Question on lighting and par

[Dave VG]

Ok so if I went from a 175 watt XM10K bulb on a Hamilton magnetic ballast to a 250 watt radium 20K bulb on a lumatek electronic ballast what par difference would I see? Would it go up down? I know the higher the K range the lower the par. So would it equal out par for par? Of course I could stay with a 175 and put a radium 20K in that. Objective I'm trying to achieve is to not lose par for growth but get the coral pop I have been trying to achieve.

 

[mr.maroonsalty]

This site hasn't been working as well as it used to, and I don't know how up to date things are, but should you a little bit of an idea what expect; your exact ballast brand may not be their but simply look for similar types with the same ansi#, or type(electronic).
http://www.manhattanreefs.com/lighting

 

[Dave VG]

Thanks and of course it's not working for me. I thought there was a Sanjay lighting post somewhere here on RC to but could not find it.

 

[Henry Colf]

Dave VG here's the link:
http://www.reeflightinginfo.arvixe.com

 

[5380]

I don't know the technical answer to your question. My gut says that it's swappable, unless that 10k is very old. Any chance you could add t5's to shape the color you want? I see a lot of retrofits for sale on the boards here.

 

[Dave VG]

Thanks Henry that site is not working for me.

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

Ok so if I went from a 175 watt XM10K bulb on a Hamilton magnetic ballast to a 250 watt radium 20K bulb on a lumatek electronic ballast what par difference would I see?

were the Lumatek's included in a PAR study yet?
Does your Lumatek have an overdrive option?

 

[Dave VG]

Gary I'm not sure I couldn't get on the site. It's a standard 250 watt no overdrive option.

 

[mr.maroonsalty]

The way the site works for me is on "Lamp & ballast." The search function doesn't work, so you have to scroll through the list.


XM 175W 10000K SE 1 EVC 175W Electronic par72 cct 11043 watts 181

Radium 250W 20000K SE 1 Icecap 250W Electronic par66 cct 0 watts 244

It looks like pretty much a wash except for colour and power

sorry I see magnetic ballast m57?
XM 175W 10000K SE 1 Advance 175W (M57) par 62 cct 10179 watts 198

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

I haven't seen a study done with Lumatek's yet. (That doesn't mean there isn't one out there.)
My Lumatek ballast has an overdrive option but I haven't researched the Lumatek/Radium combo.

The "best" ballast for 250w Radium is usually considered the HQI ballast that overdrives it. (Brandon/radtek has this combo.)

I don't recall Radium offering a 175w SE bulb.

*Depending on what corals you have* the Lumatek/Radium combo should work well in a 40 breeder for what it appears you want to acheive.... although I must admit in a 40 breeder I would strongly suggest considering t5's.