M007
Acro Whore
2MH and 11 tubes? Impressive! Would love a pic of that set up :spin1:
If you could choose 250 or 400 MH
- Thread starter M007
- Start date
2MH and 11 tubes? Impressive! Would love a pic of that set up :spin1:
Wrangy
Acrotrooper
hkgar
Active member
Am I missing something at that link? I do not see a K rating anywhere.
reefmutt
Active member
ya!! you and me both.. i want to see his mess on top of his tank, but biggles is holding out!
fwiw, i have a 26 inch tall tank and am running 3 x 150w de 20k radiums plus 5 t5 bulbs and i am getting decent color on my sps up half way... even getting decent color near the bottom but i have mor deep waters down at the bottom. i think 400w is way overkill for your tank depth. with over driven 250s, you'll have great reslults, imo..
my old tank ran 250de bulbs on electronic ballasts and i got outstanding color.
i am an ex user of mitras.. i think for sps in particular you can't beat mh/t5..
why the switch ( i probably know the answer, but...)
biggles
Premium Member
There are two drop down boxes where you can select wattage and the type of ballast available in that wattage mate
M007
Acro Whore
My thinking as well, would the electronic ballast provided by the manufacturer not be sufficient?
DavidinGA
Active member
It depends.
Mh bulbs and ballasts are a weird bunch. Certain bulbs matched with the right ballasts produce excellent par. Toss a different bulb into the same setup and you can end up with dismal par.
There is an old site of sanjays that listed a database of bulb+ballasts combos and the results... Someone else will have to chime in on it tho as I don't remember it...
stancfii
Member
His old database on Manhattan Reefs doesn't work very well anymore. I've had to resort to using google and search "advanced aquarist (brand bulb) (wattage)" to pull up the old articles and spectral plots.
Best thing to do is to find the bulb you like and work backwards to find the ballast that runs it best. For the 250w Radium, it is the M80. For the 150w version, it is the M81.
The ANSI S50 ballast is the HPS ballast that will operate the 250w Radium to spec. I believe that is the ones the Aussie's use, and what I use to drive both of mine. Only difference is the starting voltage on the S50 is lower than the M80, but it doesn't make much of a difference as long as the cord from the ballast to the bulb isn't super long.
Best thing to do is to find the bulb you like and work backwards to find the ballast that runs it best. For the 250w Radium, it is the M80. For the 150w version, it is the M81.
The ANSI S50 ballast is the HPS ballast that will operate the 250w Radium to spec. I believe that is the ones the Aussie's use, and what I use to drive both of mine. Only difference is the starting voltage on the S50 is lower than the M80, but it doesn't make much of a difference as long as the cord from the ballast to the bulb isn't super long.
Wrangy
Acrotrooper
M007
Acro Whore
You will not regret the Cebu! I'm loving mine
Yeah I'm looking forward to going back to my roots in reef keeping :dance:
reefmutt
Active member
M007
Acro Whore
Replace the Mitras :hmm4:
Wrangy
Acrotrooper
As I said, I've only had my unit a few days (nearly a week) but already noticing small improvements like polyp extension and zoas are looking much happier. I've also noticed some brown tissue reappearing where it used to just be white
I think it's going to a long relationship with MH for me now! In particular with the Cebu Sun unit, I really like it and the fan noise doesn't bother me lol I think it was just the stark difference from my LED's which make no noise
reefmutt
Active member
M007
Acro Whore
A number of reasons. I have had the Mitras for over a year now and it was only after adding the 4th fixture did I feel the the coverage was balanced. I have learned over the years that subtle changes are best for the animals so I have been patient and it has paid off as I am finally seeing results with my basic collection of SPS. I have even managed to take pale and sickly looking acros and produce some fine results. The Mitras are a great fixture and have all of the fun features like cool, quiet running, dimming, etc.... but I just NEED to run this system on MH/T5 to settle my last nagging doubts :headwalls::beachbum::lol2:
reefmutt
Active member
You are preaching to the choir..
I ran 3 Mitras over my 4.5 foot tank. I had pretty good coverage and decent success with my corals..... But..
I never got all the subtle color I was used to using t5/mh..
