I am will be keeping sps, lps and a clam.* I am going with a 150w halide over 250 because of heat issues.* I don't want to have to run a chiller and the 150 will put off much less heat.* I feel like an M81 ballast vs a 250 electronic ballast will be pretty close in comparison minus the heat output.*

*

Could I get away with only 2 halides?* I currently have on 150 halide on an m81 ballast with a Helios reflector on a 60 (24x24x24) cube and the leds are turned down to 50%.* The light grows coral like mad and has great color.* I don't have dead spots or extreme hot spots.* The light seems to fall off quickly outside of the tank which makes me believe I may end up with dark spots on the ends (I'm ok with this) and in the middle (I'm not ok with this) on a 59inch tank.

*

Are there any electronic ballasts that can match up with the M81 ballast?* I am also considering a Lumen Bright Mini reflectors.* Anyone use both the Helios and lumenbright mini.* I am worried that the mini might throw the light around too much, including out of the tank. I might have to pick up a lumen bright mini and experiment on the 60 gallon.*

* both of your reflectors are a spotlight design. The Helios is less of a spotlight than the LumenBrite, but trying to cover 59" with two of either is asking more than they will be able to do. There are no electronic ballasts that match up to the M81. If it were me, I would get in touch with Hamilton and see what he has that will work without being a spotlight. The old LumenArc III Mini did decent at 30" in my testing and Hamilton used to have one that matched up to it.

Critique my design, give me your opinion, let me have it!**
Click to expand...
 
Covering 5 feet with 2 halides is OK, but you will have darker spots on the ends. This is no big deal as long as you plan for it. Your current no-spill is because you have the light a few inches off of the water - for more spread, you will need to raise it up a bit.

I agree - get another M81. There is no substitute. Hamilton will have them. Their Cayman Sun fixture will spread the light pretty well.

Here is the great thing about your plan... if you want to add another MH fixture later, then no problem.
 
Yea I like the ability to just add one later if needed. And not break the bank to add one. I think three would be nice but almost a bit overkill. The m81 ballast seem to be making a come back. They can be had here and there. Not aquarium use one's but warehouse one's. I'm pretty sure m81 is m81 regardless of who makes it right. It's a standard the ballast has to meet.

Sent from my SM-G928V using Tapatalk
 
Correct but you have to be careful, some ballasts are marked as equivalent when they are not. Current used to use a different ballast, I forget what it actually was, it was magnetic as well, but not a true M81. Hamilton still has the correct ballast.
 
I use A select-a-watt ballast and run A 150w phoenix bulb on the 175w setting. Does this shorten the life of the bulb?
 
It can, I ran 150's for several years on ARO 175 watt ballasts. The bulb sometimes turns black quicker than you might expect. Paul Erick commented on doing this once but I cannot remember what he stated. It is searchable but I can't do that very easily on my iPad.

It is always better to run the proper ballast for the bulb you are using.
 
Thanks Jack. I've been experimenting with Radium and now Phoenix... I'm aware that m81,m80 are preferred in most cases concerning 150w,250w phoenix and radium. In fact the radium 250w will fire on the 175 setting (very dim). The thing is m81 fires the 150w radium at 172w so in theory it should run about the same on the 175w electronic ballast setting with the same life span because both are over driving the bulb...any thoughts on doing this with phoenix 150w...?
 
The old 150 Watt Radium has a 160 watt min wattage and the new 150 Radium was 149 IIRC. I have no idea on the Phoenix but suspect it is also near the 160 watt min. as this is spec. The 175 will overdrive it, but I cannot say exactly how long it takes for the bulbs to degrade beyond what the M81 would do. I did run a variety of 150's off the 175 ARO but typically changed bulbs between 12 and 14 months. I cannot say how much the 150's efffected PAR but I am sure it raised initially and dropped off sooner. I can say with the 175 on Ushio 10k's it was a smoking hot bulb and ballast combination in LumenArc III Mini's. I grew clams and SPS on the sand bed of my old 125.

I won't tell you not to run the 175, just accept that the bulbs are not being driven corrrectly and longevity and coloration may be an issue.
 
Techinical question. I have a Dual 175 watt coralvue MH ballast. When I let it turn on lighting both bulbs the bulbs burn much 'pinker/yellow' but if I let it fire with only one bulb plugged in the bulb will burn bluer/crisp white. I've tried it with different bulbs and its the same result. I would like it to fire both bulbs the correct blue/crisp white but seems impossible to do.
Anyone know why it would do this?
 
Last edited:
Do you have a kill-a-watt where you can measure wall wattage with one versus two? This could prove the above, which I also think is accurate.
 
karimwassef said:
It can probably drive one bulb at a higher voltage/power than when running two. Use a dedicated ballast for each.
Click to expand...

I know what your saying. But isn't there actually two ballast in the box? Is it because it is firing them both up at the same time? Or would that make no difference?
 
midnightmadman said:
I know what your saying. But isn't there actually two ballast in the box? Is it because it is firing them both up at the same time? Or would that make no difference?
Click to expand...

Most likely there aren't two ballasts.

While I haven't taken them apart, I have done that with other power supplies and ballasts. Duals are usually based on a single powertrain with multiple secondary turns off the main transformer. While that means that the secondary circuitry is dedicated to each output, the primary circuit is common.

When you use it in dual mode, you're pushing the primary to its combined peak output. Unless they oversized the primary side to truly accomodate double the power, running in dual mode will generate less output per output.
 
karimwassef said:
Most likely there aren't two ballasts.

While I haven't taken them apart, I have done that with other power supplies and ballasts. Duals are usually based on a single powertrain with multiple secondary turns off the main transformer. While that means that the secondary circuitry is dedicated to each output, the primary circuit is common.

When you use it in dual mode, you're pushing the primary to its combined peak output. Unless they oversized the primary side to truly accomodate double the power, running in dual mode will generate less output per output.
Click to expand...

OH. I get it. I guess I was thinking of the old magnetic style
 
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