Lighting question... again.

[whaase]

I've decided to go with MH for my new tank. I'm going to use a single 250w, and i wanted a electronic ballast. My question is this (and it may have been asked many time so bare with me)

What ballast will give a wider rage of support for bulbs?

I was looking at a Icecap, claims to be able to fire just about anything. True?

How about a PFO?

I'm thinking about either a Arc 14k 250w bulb (unless someone tells me something bad about them ) or a Hamilton 14k.

Thanks, Walter

[Delphinus]

For a 250 I'd go with an HQI ballast over anything else (including electronic). PFO makes a model, but if you want to do your own, look for an ANSI M80 ballast.

[Invigor]

Originally Posted by whaase

I've decided to go with MH for my new tank. I'm going to use a single 250w, and i wanted a electronic ballast. My question is this (and it may have been asked many time so bare with me)

What ballast will give a wider rage of support for bulbs?

I was looking at a Icecap, claims to be able to fire just about anything. True?

How about a PFO?

I'm thinking about either a Arc 14k 250w bulb (unless someone tells me something bad about them ) or a Hamilton 14k.

Thanks, Walter

I second the pfo m80 ballast, but I'd go for the aqualine bushke (sp?) 10k bulbs. they burn at 13000k and has a nice par value

[whaase]

Originally Posted by Delphinus

For a 250 I'd go with an HQI ballast over anything else (including electronic). PFO makes a model, but if you want to do your own, look for an ANSI M80 ballast.

Does that ballast run most/all bulbs?

Walter

[mr_alberta]

With the M80 ballast you should be able to run most, if not all 250W bulbs. Same goes for the electronic ballast, but there are some bulbs that it may not be able to fire (such as XM bulbs). Mind you, this is what I read about half a year ago, so they may have changed them by now to be able to run all bulbs.

[Delphinus]

Originally Posted by whaase

Does that ballast run most/all bulbs?

Walter

I'm sort of waiting for Stircrazy to reply because he's the resident expert on M80, but as far as I know: not only will M80 run most 250W lamps of interest to us in the hobby, it will run them optimally (as close to lamp specs as possible). Other ballasts tend to overdrive or underdrive the lamps, or have a harsher starting process. The claim with electronic ballasts is that the lamps will last longer, this seems to be because the bulbs are underdriven slightly. This means the bulbs must therefore be slightly dimmer. Overdriven lamps, by contrast, tend to be brighter, but there must therefore be a cost (i.e. shorter useful lifespan - the candle that burns twice as bright burns for half as long, the candle that burns half as bright burns for twice as long). Conceivably, anyhow.

Only drawback to M80 is that there is only one ignitor available. Whereas with most other pulse start ballasts, there is the standard version ignitor (with a BTL or "ballast to lamp" distance of 2 feet, that is to say, the wire length between ballast and lamp cannot exceed 2 feet), or a long-distance ignitor (depending on the ballast model, either 10 feet or 20 feet, which is more useful to us aquarists who want to mount the ballasts somewhere away from the canopy of the aquarium). The M80 ballast has only one ignitor available, which has a BTL of 5 feet. This is probably "just long enough" for our needs, but it's something to keep in mind when thinking about where to hide the ballasts. If you need something longer then you are probably back to looking at electronic ballasts, or one of the other pulse-start ballasts (i.e., ANSI M138 for 250W). I believe any pulse-start ballasts sold as a package for aquarists (i.e., the PFO's) will be including the long-range ignitor already, so no worries if you're looking at one of those.

BTW, I've looked into the cost of buying bare ballasts for M80 before, and I found that for the price difference (a nominal value like $20 or so), you're probably further ahead just buying the ballasts from J&L. Comes with a case and everything, no muss no fuss. Here's a link for the M80:
Single ballast: http://www.jlaquatics.com/cgi-bin/sh...gno=pfo-bh251q
Dual ballast: http://www.jlaquatics.com/cgi-bin/sh...gno=pfo-bh252q
I believe these are PFO brand.

[EmilyB]

I went with the PFO HQI ballasts because it gives me the option of running SE or DE bulbs. And I can maybe finally see what those AB 10kk SE look like when run on the correct ballast

[whaase]

Originally Posted by EmilyB

I went with the PFO HQI ballasts because it gives me the option of running SE or DE bulbs. And I can maybe finally see what those AB 10kk SE look like when run on the correct ballast

And did you notice a big differece?

Walter

[danny zubot]

You mentioned 14k ARC bulbs. I've had one over my 54 gallon for about 5 months now and I like it. I also suppliment with 130 watts of PCs. I'm no expert with MH systems but they are a cost effective way to achieve MH status.

[StirCrazy]

Originally Posted by Delphinus

I'm sort of waiting for Stircrazy to reply because he's the resident expert on M80

Bah, you explained it good

Steve