Help me pick Ballast for SPS system

[marcrothschild]

I have an open top tank that measures 60L 20W 18H I just bought 3 Luminarc mini reflectors to replace my dual 150W Aquaspacelight. I want to convert the tank from being mixed to all SPS (Im keeping my micros and bastos).
I like a crisp blue light, and I will be using 250w bulbs. I am torn between 3 radiums on HQI ballasts, or getting Ice Caps with mabey a 14K aqua connect. It sems like you loose a lot of PAR running E ballasts.....but does it matter in my case (18" deep). It seems like I will save on electricity and heat with an E ballast.
Someone help me make up my mind:smokin:
Thanks, Marc

 

[jackson6745]

Not going to matter in a tank that is 18"H You might as well some some electricity

 

[marcrothschild]

Anyone seen the Radium on an Icecap?

 

[jackson6745]

250w radium kind of sucks IMO too dim and bue. The 400w radium on the HQI ballast is a different story. I would go with the 14k's.

 

[Mchava]

I dont know about them sucking, but if they are using a e-ballast then they looks realy purple. Now if you run them on a mag ballast then you get a verry crisp blue light as bright as the BLV 10k and the Pheonix 14k.

 

[jackson6745]

You're saying the 250w Radium is as bright as a BLV 10k.???
I ran both of them and the BLV 10k is MUCH brighter but it is a 10k bulb.

The color of the phoenix is similar to the 250w radium on an HQI ballast but I thought the phoenix looked brighter.

 

[E-A-G-L-E-S]

http://www.reeflightinginfo.arvixe.com/select2lamp.php

*some bulbs have MUCH better PAR on e-ballasts(ex: CV ReefLux)

marcrothschild......look into CV ReefLux 12K's, i think you'll be very pleased with the color!

 

[panic]

I have a 12k Reeflux 400se on PFO E ballast and the color is more crisp and clean, and a better blue than the 20k Radium I had on there.

 

[marcrothschild]

It looks like the Radium on an hqi has much better PAR than the CV 12K on an Ice Cap. Eric at Frag Farmer is running some of those bulbs on E ballasts and HQI....it has nice color on both ballast types.

 

[dustin Combs]

http://www.cnidarianreef.com/

 

[E-A-G-L-E-S]

d.c. ......those tests were done with standard CV bulbs i believe, not the newer CV ReefLux bulbs.