Why doesn't 400 Watt MH seem bright enough?

[djk1]

I just built a 30 inch cubed in wall tank. Bought hamilton 400 watt MH 14,000k with 75 watt VHO. I finally got to turn on the lights for long periods of time because i finished cycling. At first i thought the water had not cleared up. But now I think it might be something else. I have a black background for the tank, could that be why my tank does not seem bright? I figured one 400 watt MH should be perfect for a 30 inch tank. But my buddy that has 2 250 watt Mh seems alot brighter then mine. Or am I nuts?

 

[DarG]

Does it look blue? Blue doesn't look as bright as white and white generally has a higer par.

 

[djk1]

It does look blue. Is there a way to check light intensity inside the tank? Or is it the black background throwing me off?

 

[DarG]

I have a black background and black sides. But for 23 years before that I had a blue background and blue sides.
But you stated that your friends double 250 watt set-up looked alot brighter than your single 400. Well, for one thing he has 100 more watts. So what I was getting at was that if your lighting had a blue look and his was whiter, his could very well look signifigantly brighter than yours. I don;t think that the black background has a whole lot to do with it but it could I guess. Like I mentioned, I have always had darker backgrounds. Blue and now black.

You could measure with a par meter, they start out not too costly in price but I don;t know much about them. I think that most lighting guys here would say that you should have plenty of light with 400 watts of halide + VHO on a 30 cube. But maybe the experts have some better input on your particular bulb that could shed some more light (I couldnt resist) on your situation.

 

[bstreep]

The Hamilton 14Ks may take a week or 2 to burn in - they may be bluer at first. My 400W DEs did that. I'm very happy with the color now - and I have VHO actinic supplements.

 

[djk1]

My Hamilton lights have been on for 6 hours a day for the last two weeks. Is that enough for a break in period? Two of my sides are black in background

 

[twon8]

the hamiltons don't run well on magnetic ballasts, you really should have elelctronics to run those.

 

[aninjaatemyshoe]

"the hamiltons don't run well on magnetic ballasts, you really should have elelctronics to run those."

Why does Hamilton make bulbs that don't run well on magnetic ballasts when their fixtures use magnetic ballasts?

 

[aninjaatemyshoe]

I will have to add though, I had a Hamilton fixture (magnetic ballast) with a 14k bulb and the bulb stopped working after a week of usage... don't have any clue why. Maybe their bulbs aren't good on their ballasts?

 

[djk1]

when i was ordering my fixture from hamilton, the sales rep told me to get the magnetic ballast rather than the electronic one even though the electronic one was more expensive. He said the magnetic ballast for the 400 watt MH are quit a bit better than the electronic.

 

[aninjaatemyshoe]

Hamilton doesn't make the best fixtures/ballasts, however they don't make the worst either. Don't really know anything about their electronic ballasts, but their magnetic ballasts are ok. The only thing about their magnetics is that they have a slight hum to them, which may be a problem depending on how sensitive you are to your tank making noise.

 

[sdaousa]

The rep from Hamilton told you to get the magnetic because they don't make electronic ballast. They want you to buy it from them. It's just simply as that.

 

[sdaousa]

It's true that electronic ballast burn brighter for hamilton bulbs.
I tested it before. I have one hamilton bulb runs on hamilton ballast and the other hamilton bulb runs on icecap electronic; the one with icecap ballast is brighter that you can notice the different.

 

[Hop]

Weird, running the combos through sanjay's site it appears that the magnetic(m59) ballast is running quite a bit more par than the icecap electronic. According to that site, the reef fanatic electronic ballast is the one to go with unless you want to overdrive with an hqi ballast...

 

[djk1]

Hamilton does sell electronic ballasts, I had the option. But when a rep from the company tells you not to get them, wouldnt that be a sign to you. It was only a $60 upgrade. On a second note it seems light you guys are telling me i made a mistake. Electronic ballasts are better than magnetic ones?

 

[markandkristen]

usually a magnetic ballast will be a tad brighter in my opinion.
i runt the magnetek m58 ballast .. i understand that they run around 290 ish watts instead of 246-248ish watts like ice cap.

i only did that to save money for a better reflector. im running xm 20ks that are more white than blue go figure

 

[djk1]

here is the million dollar question, If i have magnetic ballast can i switch to electronic without changing everything out?

 

[TwistedTiger]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9946476#post9946476 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by djk1
here is the million dollar question, If i have magnetic ballast can i switch to electronic without changing everything out?

All you would need to change is the ballast, however it would be much cheaper to just find a better bulb. The Hamilton 14k's I've seen in the past are weak IMO.

 

[nebraskareef]

Keep in mind the bulbs may be pulse/probe start etc.

I have a standard m57 firing the wrong type of hamilton bulb (unsure if it was pulse or probe). Sometimes the bulb won't even fire for 5 minutes or more and when it does the output is crap.

Good thing this is a temp bulb until I order the t5's

You may have the wrong type of bulb for your ballast type.

 

[jimsta]

The hamilton 400w 14k SE bulb is a dim bulb. I know of a tank that has 3x Hamilton 14k 400w and 1x XM10k 400w and the one XM 10k is brighter than all 3 of the Hamilton bulbs running at the same time. MUCH brighter actually.