Halide Ballasts - not sure which are good?

[scungili]

Which ballasts for Metal Halide would you recommend?

 

[Myteemouse]

electric are more efficent but some research says magnetic is brighter
but be carefull to get the right ones forthe right bulbs ie: HQI or mougle

 

[vacrin]

MH Ballasts

I recently had one of the ballasts go out in my Current Sunpod and I pulled both ballasts out and rewired to a Dual 150 Watt Galaxy. I've been impressed with the quality of this ballast and its performance. I'm currently building a new 185 setup and I have a Dual 250 Watt Galaxy ordered for this setup as well. They are also reasonably priced if you shop around. I paid $199 for the dual 150 and $223 for the dual 250 both with free shipping off of ebay.

If you decide on these ballasts make sure you buy the special male plugs and cords that are required to plug into these ballasts.

 

[scungili]

Thanks, what about PFO's I found a good deal on dual 250Watts, any thoughts?

 

[ULTAQUARIUMSVCS]

What size tank is it going on?

 

[danno14]

and what life are you trying to sustain?

 

[mike1441]

i run icecap electric ballasts they are great they are cooler, small, energy savings of over 10% from High Efficiency, nice free. And they clam high temperature shut-down I like them, they run great with reeflux bulbs

 

[scungili]

My tank is 72" x 24" x 22" h

I will def. be doing a reef tank, and I want the option for stony corals, but I don't know how it may evolve. I know I won't put heavy waste producers or aggressive fish and only reef safe animals... Hope this helps, I know it's vague...

Here are some pics of the progress.

10" of the tank will be tucked into the plumbing room as you can see in the last pic.

 

[scungili]

Ah, photo was rotated in photobucket, sorry. Yes, I know my floors are ugly. I'm waiting to finish this first before tiling... The old lady I bought the house from said the Armstrong tile was gorgeous and I should leave it. lol.

 

[scungili]

OK I bought a pair of Ice Cap 250W ballasts.

I can run both HQI or SE so which would you prefer?

I'm sure most of you will say HQI's, so to you I would ask...

Would you have purchased a IceCap HQI Electronic ballast or a regular Ice Cap electronic ballast?

I hear you get more light from the HQI ballast but less life. How would you go?

 

[Herefishyfishy]

How much for the used Armstrong, that stuff is collectable!
Good looking setup so far.
I like Icecaps due to excellent customer support if they ever quit and that is quite rare.
You can force more output out of HQI PFOs, but they run hotter and use more power.
The bulbs burn out much faster that way.
I prefer SE, no particular reason

 

[scungili]

Yeah I'm thinking of going with SE for the maintenance factor. I think the shield on a DE pendant will collect salt spray. I'd like to have no cover on my pendants. + I found a cool moonlight that retrofits on the Mogul base.

 

[roscoe]

Just from experiance I have a lumenarc stealth DE. I would much rather have the salt spray on my glass sheild rather than my reflectors themselves. Another factor to sometimes wiping down your reflector can scratch them due to the salt being a little rough and gritty. I've seen some reflectors caked up with salt spray/creep and it is much more easier to wipe your glass down rather than the reflector it self. My reflector looks just as new as when i got them. Have you seen a reflector that had so much salt build up that the reflector is only half affective. just my 2 pennies worth.

 

[scungili]

Good point Roscoe. Painfully obvious now...

What if I just purchased a Electronic ballast, it would still be fine to use HQI correct? How much intensity am I losing?

 

[roscoe]

I run DE HQi bulb on an IC ballast. I've been very happy with the ballast everyone I know is happy with it and again it is energy effecient, small FP, runs cooler and can be mounted behind your canopy or pretty much anywhere with out complications.