250w Radium on Reefbrite ballast?

[Smite]

Hey MH guys. I just swapped my 3 xr30 g5 blues for a RB 36" fixture with xho. They came with twin arc lamps, I've noticed difference coloration between the two illumination points in one lamp. One looks 14k and one looks sub 10k.

I have 2 radium 250w bulbs from my last system. Does anyone know if the RB 250w ballasts will run a radium alright? I' pretty sure it'll fire up but not sure if it will be dim and blue. I know it wont be like an m80 driven 250 but would it be similar to a 250w lumatek type blue? thanks. Looks like the actual wattage is 262 W input.

Thanks

Matt

 

[Smite]

What’s a thread without a picture

 

[Smite]

Almost look like different lamps altogether

 

[reefinatl]

Swap the ballasts between lamps. See if you can isolate as a bulb or ballast issue.

 

[Smite]

Swap the ballasts between lamps. See if you can isolate as a bulb or ballast issue.

Appears to be a lamp issue I think. He gave me a set of 14k twin acrs in the fixture then handed me two backups he had. I swapped the set out and have the same issue but opposite pendants. I'll try the swap to be sure.

 

[Smite]

I threw some 14k Hamilton 250w in there and they fired just fine. Color is perfect.

 

[infinite0180]

I have read of people running Radium on the RB ballast. If your getting 262w at the wall on those ballast that is fairly close to what i get at the wall with my Icecap e ballast on 250 hqi mode. I cant remember exactly but i think i get about 270w-275w. Soo your probably right where most people these days run Radiums unless of course they have a true mag hqi ballast. I prefer not to run one of those though. Have you tried the Apex dimming feature? Seems pretty cool! Nice tank by the way!

 

[reefinatl]

I threw some 14k Hamilton 250w in there and they fired just fine. Color is perfect.

Sounds like bad bulbs somehow then. Electronic Ballasts should fire anything and do so consistently and reasonably well especially with an HQI or Superlumen type overdrive setting.

 

[Smite]

I have read of people running Radium on the RB ballast. If your getting 262w at the wall on those ballast that is fairly close to what i get at the wall with my Icecap e ballast on 250 hqi mode. I cant remember exactly but i think i get about 270w-275w. Soo your probably right where most people these days run Radiums unless of course they have a true mag hqi ballast. I prefer not to run one of those though. Have you tried the Apex dimming feature? Seems pretty cool! Nice tank by the way!

Good to know. I haven’t measured what the ballast is pulling that was just based off the specs I found online. I came across a thread talking about there being 2 spectrums in 1 bulb for the twin arc. 10\14 and 10/20 for day evening periods? I wonder if that’s what is going on. Boxes were marked 14k. Maybe they are good but I’m not a fan of spectral shifts, seems like less stability for sps.
I have mot hooked up the dimming yet, seems cool but not sure I’ll really use it.

I’m sitting here trying to figure out if I’m seeing the faintest of pulsing in the arc or if I’m just seeing reflections. Hard to tell really. Should the arc be 100% solid or does it normally have slight movement to it?

 

[Smite]

Sounds like bad bulbs somehow then. Electronic Ballasts should fire anything and do so consistently and reasonably well especially with an HQI or Superlumen type overdrive setting.

so these ballasts don’t have a selectable switch. The must have a chip of some sort that reads the performance of the lamp and self adjusts. Which is cool but I wish there was a display or indicator that showed where it was running at. I guess I could throw an amp clamp on it and find the draw that way.

 

[infinite0180]

Good to know. I haven’t measured what the ballast is pulling that was just based off the specs I found online. I came across a thread talking about there being 2 spectrums in 1 bulb for the twin arc. 10\14 and 10/20 for day evening periods? I wonder if that’s what is going on. Boxes were marked 14k. Maybe they are good but I’m not a fan of spectral shifts, seems like less stability for sps.
I have mot hooked up the dimming yet, seems cool but not sure I’ll really use it.

I’m sitting here trying to figure out if I’m seeing the faintest of pulsing in the arc or if I’m just seeing reflections. Hard to tell really. Should the arc be 100% solid or does it normally have slight movement to it?

How do those bulbs work? Do they alternate between color every other time they fire? And im not sure about the arc, i try not to look at my bulb lol

 

[Smite]

How do those bulbs work? Do they alternate between color every other time they fire? And im not sure about the arc, i try not to look at my bulb lol

Yes I believe that’s how they work. So people using them are firing them up twice a day for day/blue.
I’m trying not to as well hahah. I’m looking at my wall and feel like I see a slight flicker? I looked at the arc with shades on and could see some movement that got me wondering about it.

 

[infinite0180]

Yes I believe that’s how they work. So people using them are firing them up twice a day for day/blue.
I’m trying not to as well hahah. I’m looking at my wall and feel like I see a slight flicker? I looked at the arc with shades on and could see some movement that got me wondering about it.

