Origami October 16, 2008 Share October 16, 2008 Who here is running 250W 20000K bulbs or Radiums? What ballast are you using? Is anybody running 20000K or Radiums on a 250W PFO HQI or dual 250W PFO HQI ballasts? How about running Radiums on an Ice Cap 250W electronic ballast? Pics / general impressions of the combinations are welcomed. I'm curious because in looking at Sanjay Joshi's bulb/ballast studies, I've noted that the PFO HQI ballasts deliver high PPFD (probably by overdriving bulbs) while consuming a lot of power - up to 350W (and consequently, producing a lot of heat). However, using Radiums, the ballast seems to consume a lot less power (thereby generating less heat). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phisigs79 October 16, 2008 Share October 16, 2008 I am running Radiums on an Ice Cap 250W electronic ballast and love it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AQUACO October 16, 2008 Share October 16, 2008 250 Radiums on the sunlight galaxy ballast. Amazing! Just switched to radiums on my look down.. Got rid of the Helios 20000k's Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scott711 October 16, 2008 Share October 16, 2008 I will be running 250w 20k Radiums in a few weeks. Right now I have 20k XM on Icecap 250 ballasts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Origami October 16, 2008 Author Share October 16, 2008 I am running Radiums on an Ice Cap 250W electronic ballast and love it! Hi Chris. I checked out your gallery shots. You have a full tank shot in the "barebottom" album but the lighting looks fairly conventional, while other frag shots look very blue. Do you have a FTS of your system under the radium/ice cap combination? What differences did you notice with the radiums? Did your corals color up well? Growth slowed? What skimmer are you running, by the way? 250 Radiums on the sunlight galaxy ballast. Amazing! Just switched to radiums on my look down.. Got rid of the Helios 20000k's Sean, do you have this on a tank in the shop? Or maybe a FTS? I will be running 250w 20k Radiums in a few weeks. Right now I have 20k XM on Icecap 250 ballasts. Full tank shot, Scott? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gastone October 16, 2008 Share October 16, 2008 See my sig. The radiums on the HQI ballast (or suiteable substitute) are a very crisp white, not nearly as blue (or as dim) as they are on an electronic ballast. FWIW I can't take pictures anyway... throw in the radium lamps with all the blue/actinic I use and my camera can't even begin to do it justice. Chris with his infinite photography knowledge, yes.. me, no. Garrett. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Origami October 16, 2008 Author Share October 16, 2008 (edited) See my sig. The radiums on the HQI ballast (or suiteable substitute) are a very crisp white, not nearly as blue (or as dim) as they are on an electronic ballast. FWIW I can't take pictures anyway... throw in the radium lamps with all the blue/actinic I use and my camera can't even begin to do it justice. Chris with his infinite photography knowledge, yes.. me, no. Garrett. Garrett, I saw your post here: http://www.wamas.org/forums/index.php?show...&pid=222790 Purely coincidental that Brian and I are looking at Radiums. Can you tell me more about your S50 HPS ballast? Are they really only good for your 250 Radiums or is there some flexibility on lighting. If I wanted to have a broader range of lamps available to me in the future, would I be better off sticking to an electronic ballast, or is the cost on the HPS ballast pretty reasonable? Where did you get your HPS ballast anyway? BTW, I don't see a reference in your sig to the ballast, just to your lights. Edited October 16, 2008 by Origami2547 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gastone October 16, 2008 Share October 16, 2008 Tom, I've got to run, but I promise to reply in a bit. The ballast can be had for under $70 (maybe cheaper if you look around). The skinny is that they will fire the euro-bulbs (radium, aquaconnect, etc) on par with the M80. For broader range of choices I would personally go with electronic. More later. G. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phisigs79 October 16, 2008 Share October 16, 2008 I believe all my pictures are under Xm 10k or 20k bulbs. My tank colored up really well with the 20k and i still got a ton of growth. I noticed that the 20k radiums where 5x brighter than the XM 20k's. I run a ASM G4x but have since had a tank crash and havent been able to get things back in order. Still not sure what my issues are but i believe its something with the city water Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gastone October 16, 2008 Share October 16, 2008 Tom, I think my sig used to say that I ran the lamp off of an HQI ballast. Perhaps some time ago I thought I'd stop making a liar out of myself. Here is where I get my info from as I'm not smart enough to know anything, but smart enough to know when other people are smart enough to know what they are talking about. PaulErik wrote on 01/28/2008 04:59 PM: A North American 250-watt HPS (ANSI S50) is similar to a metal halide HQI (ANSI M80) Ballast. Both ballasts limit lamp current to the same level (3.0 amps). The main difference is the starting voltage and starting amperage. The difference is generally close enough to not cause any major problems. The only problem could be reliable lamp starting. After start up both ANSI S50 and ANSI M80 ballasts will operate a lamp similarly. Higher voltage lamp starters are available but are not common. In the commercial industry we have installed ANSI M80 spec lamps in HPS fixtures but we replaced the lamp starter/ignitor with a high voltage (4000-5000V) superimposed ignitor. The lamps did light with standard HPS ignitor but when lamps age they require a higher starting voltage to light reliably. In the commercial lighting field the lamps will be used for a longer time period than in the aquarium lighting field so this might not be a problem. Best regards Paul FWIW PaulErik is THE lighting guru on RC, so if he says it's so, I believe him. As he has stated, with the lifespan of lamps in the marine hobby, the restart issue should not be a problem. As such, I did not upgrade the ignitor and have not had any problems with the stock one firing the lamp. Bulbs that aren't spec'd for M80 applications will be overdriven by the M80/S50 and significantly decrease their usable lifespan. I had a link somewhere that showed a lot of the lamp manufacturer ballast specs. I suspect the S50 can be substituted wherever M80 is listed. G. Found link: http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2007-03/sj/index.php Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Origami October 16, 2008 Author Share October 16, 2008 Cool stuff, Garrett. Thanks. I'm still reviewing Sanjay's stuff but will definitely head over to RC for some quality time. I may be limited to double-ended configurations, though so 250W Radiums may be a problem since they're not (yet) available in the DE package. 150W, yes, but not 250W. The search goes on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gadgets October 17, 2008 Share October 17, 2008 I'm running 250w Radiums on the new Icecap Ballasts. Supplemented with two URI VHO Actinics and two ATI B+ T5s. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveM October 17, 2008 Share October 17, 2008 Will the Radiums run off of ARO electronic ballasts? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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