Question about Halides
 

I recently bought a set of 250w metal halides, the old bulbs were supposedly 14K and looked great but were over a year old so I ordered a new set of bulbs off ebay which has produced good results in the past but these new bulbs which are supposed to be 15k are very yellow and constantly flicker. Never had this problem when replacing halides, are they just crappy bulbs or is there a break in period or what? Anyone have any idea what might be going on?

I've used bulbs marketed as 15K that looked pretty yellow as well but the flickering problem is foreign to me. Try some other bulbs in your fixtures, if they flicker as well its a problem with the ballasts or wiring. If they don't, its the new bulbs that are to blame.

The trouble is that the Kelvin rating of the bulb is entirely manufacturer-rated. There is no regulation or anything resembling it. It's probably just the brand you bought. FWIW, I wouldn't buy eBay brand halide bulbs, I'd stick with something known to be good because the PAR value of halide bulbs varies HUGELY. You could be wasting electricity on bulbs that are delivering very little usable light.

Reef Supplies has a few halide bulbs at good prices. http://www.reefsupplies.ca/online-st...-halide-bulbs/
If you don't see what you want, Ray is great to deal with, send him an email and see if he can get what you're looking for.

Exactly what I would've suggested, put the old bulbs back in and if they flicker it's the ballast, ballast will even shut down momentarily when they are almost done, if it's an electronic ballast they're worse than the old school tar ones.

I also went down the road of cheap bulbs and they usually don't last and the colour is on the yellow side.

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The old bulbs don't flicker so I don't suspect the ballasts and the flicker is a constant fast change between yellow (4-6kish) and white(10-12ish) light which is why I was hoping it was just a break in thing and it would even out, four days later and no such luck as of yet. Too bad, twice in the past ebay has served me well but I guess third time isn't the charm after all.

old vs new, also the flicker doesn't start until the bulb has warmed up, using one vertex and one icecap both electronic ballast. New bulbs are branded Odyssea, old ones not marked with a manufacturer they just say "250w, blue, made in Japan"


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Odyssea is pretty infamous for producing a poor product, I would order a new bulb.

When I ran halides I had the Hex-Arc Phoenix 14k bulbs. They grew corals like a 14k bulb but looked like a 20k bulb. If I had halides I would use them again.