can I use 250w mh with a pfo 400w ballast

krisolson · 04-03-2001, 08:24 PM

I was talking to my LFS and he has been in saltwater a very long time. He said that with a 90g tank, dual 400w MH with 4 vho was way too much! He said I would have a problem with bleaching things. This is a new tank setup and I was interested in getting some carnation coral for the red colors and some other things. Any ideas about using 250's with a 400 pfo ballast?

bill-e · 04-03-2001, 09:08 PM

Fargo,

He's simply full of crap! You can cut down on the VHO by 2 but you will not bleachcorals if you put the softies towards the bottom of the reef and the lps/sps in the upper half. You also will probably not have to run the MH's 12 hours, 8 may be fine until you add some corals or clams with a high light requirement

And on the carnation coral, you do realize that it is non photosynthic and must be target fed daily

golfish · 04-03-2001, 09:49 PM

From all that I have read about MH's you can't run 250 watt bulbs on a 400 watt ballast. I run a dual PFO 250 watt HQI ballast with 2 250 watt PFO HQI pendants and double ended bulbs(10K)..I bought a PFO 400 watt ballast last week to run a 12K bulb in the middle of the tank....Even tho the ballast are not the same and the 400 watter runs a mogul base bulb you will notice on your 400 watt PFO ballast that it says HQI.....

Mark

Doug1 · 04-03-2001, 10:17 PM

Bull Cookies on too much light, as long as care is taken to aclimate correctly. As to the ballast question ballasts rated at a certain wattage will run any bulb that same wattage but not others
The exception would be the IceCap Elelctronic ballast which is fine tuned to specific bulbs

ToadallyNC · 04-03-2001, 10:38 PM

hey,
I've got a 72 gal bowfront...the lighting is a 175 10k mh, 4x55w pc's the MH is mounted in the center of the tank. I'm thinking about changing the 175MH to a 400w. You guys think this might be too much? I've got mostly lps but a couple of acropora's. What do you think? Thanks!

Doug1 · 04-04-2001, 12:12 AM

Toadally, I think a 400 watt with a decent reflector would be awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ToadallyNC · 04-04-2001, 05:59 PM

Well all I have to do is change out the ballast....(it's a Blueline) it has the quick disconnects, then the bulb...easy as making a pecan pie! I just don't want to shock all my coral.

tdwyatt · 04-07-2001, 04:49 PM

I don't know if Blueline does this, but Icecap will retune your ballast to the new wattage for about $10 plus shipping. I can't say enough good things about the icecap folks, if you have a question, Andy is available to answer it, and he will test your setup for you if they don't have a pat answer available for you.