Also JR, I had 2 10k Reeflux 250 watt side by side in LB's, one nipple up and one down. The color looked the same between the two bulbs, ran it like this for a week or so. Funny thing though when I turned the other one that was nipple up and put nipple pointing down, it changed the color of the light from a crisp white with very slight blue, to a kind of yellow 10k look. After leaving the bulb nipple down for about a week it soon went back to the same color of the other bulb being crisp white with very light blue hue. It is hard to compare my light color to yours, with yours being a photo and mine a real life look at the tank in person, but my Reeflux 10 k's look very similar in color to your setup. I like this alot because your's is near perfect color, if not perfect.
New Lumen Bright Reflector. ... any info on them
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JRaquatics
New member
Don't forget Grandp10 I am running 12ks. I do have dimmable ballast but I have them dialed at 3/4 of the way up. We found that overdriving the bulb actually gave less par. So Jim and I tested each lamp/ballast and tuned the ballast so that the highest par number read. Shocking enough they were all at about 3/4 of the way up. I still have to get a chance and place the killawatt on the ballast and see which each one is pulling.
bubbletip2
Premium Member
It is a beautiful thing to be able to tune the ballast to an optimal setting. It was easy to do with Jeremy tuning the ballasts as I read the PAR readings go up and down. You get to a point where the PAR peaks at a number and levels off for a couple turns on the knob. Then the PAR begins to drop. We set it back a turn to be in the middle of the peak level.
I have heard for many years people talk about electronic ballasts burning out bulbs to quick. Every ballast comes out of the factory different. To be able to tweak each ballast to the threshold you prevent overdriving the bulb and prolong the life of it as well. Where people claim 4-6 months on a bulb running on electric ballasts because of overdriving them, I claim 7-9 months when not overdriving an electronic.
So basically you are spending less on electric by not overdriving it and spending even less than a magnetic just due to the efficiency of an electronic ballast.
Here is a color correct version of Jeremy's tank right after we calibrated his ballasts.
I have heard for many years people talk about electronic ballasts burning out bulbs to quick. Every ballast comes out of the factory different. To be able to tweak each ballast to the threshold you prevent overdriving the bulb and prolong the life of it as well. Where people claim 4-6 months on a bulb running on electric ballasts because of overdriving them, I claim 7-9 months when not overdriving an electronic.
So basically you are spending less on electric by not overdriving it and spending even less than a magnetic just due to the efficiency of an electronic ballast.
Here is a color correct version of Jeremy's tank right after we calibrated his ballasts.
bubbletip2
Premium Member
Re: par test LB's
Re: par test LB's
It seems the LB is pretty close to the LA and 6.5" higher. Drop it down to 14" and I bet you will have a match. It is kind of nice not cooking my water, now being 17" off bulb to water as opposed to 8"-10" on a Lumenarc to get anywhere close to the readings.
LB's are for real - thanks for posting
They do as they were intended - keep the light "in" the tank with less problems we all faced for so many years having to hang our lights so low
"As soon as you break the surface of the water, the ball game changes. An efficient refelctor is a reflector that can assist the bulb in penetrating the depth of the water without having to be so close, in effect negatively impacting the system in which we are trying to grow."
For reference grandp10, Mike's ballasts were also calibrated prior to taking measurements however many months ago that was.
Re: par test LB's
It seems the LB is pretty close to the LA and 6.5" higher. Drop it down to 14" and I bet you will have a match. It is kind of nice not cooking my water, now being 17" off bulb to water as opposed to 8"-10" on a Lumenarc to get anywhere close to the readings.
LB's are for real - thanks for posting
They do as they were intended - keep the light "in" the tank with less problems we all faced for so many years having to hang our lights so low "As soon as you break the surface of the water, the ball game changes. An efficient refelctor is a reflector that can assist the bulb in penetrating the depth of the water without having to be so close, in effect negatively impacting the system in which we are trying to grow."
For reference grandp10, Mike's ballasts were also calibrated prior to taking measurements however many months ago that was.
bubbletip2
Premium Member
When it starts to drop it drops quick. When Jeremy says 3/4 full we were at these numbers. We got as low as 1030 on the left to 1080 on the right. So basically at full tilt you are spending more on electric and getting less output.
I guess you could measure your ballasts with a kilowatt or a lux meter, but in my opinion the optimal way to calibrate would be with an Apogee PAR meter as it would calibrate what we are all interested in, the Photo Active Radiation produced by the bulb and ballast.
) and LED's.
bubbletip2
Premium Member
No problem bro.:thumbsup: I will be by soon. I may need to do some more testing. It has been a while. I think we answered a lot of questions way back when fijjiblue. Glad to see you are extending the use of the meter. But don't you owe me and everyone here that LumenArc test with 400w 12K Reeflux on that 180? Come on "fiji", cough it up...
Come on "fiji", cough it up...JRaquatics
New member
He rises from the dead once again.... Welcome back Jim.
bubbletip2
Premium Member
Not Dead Yet Just hibernating... It's Chicago you know...
Just hibernating... It's Chicago you know...
bubbletip2
Premium Member
Yeah the 360 w/ LA3's and 12K Reeflux... Cool! I will give you a call this week and come by and pick up the meter after you are done testing. Thanks fijiblue!
JRaquatics
New member
Jim, Let's see some new shots of your tank.
LooseHip
Foaming Conehead
Anyone else here who purchased the 250w DE version? I had problems seating the bulb in the socket. I was unable to get it to seat properly until I accidently broke off the ceramic tabs. Once I broke the tabs off the bulb fit and works fine. I was just curious if anyone else ran into this issue?
LooseHip
Foaming Conehead
I will try and post some pics tonight. The tabs I am reffering to are the ones located on the end of the bulb. On the socket itself, it has a slot with the metal clip that holds the bulb. On the slot in the socket above the metal clip there are two ceramic tabs that more or less guide the bulb into place. The issue I ran into was that the ceramic tab on the bulb, would bottom out on the two ceramic tabs in the socket before the bulb could seat itself into the metal clip without popping out.
So I figured I wasn't pushing hard enough, and then it happened, I guess I pushed to hardand the tab on the bulb broke (whoops). After that, I was able to push the bulb all the way into the socket and have it remain seated.
So I figured I wasn't pushing hard enough, and then it happened, I guess I pushed to hardand the tab on the bulb broke (whoops). After that, I was able to push the bulb all the way into the socket and have it remain seated.
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