Metal Halide Bulb

[Biotech]

Anyone tried the MH from DIYREEF? It is almost half the price of what J&L is selling for an Ushio

[Stretch]

I've heard decents thing about them, but not a whole lot as they are fairly new. But check this thread out http://www.canreef.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=6005 hes selling some very cheap new bulbs in 250 and 400 watt, And so far they seem great and cheap as well.

[Biotech]

Thanks Stretch. I PM him, hope he has some left

[Samw]

Biotech, check out this thread. After Iwasaki, the Coralvue bulb seems to be the best bang for the buck. I will probably use Coralvue to replace my Aqualine. I liked the Coralvue picture best in the comparisons. Look how bright pink the coraline is.

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=254667&perpage=25&highlight=CoralVue&pagenumber=1

Here's a snippet:

IceCap Electronic Ballast
<PRE>
LAMP PAR WATT MaxWATT AMP MaxAMP
IWASAKI 651 252 275 2.17 2.45
USHIO 414 252 258 2.19 3.41
CV10K 387 250 251 2.17 2.46
CV20K 307 251 253 2.20 2.25
XM20K 270 252 301 2.17 2.81
CV15K 242 251 252 2.20 3.85
PFO13K 227 251 268 2.18 2.86
</PRE>
I plugged the data for the IceCap Electronic ballast into a spreadsheet and sorted them by PAR/WATT
<PRE>
PAR WATT Price Par/Watt Par/Dollar
IWASAKI 651 252 56 2.58 11.63
Ushio 10K 414 252 86 1.64 4.81
CV10K 387 250 52 1.55 7.44
CV20K 307 251 52 1.22 5.90
XM 20K 270 252 65 1.07 4.15
CV15K 242 252 52 0.96 4.65
</PRE>
Also sorted them by PAR/Dollar
<PRE>
PAR WATT Price Par/Watt Par/Dollar
IWASAKI 651 252 56 2.58 11.63
CV10K 387 250 52 1.55 7.44
CV20K 307 251 52 1.22 5.90
Ushio 10K 414 252 86 1.64 4.81
CV15K 242 252 52 0.96 4.65
XM 20K 270 252 65 1.07 4.15
</PRE>

[StirCrazy]

it looks like quite a loss in PAR going with the coralview. PAR for buck ya it is good but with all the money I have spent on my tank a few bucks on a light bulbs doesent bother me.. actualy I am concidering going with radiums but the price has nothing to do with my bulb choice.

Steve

[Samw]

it looks like quite a loss in PAR going with the coralview. PAR for buck ya it is good but with all the money I have spent on my tank a few bucks on a light bulbs doesent bother me..
Steve

Good point. But I actually like the visual color output from the CoralVue better than the yellowish look from the AB. I guess I will wait a while to see if the AB gets added to the test. Although, I am using DE bulbs which none were tested and results could be totally different from SE bulbs.

[Samw]

Interestingly, the Coralvue SE bulbs perform better when using their own ballast.

Coralvue10K 430/262 = 1.64 PAR/WATT
Ushio10K 363/255 = 1.42 PAR/WATT

I'd love to see if DE bulbs get better results.

[One_Divided]

is there a canadian supplier of the coralvue bulbs yet?

[venkiw]

Stretch - Tanks for pointing them to my thread.

Biotech adn One_divided,

I am getting a new batch of 175, 250 and 400 Watt bulbs and 250 and 400 Watt electronic ballast coming in next week.

These are priced way below retail cost of similar bulbs and ballast, please send me a PM if you are interested.

SamW,

That was interestting thread you had posted, I am sending one of my bulbs to JB NY to include to this comparison. I am sure my bulb will beat PAR/Dollar Hands down and come in better than any 10K bulbs in the comparison.

Venki Worathur

[StirCrazy]

I am sure my bulb will beat PAR/Dollar Hands down and come in better than any 10K bulbs in the comparison.

