electronic vs Magnetic MH ballast

[kjdeut]

Hey Everyone,
Im looking at upgrading my current fixture from 2x150 HQI to 2x250 HQI and not sure whcih way to go with the ballast.
Hellolights.com has 2 ballasts that will work (http://www.hellolights.com/elbalmethal1.html), one is an ARO electronic ballast and the other is an Advanced Magnetic M80 ballast. I leaning towards the electronic because I know how much heat my 150 ballasrs give off. But I remmeber reading posts about electroninc ballasts interferring with other electronic devices in the house, is this still the case?
Any feedback on one vs. the other would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Ken

[David Grigor]

Personally, I would go with an Icecap 250W electronic before I would go with the ARO. Mostly because of the customer service and warranty. There is a rc thread: http://www.cnidarianreef.com/lamps.cfm while not 100% relevant becuase only comparing 250W Single Ended bulbs on different ballast, the Icecap did beat the ARO in performance with just about every bulb type. One could make the assumption it would hold true for double ended as well.....

The only know to the best of my knowledge to cause interference is the blueline e-ballast. I don't think it is really an issue with other electronic ones....

My rule of thumb, if you already own the magnetic and thinking of replacing with same wattage you would never recoup the money invested for the new ballast in electrical savings.

If you don't already own an equivilant magnetic then it's probably best to get an electronic if not that much more in costs.

[clownfishcrazy]

pm sent

[dirk griffin]

[otolith]

that's the smartest thing I've ever heard come out of your mouth!

[Imaexpat2]

I would go electronic ballast given a choice. Sure it may not save you that much in electricity over a standard ballast but like you said and like I know it to be a fact, it runs much cooler and that can be a bad thing! Heat is not exactly a conducive enviroment for electronics anyways in my experiece. But you will save money in that you wont have to run a fan over your ballast to keep them cooled off to a reasonable level.

ARO vs Icecap...I cant rightly say that one is better than the other as I havent tried both and I havent poured over research data. I will say that I am running ARO ballast on my halides and VHO's that are installed on 450 gallons worth of frag grow out tanks and a 135 gallon SPS/Clam tank, and 240 gallon SPS tank and I have no complaints at all. In 2 1/2 years I have only had one fail. Hello lights replaced it free of charge and only cost me shipping, cover quick, no excusses, no hassles and no fuss. I am using about 24 of these ballast between VHO and Halides so I dont think one bad ballast after 2 1/2 years is such a bad track record. Are there better ballast out there? I am sure there must be. It would probably be safe to say they cost more too. If thats the case and your only using a couple then it probably doesnt matter to you. But with as many as I am using...cost is a factor and electricity use is an issue, especially in regards to profit margine(sp?)! I have no experiences with the other ballast you mention as ARO and PFO are the only ballast I have used to date.

I have yet to have a problem with running electronic ballast and other items in my house or shop. Prehaps with other ballast in conjuntion with other arrangements it might be a problem.

Just my humble opinion...your mileage my vary though so I wont make any promises!

[dirk griffin]

GD computers......the blank screen meant to say that since I started using icecap MH ballasts my octopus controller has not been very consistent on starting/shutting things on/off. It started the very first day the they were plugged in.
IMO all electronic ballasts give off interference of some sort. Some maybe more than others. How the house is wired and what else is plugged in also can change things. I have heard more than a few stories about tv and radio problems.
Whether the higher price is worth a little savings on the power bill will be debated for some time to come. My 250 icecaps run a LOT hotter than I expected. Obvioulsy not as hot as tar ballasts. I have no expereince with e- ballasts.
As usual there is +/- to both tar and electronic ballasts, other things lack of h2o changes, over feeding, not being patient....and luck will determine the tanks success, more than whether the ballasts are tar or electronic.

[kjdeut]

Thanks for the responses everyone.


Ken

[otolith]

I'll also agree with Dirk in that the 250W icecap mh ballasts did affect the aquacontroller. For some reason it did seem to go away after time. Not quite sure why. The 400w eballasts really sent the aquacontroller crazy, but the Icecap 660 vho ballast doesn't seem to affect it. The eballast problem is taken care of using a directconnect 4 module that you can plug all the eballasts into, as well as the aquacontroller. Works well, unless you have an eballast go haywire and have it blow the fuse.

[mnreefgeek]

Derek did that turn out to be the problem?

[otolith]

Yes, and it's a difficult fuse to find. I'm not sure what exactly is wrong with the ballast, but whenever I plug it in, it starts to fire the bulb, and then it trips the circuit. I switched the bulbs, but that didn't fix the problem. Not sure what I'm going to do now...