metal halide ballasts/bulb compatability

[smellsfishy]

I am hoping to upgrade my lighting to 2-400 watt MH and would like to fire xm's or other brand 15k or 14K.
does anyone know if a m59 400watt ballist will fire this Kelvin or am i limited to useing 10k's. Any thoughts would be helpfull

[christyf5]

http://www.captivereefing.com/viewtopic.php?t=394

[Invigor]

xm 15k bulbs have lousy output. the 20ks even have more. but still almost half of the xm 10k

[Chin_Lee]

http://www.captivereefing.com/viewtopic.php?t=394
Thanks Christy - thats a great link and guide

[smellsfishy]

thanks guys i'll stay away from the xm's i guess. can anyone comment on the hamilton 400 watt 14k apparently they are a fairly new product.

[StirCrazy]

Thanks Christy - thats a great link and guide

take that guide with a grain of salt, while everything they sugest will work it is not always the best set up. where this becomes aparent is in the 250 watt bulb catagory, if you look through it all DE 250 watt bulbs are M80(HQI) and all SE 250 watt bulbs are M58(pulse) they even list this for the german bulbs such as AB. it is weird that they have only they radium 250 as either.

from lighting tests and manufacture data if ytou are going to use a 250 bulb, no mater what kind it is use a HQI ballast. it will give you longer bulb life and higher output because it is running the bulb properly.

Steve