Venki Worathur

thats just cuz there not testing a 250watt SE AB 10000K on a proper ballast :mrgreen:

I would be interested in seeing some info on "your" bulbs if you have some, I am presently looking for new bulbs and open to Idea's but I need to see some sort of data relating to PAR and spectrum. I do have a PAR Sensor so if anyone out here buys one of "YOUR" bulbs I could compare it agains a AB on a HQI ballast.

Steve

[venkiw]

There has been close to 30 bulbs sold to members of this forum, please check the thread pointed out earlier by a member.

The AB is a 13K bulb sold as a 10K, as most people know the PAR rating goes down with higher CCT, so the AB cannot produce PAR anywhere near a 10K. Try our bulbs on the HQI ballast as well and prepare to be amazed.

Like I said, I sent a bulb to a reef central member, who in my opinion is doing a unbiased review, so please wait for the results. By then our bulbs will be availble at a store near you. :mrgreen:

[StirCrazy]

The AB is a 13K bulb sold as a 10K, as most people know the PAR rating goes down with higher CCT, so the AB cannot produce PAR anywhere near a 10K. Try our bulbs on the HQI ballast as well and prepare to be amazed.

Hmm weird cuz the AB blows way a ushio 10000K, and I have tested 4 Iwasaki 400's and two of them were lower PAR than the AB and two were higher. I think you are making a blanket statment that is not nessasarly true in all cases, another point and case is a 20000K radium on a HQI ballast is with in 5% of the value that I got as a result of testing three AB bulbs. I can tell you now if you can find a 250 watt bulb I would be very supprised if it tested higher than a properly run AB.

anyways has anyone from Victoria/Vancouver bought one of these bulbs and plan on comming to the island soon?

Steve

[StirCrazy]

I am getting a new batch of 175, 250 and 400 Watt bulbs and 250 and 400 Watt electronic ballast coming in next week.

Venki Worathur

are your bulbs "coralvue"?

Steve

[venkiw]

Our bulbs are not "Coralvue", we do not have any connection whatsoever with CoralVue. I believe they are our competitors.

AB is a pretty good bulb, but your test results so far are unpredictable as far as I can see as the Iwasaki is one of the most reliable bulb (thus far). I do not know how 2 came higher and 2 came lower.

Can you provide us some data from your tests so far along with your setup for experiment, I would like to send them to SMEs for validation.

[Samw]

PFO HQI Ballast results are now available.

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=1918253#post1918253

Wow, look at the amount of watts the PFO HQI 250watt ballast is using! 349 watts for the Ushio bulb for example. This is closer to a 400 watt ballast.

[StirCrazy]

Wow, look at the amount of watts the PFO HQI 250watt ballast is using! 349 watts for the Ushio bulb for example. This is closer to a 400 watt ballast.

ya but look in the increase in PAR the mag ballast (M80) has over the icecap electronic. the PFO is 1.5 time that amount of PAR and 1% more efficient than the icecap. Icecap puts out 1.75 PAR / watt the PFO HQI (M80) puts out 1.77 PAR / watt so for `100 more watts you are getting 200 more PAR. I will stick with the M80 for sure now that I have seen that.

Steve

[StirCrazy]

Look at the impressive numbers from the Iwasaki.. 100 more watts and 300 more PAR damn. :eek:

from that chart I can see that the power consumed and PAR produces between the Icecap electronic ballast is very simular to the standard magnetic ballast. but the HQI (M80) is in a league of its own.

It will be interesting to see the AB results as his measurments are 7" of air, whare mine were 7" of air and 5" of water.

Steve

[StirCrazy]

Sam, new numbers for the AB bulb and the XM bulb.. looks like his numbers reflect when I got when we tested yours and mine. weird how using the M80 ballast over the icecap give you 1.5x more PAR. well ar least we know the difference was from the ballast and not the different style of bulb now. and wow did you see the numbers the XM bulbs are pulling.. more PAR that a iwaski and 10K to boot.. where can we find some of thoes?

Steve

[Samw]

Thanks for the update. Well, I guess I'll be looking out for one of these then:

http://www.hellolights.com/15xde10hqide1.html

Given the data now, I don't think its weird that your ballast has 1.5x more PAR if it uses 1.5x more electricity. :smile: