Radium ballast

[jaybfresh]

Snagged a new 250w radium bulb for $40 on ebay last night. Is hamilton the only company still selling an m80 ballast? I know these can run on e-ballasts but I prefer to use the real deal.

Anyone know of a place still selling bluewave 3 ballasts?

 

[mr.maroonsalty]

Is pfo no longer around or assembling them? I would think you could get a ballast from an electrical supply house that you could wire yourself. I thought it would be easy finding one (Hellolights, etc) but I see the trouble you're having.

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

PFO is out of business.

There must be more than just Hamilton manufacturing pulse start ballasts!

 

[ryan_]

I know some people who used the galaxy digital ballasts with radium bulbs. Looked great!

 

[jaybfresh]

From what I've read here on RC all M80 ballasts were just repackaged Advance M80 ballasts, which have been discontinued. Though if that were true, Hamilton must have had a whole lot of stock to continue to sell them

A couple sites have some old stock Blue Wave 3's leftoever so I think I will be picking up one of those

 

[jaybfresh]

Ahhh just got a notice the ballast I ordered is out of stock Any other recommendations to get an M80 ballast??

 

[pascal32]

aaaah, the price you pay to have radiums

 

[mr.maroonsalty]

Dan (Rigleautomotive) has one of the handful of nicest tanks in our big area and runs his radiums on e-ballasts. I can't believe I'm not finding m80's at the electrical supply houses, m138 pulse start ballasts seem the only choice.

 

[RandyO]

I run 15 250w Radium bulbs all on E-Ballasts. I used to run a couple of them on a PFO HQI ballast, and they ran "whiter" than they do on E-ballasts. If you don't need that extra pop, an E-ballast will work fine.

 

[oneradtek202]

just keep lookin Jay, youll find one out there, scower the for sale forums on here, thats where i found mine

 

[oneradtek202]

but good luck, because i figure i could probably sell my PFO m80 ballast for about 500$ now a days since there arent any for sale anymore

 

[der_wille_zur_macht]

I'm pretty sure that Sylvania make their own M80 that's not a mere Advance relabel, maybe under the Osram brand name. I know I've seen one in the past and it looked different than all the Advance products I've ever seen.

 

[jaybfresh]

Seems Aqua medic makes an M80 ballast. Its a little unique... cube shaped and actively cooled with a fan. Anyone have experience with these?

The biggest reason I want to avoid an e-ballast is they supposedly shorten the life of radium bulbs

 

[der_wille_zur_macht]

Is this what you're talking about?

http://hellolights.com/250waqualightprohqireplacementballast-coralife.aspx

Doesn't look like anyone has them in stock right now.

 

[jaybfresh]

Nope... this:

http://www.aquacave.com/250w-reeflex-cube-hqi-br-ballast-by-aqua-medic-2262.html

It was offered as a replacement to the bluewave 3

 

[mr.maroonsalty]

Since e-ballasts run about 75 watts less, I would think the bulbs have longer life?

 

[mr.maroonsalty]

Do you see what Hellolights is saying about Radiums and M138 ballasts, I need to use this search function, but has anyone seen stats running them?

edit* seems they too run a lot less watts than the hqi m80; makes me wonder why not then run the m138 equivalent 300W ballast???

 

[jaybfresh]

Since e-ballasts run about 75 watts less, I would think the bulbs have longer life?

I would have thought that too, but apparently the radiums are made specifically for M80's and running anything out of spec will shorten the lifespan

 

[oneradtek202]

like that shiny little silver thing in the corner? ooooo.....aaaaahhhhh....lol