Mh ballast problem

R

Reefist

Member
Long story short. I have a crappy coralife 3-250w HQI 4-96w. It takes 2 people to change mh bulbs so I got a deal on 3 new Hamilton mogel based pendants . They told me that since the original fixture used magnetic HQI ballasts they should be able to power the new 20k radiums but they dont. I checked continuity on the fixtures which are brand new. All ok.I tried a different bulb still didn't fire. Do I have to buy different ballasts? This sucks. What ballast works best? Read somewhere electronic ballast are not as good for 20k radiums.
True? Then which magnetic ballast?
Thanks
Tom
 
Tom,
Ballasts are wattage specific except for one of the new ones.
So you might have to get new but I have no recommendations.
 
I don't know anything about those ballasts. I found out about the m8o when i was helping a friend with his diy project using radium bulbs. The m80 was recommended by hammilton as the ideal ballast for that lamp at the time. That was almost two years ago. Sorry i can't be much more help.
 
Reefist said:
They won't run off Lumatek or Galaxy electronic ballasts?
Tom
Click to expand...

I looked into those ballasts a little more and it appears that you can run the 250 radium with them but it will shorten the lifespan of the bulb because they don't match the specs that the radium should be run at. Some people said running the radium with an electronic ballast can shorten the bulbs lifespan to 6-8 months compared to 9-12 months using an hqi(m80) ballast.
I do like the idea that you can adjust the settings on the lumatek though. Under drive it for a bluer look or ramp it up for a whiter look. Plus it gives you the freedom to use a wider variety of bulbs.
I'm curious, when you hooked the new pendants to the hqi's, did you wait a minute or two to see if they would fire? Also did you read the specs on the ballasts to make sure they actually are what they're supposed to be?
 
I have no way of knowing what the specs on the
ballasts that came the coralife light fixture.
I bought the Lumatek ballasts and they fired right away.
Thanks
Tom
 
Thanks John. There is so much info or mis info out there. It's confusing. Since the Lumatek are better and less expenseive then the Galaxy's , why did you pick those? Just curious.
I haven't switched over yet to my new lights because I'm still trying to figure out what to do with my 6' VHO actinics. Since my tank is open top. guess I'll just make a box for either side. Any ideas?
Tom
 
Looks good John thanks. But I'm looking to
cover the bulbs on the sides so that the light
isn't blaring in your face
 
I'm sure you will be happy with the Lumatek ballasts running the Radium bulbs. Both the Galaxy and Lumatek ballasts will run that bulb just fine. There are plenty of awesome tanks out there using that combination with great success and the bulbs run just fine with that combination for up to 12 months in my experience. The shortening of the bulb life information is centered around the 400W Radium bulb since that bulb is actually a 360W bulb and is overdriven thus shortening the bulb life.
 
Tom,

Most likely the wire between the ballast and the fixtture was too long. The coralife ballast need a very short wire no more than 6ft the less the better. They don't deliver currect very well. A good rule of thumb is to make sure the wire between the ballast and the fixture is as short as possible. Glad you got everything running.

-Walter
 
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