Dim halides - thoughts?

[AndyL]

Need some suggestions...

Pulled out a long forgotten 150w halide system I had hiding in the junk piles the other day... Sparked it up to see if it would run - Yay! It does...

Then I look at the light; look at the 110g... put the 150w onto the 110g, and with a 20k bulb - it's outshining the pair of 175w SE's that are on the tank...

Something's not right here. So I put in my "spare" bulbs (6500k ushio's with almost no runtime cuz they're yellow as heck) that 150 20k bulb is still brighter than the pair of 175w bulbs.

Going to go through the connections tonight - but is there anything I should be specifically looking at? This is an old DIY'ers halide - nothing fancy just a pair of tar ballasts...

[Delphinus]

How old are the 175's and what are they? Maybe they're old, or maybe this is what happens with old ballasts? I dunno what suggest; it's always hard comparing different styles of bulbs (ie DE vs SE) since the reflectors are different, and the DE is smaller so probably appears more intense. Generally speaking I thought they were pretty intensely bright, but the light is concentrated in a smaller cast, could that be affecting the perception at all?

[dkcrx]

sounds like the ballasts are going, I had the same probem a long time ago with my 400W MH, changed to electronic ballast and WOW!

[parkinsn]

sounds like the ballasts are going, I had the same probem a long time ago with my 400W MH, changed to electronic ballast and WOW!

+1 I would say your ballast is going.

[Bryan]

Coil and core ballasts rarely go unless the windings short or open up, most likely a defective capacitor.

[AndyL]

Hey Delphinius... You know all that hardware we trade back and forth :) You've never gotten the pair of 175w's back :lol: They got some batwing reflectors and have been in use since (when was that '05?) I think that was before the huge carpet had it's own tank... :D

While yes the 150 is a little more of a point source (it's in a ghetto housing / reflector made of an old halogen worklight) I can move it off to the corner of the tank - and still drown out all the light from the 175's with a proper / clean high quality batwing reflector... That just doesn't seem right - yes a DE bulb usually will outperform a SE, but when you're comparing 20k to 10/14k (i prefered the mix) or to a pair of 6500k's - there's no reason that one light should be putting out more lumens...

Maybe I'll grab a pair of capacitors tomorow - see if that changes anything...