M80 Ballasts
 

Anybody know where to get a hold of some M80's?

Either Canadian or American that ships to Canada

Is this what you mean?

http://www.hellolights.com/25hadmam80ba.html

Edit:
I think here are some similar possibly better ballasts for possibly less money:
http://www.hidirect.com/framesets/ballast.htm

Hellolights is the one, but they dont ship over the border.

I could only find magnetics (m58's) at the second link...and im not familiar with the M138's, they're not electronic or could run HQI as far as i know

If it's just a bare ballast you're looking for that you can DIY into your own enclosure, you should be able to order M80 from any industrial lighting supplier. M80's are made by Advance Transformer, the part # for M80 is 71A5880. In Calgary I have in the past inquired about ordering them from Brite-Lite and Litemore, I would think both places have franchises in Edmonton. If not though there are sure to be others. Anyhow IIRC the last time I looked into ordering some the price came out to $110ish per.

There are also these:
http://www.jlaquatics.com/phpstore/s..._ID=pfo-bh251q
http://www.jlaquatics.com/phpstore/s..._ID=pfo-bh252q

If you're looking for two ballasts, by the time you've ordered the ballasts, shoehorned them into an enclosure, and so on, those look to be not too bad deals.

Yes, I bought those. :mrgreen:

Thanks Tony, thats what i wanted to know :mrgreen:

Im gonna be needing 3 of them and already have a 3 ballast box.

Just to make sure im thinking of the right ballasts...M80's will run HQI's and, is it certain SE bulbs? or HQI only?

You can buy M80's from Eecole Electric but they are a speacial order from almost anyone in edmonton I think!!!

They should indeed run both kinds. The only thing that I'd be cautious of is that the specs say something about a "BTL" (ballast to lamp) wire distance of 5'. I understand people have cords longer than 5' so I guess you can stretch that requirement out a little. I don't have the ballasts myself so I haven't had a chance to investigate what the practical limits are. If you go the DIY route let me know if you find anything out, I'd like to know more this myself.

i remember hearing about the BTL limit, forgot it might be for these ballasts.

The 5' shouldnt be a problem for the current setup...might just end up running two 250's over the 150 and a 400w for the sump/prop area.

120 a piece though...probably break down and just get some M58's for the time being.

Look into pulse starts, they should be roughly equivalent to M58 (maybe a little more, but I doubt by very much). And, don't take my word on the $110 thing, that was just the last quote I got, I haven't shopped around. I would call around see what places say.