If i had to guess its a bulb problem... personally, if the cost is not prohibitive, id run Radium. I have a DE set up so i run the Phoenix but if i could run a Radium i would. Id skip all the other bulbs unless its all that available in the future, at which point ill probably go back to LED. I have very limited MH experience though soo take that with a grain of salt. Your tank is epic, ive never had a tank like that, so id say trust your instincts lol!

 

[Smite]

If i had to guess its a bulb problem... personally, if the cost is not prohibitive, id run Radium. I have a DE set up so i run the Phoenix but if i could run a Radium i would. Id skip all the other bulbs unless its all that available in the future, at which point ill probably go back to LED. I have very limited MH experience though soo take that with a grain of salt. Your tank is epic, ive never had a tank like that, so id say trust your instincts lol!

I hope not these were brand new. I’ll try swapping ballasts and see if it changes. I almost wonder if where my fans are mounted is blow air under the glass and cooling the lamp too much…

thanks I love this tank, it’s just filling up too quick! I really like the whiter spectrum and will flick on the xho to check out some of my nicer tenuis. Radiums are hard to beat. I ran them on my 180g but heard great things about the 14k hammies so gave them a go

 

[infinite0180]

I hope not these were brand new. I’ll try swapping ballasts and see if it changes. I almost wonder if where my fans are mounted is blow air under the glass and cooling the lamp too much…

thanks I love this tank, it’s just filling up too quick! I really like the whiter spectrum and will flick on the xho to check out some of my nicer tenuis. Radiums are hard to beat. I ran them on my 180g but heard great things about the 14k hammies so gave them a go

Yea id swap ballasts and see what happens. I actually just stumped upon UNS today and then i happened to see your tank here and thought wow those are pretty nice tanks! How much did the tank itself set you back?

 

[Smite]

Yea id swap ballasts and see what happens. I actually just stumped upon UNS today and then i happened to see your tank here and thought wow those are pretty nice tanks! How much did the tank itself set you back?

They are nice. The clear silicone has stayed looking great too, I think it’s due to the 45 degree corners. Not much exposed silicone seam inside.
My LFS had started to set it up as a planted tank but stalled out. So I got it a little cheaper around $750 it’s 48x24x15 tall. I used a marine depot external overflow kit and that was about $100. I’d go modular marine if I could do it over.
Stand I did myself so saved a bit there.

 

[CayeCaulker]

You can get selectable ballasts pretty cheap on amazon. They are basically the same as the ice cap selectable. All the pot growers use them.

 

[CayeCaulker]

14k hamilton

I threw some 14k Hamilton 250w in there and they fired just fine. Color is perfect.

14k 250 HQI
. oohh so sweet.

I see all these blue reef tanks. I am a scuba diver. I have never seen a reef that looks like these blue tanks do. You look at your aquarium. Give it real light you can look at. I think the 14k hits the spot.

Just say no to blue. Some of these tanks remind me of my clubbing days! I walked into an LFS last week and was like OMG. Black lights everywhere! yuck.

 

[A. grandis]

My recommendation is always to use the ballasts that the manufacturers recommended for each bulb for it's optimal results. The electronic ballasts in general are really good as a versatile way to use many different bulbs/wattage, like the selectable, but they aren't truly specific for any of them, except for the ReefBrite ballast, which is the only ballast I know that actually is recommended to be used with Reefbrite bulbs. The brand has only the electronic ballast that was designed to run their own bulbs. Most electronic ballasts are made in China, ReefBrite is made in USA, as far as I know. Yes, the ballast has it's ability to "read" other bulbs and adjust it's necessity to give the "right amount of energy" for the best possible results using that particular ballast. It will always use less energy, but still hopefully produce a very similar PAR value as any bulb would run with the manufacturers' recommended ballasts. That is the goal of that adjustment. Again, many people have reported flickering from those ballasts though, even with Reefbrite bulbs.
Some other bulbs are also ok to be used with electronic ballasts, but they aren't the primary recommended ballasts for those lamps.
Truth is that most electronic ballasts will flicker here and there... some are more compatible with one or 2 lamp brands and will flicker much less when using those bulbs, but if you are a good observer you will still notice some flickering. Some times you can use electronic ballasts for a year or 2 without any apperent flickering, then one day it starts. Go figure!
The best results using ReefBrite ballasts should happen with ReefBrite bulbs, as many people have reported. That is also what ReefBrite recommends, as their priority. I've never had any of the ReefBrite equipment yet, and I'm just passing what people have told me or published here. My observations using other banded electronic ballasts in general have showed me that most of them aren't the optimal for the bulbs. They are fine and will run them for years, but not the very best in top performance.
The beauty of halides is that even with those observations one can still get the results using them and the differences won't matter much, if any at all.
Because metal halide the bomb no matter what!

The spectrum differences between arcs using "14K" ReefBrite Twin-Arc bulbs could be simply by the fact that that particular bulb was misplaced in the packaging. Does the bulb itself have the specific Ks for each arc printed on the bulb?