MH electronic ballasts any good?

[Cookiemunster]

Hi I would like to know if anyone here has tried the electronic ballasts for 250W DE.

I am planning to upgrade my 150W DE to 250W but due to the lack of space in the hood, I intend to go for electronic ballast to save space.

However I do not know if its wise to go for electronic ballast. From what I understand its easy to fit in, smaller, less heat and tolerant to various brands of bulbs and more efficient.

Anyone know where I can get a good 250W DE eballast and what brand is good and reliable?

Thanks

[roidan]

electric mh ballasts consume less electricity and generate less heat than their conventional conterparts...but for longevity..it seems most feel that the traditional ballasts has a longer operating lifespan than the electric ones...

[blur one]

Heard that the Electronic ballasts are way more expensive.... !!!

[pospeh]

Cookie, I am glad that we are getting more 250W DE users!!

I have not used electronic ballast before, but from what I understand from reading the literatures, here are my take on it.

HQI magnetic ballasts have been around for ages. The bulbs that are available (AB, BLV) are designed specfically to run optimally on that one type of ballast, so they will perform at their optimum conditions.

Electronic ballasts have many advantage (in addition to the ones you listed). For example, they can run many types of bulbs (SE, DE) and all wattages, and will TRY to deliver the correct current to the bulbs that the bulb needs. So they are the jack of all trades. If you want to switch your setup, you can still use the same e-ballast. But the thing is that they sometime do not do it so well, so the bulbs may not be getting the amperage it needs. As a result, the PAR output may not be as great as compared to HQI ballasts, or the color rendition may be off.

So the conclusion is you have to look at the specific brand of ballast you are buying to make sure it can handle the DE bulbs you want properly. As I said, some may be really designed to run US type bulbs, not european bulbs we use.

That being said, I think Giesemann is now using e ballasts for all of their 250W DE fixtures. I would think that the e ballasts that goes with the fixtures would drive their (and as well as the AB and BLV) bulbs at the correct power and amperage.

[Hon]

And those Giesemann eballast cost US$249 inclusive shipping to Singapore .. Too expensive for me to upgrade ......

[pospeh]

Hon, have you seen the new e-ballast versions of the Nova or Eco lines of their fixtures?

How much are they selling for, and who is selling it?

[Hon]

I have check with both Giesemann Germany and ERALCO Trading Singapore. Both don't seem to know the availablility of these eballast in Asiapac and european region. They will be getting back to me once it release for asia market.

Eballast is release for the US region to counter the problem they face with 110v to 220v transformer.

I got quotation from US side and the price is US$249 per unit inclusive shipping to Singapore.

[pospeh]

thanks Hon

BTW, cookie, you also need to change the holder too if you want to upgrade. Also make sure you have enough room in the reflector to accomodate the bigger bulb.

[Cookiemunster]

thanks Hon

BTW, cookie, you also need to change the holder too if you want to upgrade. Also make sure you have enough room in the reflector to accomodate the bigger bulb.

Thanks pospeh bro.

Sorry for the late reply as I was not around over the weekends.

Yeah I really regret not getting the 250W DEs in the first place. Now I am stuck with a very expensive RIGA light set rated 150W. I am not complaining cos its really good quality but I only regret I did not listen to my sps friends when they told me to get 250W in the first place. hahaha now I'm really kicking my own ######.

Hon: Gosh I didn't know eballast is so expensive!!! I guess I really need to go magnetic ballast. sigh.

What brands of magnetic ballasts do you guys recommend? And where would be the cheapest place to get it? Are there any differences in size of 250W DE magnetic ballasts between brands?

Once again thanks for the help and info.

[Cookiemunster]

anyone?

[pospeh]

Cookie are you sure your hood can handle a 250 W magnetic ballast. I would guess that it would be more economical to get a new hood and sell off your old one rather than upgrade it. There are just too many things you need to change to upgrade to 250W.

[Cookiemunster]

yup I checked with edwin and he told me the 250W and 150W are using the same hood. So I guess it should be ok. (gulp).

Otherwise I think I should just go for electronic ballast. OH CHOICES CHOICES!

I can't possibly sell off my RIGA cos I don't think I can get a good price for it second hand.

is there somewhere online I can see the differences in parts and sizes or holders for a 150W and a 250W DE?

[pospeh]

Have you tried Hellolights.com? I suppose the prices here would be comparable, if not a bit cheaper.

I checked their site, and you would need their ballast set at US$69 (ballast, igniter, capacitor), and their FC2 holder at US$20.95.

hope this helps.

[Maxima]

yup I checked with edwin and he told me the 250W and 150W are using the same hood. So I guess it should be ok. (gulp).

