Halide ballast?

[Demogarr]

I was just wondering: What is a good metal halide ballast. What brand that is, I am just wanting peoples experiences with different ballasts, heat, energy consumption, and so on.......

[Minnreefer]

We have had the PFO ballast for about 1 month now and seem to like them. They are not very hot and I have not blow a fuse yet. I have heard bad things about icecap MH ballast, maybe they have improved.
HTH
Jon

[Demogarr]

I was hoping to here good things about pfo, they seem to be the cheapest, yet well put together mh ballast I can find. How long is bulb life for mh?

[Minnreefer]

The bulbs are now currently about 1 year old, as are the ballast, they are Iwaski 6500K 250w. I have not heard a bad thing about PFO and I have done some research about ballast before we got this tank. I don't think that you would go wrong with them.
Jon

[Reefer94]

Ha-ha... halides. At one time fiercely denied! Mwa-ha ha! How does the ol' lady feel? Ask her about it while dicussing her new wardrobe and 2700.00 wedding dress! BTW - the Xenia and Montipora are doing great! I'm slowly transferring things over to the new tank... I don't want to just dump it all in for fear of unsightly blooms. How's the leather?

[tsloeza]

Hello
I have the Blue Line E-ballasts for about 2 years running a 175watt bulb, runs cool and fires the bulb everytime never had it shut off on me. I like this ballasts if I was buying a higher watt ballasts I would buy another one of these.

[fredly]

If you're a DIY type, Advance Transformers has some good ones. There are many that require ignitors and capacitors, but these are just like a flourescent ballast (normal rectangular can) and run around 50 bucks. Model # 72C5782 and 72C57C2 are the 250 watt models. The only difference is the size of the can - one is long and thin, other is short and fat. I'm going that route as I have an electician friend that can get some good deals. Check out their site at Advance Transformer Catalog. Key thing to remember is 60Hz ANSI M58, at the appropriate wattage for your bulbs of course. I realize this is not the way most would do this, but I have fun doing the research and putting it all together.

All Hail Halide!
Fred

[Reefer94]

Can I use any Halide bulb in any Halide ballast? Aside from wattage of course. I know I can't do that... but say I bought a 150watt Metal Halide ballast from Home Depot for 75 bucks.... Could I then buy a 10,000k 150w bulb for it? Maybe a 12,000k? It seems like I could as long as the watts were right...

Cheers

[fredly]

As long as the bulb and ballast are the same wattage and the same ANSI spec you'll be OK. M58 seems to be the most common. There are peculiarites with some electronic models however, so you do have to be very careful when going that route.

[tdwyatt]

You should prolly go to the reef central forum on this subject, there are a lot of particulars in using the newer electronic ballasts, especially the icecaps and blue line products. Some will drive any bulb very well, some will drive a particular bulb specifically, while causing flicker and early burnout in others. (for example, there are problems with the Sunburst 12000 K bulb and Ice caps at this time, great bulb, just a problem finding an electronic ballast to drive it correctly) Unfortunately at this time, the more efficiently a ballast drives a bulb, the more specific it seems to be for that particular bulb. Icecap is working on this in particular. If you have a particular combination you would like to deploy, go to the Icecap forum for Reef Central and enter the Icecap forum and address your proposal directly to Andy at Icecap. He is very straightforward and (generally) impartial on his suggestions and advice.

[botp2k1]

Originally posted by Demogarr
I was just wondering: What is a good metal halide ballast. What brand that is, I am just wanting peoples experiences with different ballasts, heat, energy consumption, and so on.......

PFO setups are awesome, PFO ballast are very reliable and the enclosures look great. One huge heatsink. The only negative is the weight of the standard ballasts, this goes for others as well, they are heavy. You cannot go wrong with PFO.

Electronic ballasts are lighter, not as hot, and more efficient in electricity usage. Some people have mentioned interference with some but you really cannot tell unless you try one yourself. The negative is probably the initial higher cost compared to standard ballasts.

Coralife Pendant setups are alright, I had one for a while, I would recommend a PFO over it if the anyone asks. PFOs are just made with better quality.