250w or 400w Please help

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

Yup, 250w with good reflectors & maybe hqi ballasts, rather than 400w.

[loveless]

Cool thanks guys. I think I will try the 3x 250W to start with and if things arent working out I will get another 250. All in Lumenmax Elites with electronic ballasts, and maybe 14k bulbs.

[fkshiu]

As I'm sure you've seen from Sanjay's site, there can be huge PAR and electrical differences among 250W setups.

The MAXIMUM PAR setup is an HQI (M80) ballast with SE bulbs. If you use a high PAR bulb like the XM 10K, you'll be getting PAR values GREATER than many 400W setups. However, you'll also be using up around 330W of actual electrical draw.

In contrast, using 250W electronic ballasts with a bluer DE bulb results in less than half the PAR output but you will be using a true 250W of electricity.

As you can see there can be a HUGE discrepancy within the "250W" classification.

[loveless]

Originally Posted by fkshiu

As I'm sure you've seen from Sanjay's site, there can be huge PAR and electrical differences among 250W setups.

The MAXIMUM PAR setup is an HQI (M80) ballast with SE bulbs. If you use a high PAR bulb like the XM 10K, you'll be getting PAR values GREATER than many 400W setups. However, you'll also be using up around 330W of actual electrical draw.

In contrast, using 250W electronic ballasts with a bluer DE bulb results in less than half the PAR output but you will be using a true 250W of electricity.

As you can see there can be a HUGE discrepancy within the "250W" classification.

Ya for sure. I will definitely be running electronic ballasts, but am unsure on the bulb choice as of yet. I did notice that the Hamilton 14k bulbs have very low ppfd, as compared to the XM10K. Also when comparing ballasts the PFO seems to overdrive the bulb up as high as 370W as compared to the icecaps which keep the consumption at a fairly level 250W. So if one is running the PFO ballasts, why not just jump up to the 400w range when you are so close to it anyways.

Right now on my current tank I am running 400w radium 20K bulbs with Icecap ballasts and spider reflectors. I was running xm10K bulbs prior and am not a really big fan of the yellow it gives off. Def like the 20k blue tho. With this current setup on sanjay site there is no data, but the ppfd really isnt that high for the other ballast config's so hopefully i can get away with icecap 250 watt ballasts running bluer lights and lower power and ppfd. Time will tell tho.