Otherwise I think I should just go for electronic ballast. OH CHOICES CHOICES!

I can't possibly sell off my RIGA cos I don't think I can get a good price for it second hand.

is there somewhere online I can see the differences in parts and sizes or holders for a 150W and a 250W DE?

Hello Cookie,

BTW how deep is your tank? If it is less than or equal to 2ft and your MH is 6~8inch away from water, 150W definitely can keep SPS. I've a friend that has different tanks and the tank with 150W mh color up better than the 250W. I've run 4x150W before in my 3.5ft and the main pain in the ###### of coloring up of SPS depends on water parameters and I would say that 150W is the bare minimum. I do not think your 150W reflector is right to be used for 250W - the target 60 degree reflection will be change due to bigger bulb size without changes to reflector sizes.

Max

[Maxima]

I have check with both Giesemann Germany and ERALCO Trading Singapore.  Both don't seem to know the availablility of these eballast in Asiapac and european region.  They will be getting back to me once it release for asia market.

Eballast is release for the US region to counter the problem they face with 110v to 220v transformer.

I got quotation from US side and the price is US$249 per unit inclusive shipping to Singapore. 

THe e-ballast run cooler and lower wattage, but put out less PAR & intensity. The German Magnetic Ballast will put out more PAR. You will notice that with 14K or beyond bulbs, e-ballast will make it bluer.

Example is my 20K Saki on Saki e-ballast is whitish blue, while on Saki Magnetic is totally white. My 50K Saki on AB Magnetic -eballast is like a 14K, a slightly tint of blue compare to AB 13K. I would guess that the 50K will run 80% Radium like with an e-ballast.

BTW, back to 250W DE being better - BTW the BLV 250W DE is rated at 10500lm? Well a real life example of 400W Radium puts out 8000~ 10000lm(ballast dependent) and a 150W 20K Saki puts out 8000lm. So tell me the differences, if the 400W is used on a 2.5ft deep tank with the fixture hang at 12 inch from water and the 150W hang at 6 inch from water on a 1.7~2 ft deep tank? I believe SPS at the 150W atnk is getting better light source.

Max

[Cookiemunster]

Thanks pospeh and max.

Max,

my tank water height is only 20inches (sand 5 inch) and the height of the MH is 10inches above the water.

Actually my main purpose of upgrading the lights is to keep SPS. Pink and blue ones.

My lighting is 2x150W DE 10000k and 2x54W T5 blueplus, I turn them on from 2pm to 11pm (9hrs photoperiod). Then from 7.30am to 2.30pm and 10pm to 12.30am, my 34W T12 artinic comes on.

I was thinking of upgrading one side of my lights to 250W DE cos I want to keep some pink and blue SPS. It was strongly advised by a few SPS siao. hehehe.

I actually placed my SPS frags only 1 inch below surface of water and they are right below my MH. 1 colony given to me actually is turning flourescent green. And I notice my clams that are higher up on the rocks (by 5 inch) have faster growth (bigger scutes growth...how to spell) than those on the sandbed.

I think I have to experiment. Since my SPS frags do not RTN and healthy colonies given to me also do not RTN, my water condition must be ok. I'll need to get a pink or blue acro and see if it turns shit brown. hehehehe.

If it doesn't, then I think my lights are indeed enough. But if it does, then most likely, if not for poor water quality, it should be the lights.

I am running a calcium reactor and a kalkwasser reactor and I got no nuisance algae problems.

Ammonia 0

Nitrite 0

Nitrate 10 (due to high bioload of fishes)

Cal 450ppm

Pospeh....erhm I mean phosphates 0

Dkh 10

Ph 8.1~8.3

Salinity maintained at 1.027 with TUBBY

[Maxima]

Thanks pospeh and max.

Max,

my tank water height is only 20inches (sand 5 inch) and the height of the MH is 10inches above the water.

Actually my main purpose of upgrading the lights is to keep SPS. Pink and blue ones.

My lighting is 2x150W DE 10000k and 2x54W T5 blueplus, I turn them on from 2pm to 11pm (9hrs photoperiod). Then from 7.30am to 2.30pm and 10pm to 12.30am, my 34W T12 artinic comes on.

I was thinking of upgrading one side of my lights to 250W DE cos I want to keep some pink and blue SPS. It was strongly advised by a few SPS siao. hehehe.

I actually placed my SPS frags only 1 inch below surface of water and they are right below my MH. 1 colony given to me actually is turning flourescent green. And I notice my clams that are higher up on the rocks (by 5 inch) have faster growth (bigger scutes growth...how to spell) than those on the sandbed.

I think I have to experiment. Since my SPS frags do not RTN and healthy colonies given to me also do not RTN, my water condition must be ok. I'll need to get a pink or blue acro and see if it turns shit brown. hehehehe.

If it doesn't, then I think my lights are indeed enough. But if it does, then most likely, if not for poor water quality, it should be the lights.

I am running a calcium reactor and a kalkwasser reactor and I got no nuisance algae problems.

Ammonia 0

Nitrite 0

Nitrate 10 (due to high bioload of fishes)

Cal 450ppm

Pospeh....erhm I mean phosphates 0

Dkh 10

Ph 8.1~8.3

Salinity maintained at 1.027 with TUBBY

Hi Cookie, no offense on my comments, but I would list out the following,

Those who have come to house and saw my PINK birdnest or PINK Acros can verify how damn Fluo. PINK they are. It has not been that PINK since I move from 800W MH + 108W of T5 to only 396W of T5!!!!!! All the PINK Acros turnr\ exteremely PINK, but my purple Acors looses it's boby color while maintain Purplre tip - not enough light or differences in light spectrum . So what's the problem. In the past, my 150W 20KK + 6.5KK combination(total 450W(3x150W) have been quite good with Pink coloration of SPS and since I upgrade to BLV 250W(250Wx2 + 150Wx2), everything goes SOUTH.

I believe I will get S%^#w for making such comments - note that there's lots of reefers using BLV with successs. BUT.....but, those have success have been with the higher wattage, I believe the 400W SE is good ? For 150W DE or SE, I've tested, tried and experiment on my tank, AB or Iwasaki still the best. I think BLV is good for 400W and for the DE 250W, most RC reefers who used 250W SE have moved to AB or XDE 250W or upgraded to 400W. The BLV DE 250W was told to be good by German reefers using ZeoVit System, but I have no long term experience till date. THe saem thing with Radium, 400W the cream, while the rest aren't that good......no experience juz base on fellow reefers comments.

I can tell you that your Acro will definitely turn blue & pink with Saki 20KK or AB 10KK.

Point here. bring your fixture to 6~8inch from water and check if your water parameters maintains the same within 5~10% within the next 2 weeks.......you be surprise. The constant water parameters will bring out the colors as well. I believe that your water parameters might be unstable

1 thing to note about DE fisture at close range, you will be limited a very efficient area of 1x1ft at the first 8inch of water, rest will be dead spots. So plas your Acros around these spots and clams outeside this spot below. As for your LPS place it beyond to lower lighting requirements. As such you will be limited to a few Acros within the efficient are of 150W DE.

Well it might be worth the upgrade to 250W DE if you want to tightly packed SPS tank. I would suggest a 250W x 3 over 4ft tank to eliminate any dead spots.

Max

[Joe_P]

One point to add.....

SPS do dull up when placed into different light intensity..... and would take time to colour again...

IME, I have SPS placed into different locations of my reef.... if the distance from the bulb is substantial, they brown up......

it would take a few weeks for them to return to the original colouration expected....

sometimes they develop different hues and remain that way.....

My current batch of Tricolour colony which have produced frags many which are in other reefers system with similar configuration lightings dun normally appear the way I have them in my reef.... colouration do varies.........

[Maxima]

I juz want to add that what's working for me might not work for you and fairly subjective base on my personnal experience.

Max

[Cookiemunster]

Thanks Joe and max,

this has been most helpful. I will try out other bulbs before I decide to upgrade.

Cheers

[Joe_P]

Thanks Joe and max,

this has been most helpful. I will try out other bulbs before I decide to upgrade.

Cheers

Cookie,

If you are looking for a frag to test if they colour up under 150Ws..

let me know.....

I can hand you a piece of tricolour as mentioned in previous posting....

PM or SMS me....

Cheers....

always great to have another reefer into SPS....

[Cookiemunster]

Thanks for the offer Joe,

but I'll test it on my existing colonies first. No point risking the loss of a beautiful piece.

I'll definitely grab some if my experiment works.

Going to look for saki 150W DE or AB to test out.

I think moving into SPS is a matter of time for any dedicated reefer. Cos theres always the interest to try keeping new corals.....especially the challange of making the environment right for the successful keeping of difficult corals or fishes.

However I still want to keep a mix tank....as I still like stuff that move. Especially hairy sps.

[cmswong]

Hi guys,

I had found a local make e ballast by the brand enersave.

They had supply to gov project and its quite cheap about $125 for 250w.

Any comment ?

[Hon]

I have check with them almost 2yrs ago. But too bad their ignition voltage is only 2kv. Our 250w MH bulb need 4kv to strike start it. Might be able to fire the bulb. Anyone wanna try?