Halides question ....

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A. grandis said:
Would you please share what he actually said to you?
Grandis.
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Yeah we talked for awhile but to pretty much sum it up, he said his ballasts would give me more par but not a lot more because his ballasts don’t overdrive bulbs either

Said instead of spending 400 on ballasts to get another reef brite strip if I wanted more par....he went into more detail about reading par and how it’s not always 100% accurate

I ended up lowering my lights 4 more inches for more par and I will add a reef brite strip in time if I still want the more par

He told me to run the ballasts I currently have until they go out and then buy the reefbrite ones because for the par difference right now just isn’t worth the money spent on ballasts
 
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Straight.Reefin said:
Yeah we talked for awhile but to pretty much sum it up, he said his ballasts would give me more par but not a lot more because his ballasts don’t overdrive bulbs either

Said instead of spending 400 on ballasts to get another reef brite strip if I wanted more par....he went into more detail about reading par and how it’s not always 100% accurate

I ended up lowering my lights 4 more inches for more par and I will add a reef brite strip in time if I still want the more par

He told me to run the ballasts I currently have until they go out and then buy the reefbrite ones because for the par difference right now just isn’t worth the money spent on ballasts
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His ballast will give you 255W and the one you have is giving you now more @ 300W.
You actually need 330W with the M80.
Grandis.
 
Tidal Gardens
jda said:
...sounds like a big old pile of Shineola to me...
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[emoji23][emoji23] unfortunately I don’t know enough on the spectrum and par stuff to know

I do know I lowered my lights 4 inches today and it raised my par about 50-125 more at almost every spot so that will definitely help
 
That will help for sure. Those ballasts are absolute junk. You could probably almost double your output with good ones... putting on another one of HIS strips would be like throwing a baseball at a bus compared to getting good ballasts. Sounds like salesmanship more than advice.
 
Tidal Gardens
Unfortunately I have to agree 100% with jda on that one.

Grandis.
 
jda said:
That will help for sure. Those ballasts are absolute junk. You could probably almost double your output with good ones... putting on another one of HIS strips would be like throwing a baseball at a bus compared to getting good ballasts. Sounds like salesmanship more than advice.
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Which ballasts are absolute junk? The ones I have? The reefbrite ones? Or all of the above lol
 
If money is a problem, which I understand, then I agree, but a ballast (M80) made for HQI double ended bulbs are not over driving . If you were using single ended bulbs then it would be over driving them. Radium single ended run best with HQI ballast. The difference between ballast is the voltage the bulbs run at and the ignitor circuit to start bulb. You could also change the fixture to use single ended bulbs but them you would want to use Radium bulbs and still need the M80 ballast. Reef Brite guys are great do some research. Running 14k bulbs you would want to supplement them and Reef Brite LED fixtures attach nicely to the MH fixtures.
 
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What par are you getting on that Odyssea ballast ? I just purchased reefbrite 15” fixture and a luxcore 400w that I can run the 250w HQI. When I get it I can set up and take reading with my PMK and let you know what the par levels are. I am currently running a lummen bright with the luxcore 250w HQI and a radium bulb. My fixture is single end not double end fixture.
 
Hausser said:
What par are you getting on that Odyssea ballast ? I just purchased reefbrite 15” fixture and a luxcore 400w that I can run the 250w HQI. When I get it I can set up and take reading with my PMK and let you know what the par levels are. I am currently running a lummen bright with the luxcore 250w HQI and a radium bulb. My fixture is single end not double end fixture.
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I just lowered my lights down 4 inches today so now they are 4-5 inches off of the water and I am going to take new par results tomorrow with my Neptune par meter.....I printed off a picture of my tank and I’m going to write down the par of different spots of my tank and I’ll post it here tomorrow!!

After lowering my lights, i checked the par real quick about 1-2 inches under the water and directly under the fixture and I got about 800ish
 
PAR is just part of the equation.
PAR aside, if you want to run the bulb with the proper spectrum and get the very best results from that bulb in the long run you will need to get some M80 ballasts going. That is what we know.
Grandis.
 
Tidal Gardens
I worked with Tullio and Dave at Hamilton technology to incorporate Hamilton M80 ballast to the reef Brite hybrid fixture. I bought the bare wire from Hamilton to connect to a IEC plug on the reef Brite. I could never get the bulbs to fire correctly via my GHL controller. They didn’t work per the light schedule configured on the power bars. When they did fire, they were considerably brighter than the Reef Brite ballasts with radium bulbs installed. Dave was great to,work with and I sent him the ballast back for a refund. I wish I could have got Dave and Tullio to talk and work together so their components were interoperable. There must be something between the ballast and fixture that is causing erratic operation. I’d be glad to buy the ballast from Dave and have it shipped to Tullio for proper connecterization. Seems like there is something missing configuration wise. I have no issues,with the RB ballast, but do prefer the M80. I pretty much give up on trying to get this,done. JP
 
Tullio actually told me that he highly discourage changing the wires in order to accommodate the M80 or any other ballast.
There are some people who already reported flickering and weird behaviors using the fixture/ballast/Twin-Arc bulbs. I don't have time to deal with such things and went ahead for a return to get a Spectra with Luxcore, in case I choose to use 175W bulbs summer time. I also have an old school dual Blue Wave M80 that is very nice to be used with 250W Radium bulbs!
This forum is the reason why we learn all these things and be informed.
Dave, from Hamilton, is a great and honest gentleman!!
Hard to find someone like him nowadays!!
I also like Tullio and respect him, but unfortunately his halide system isn't for all applications.
Thanks for your post!
Grandis.
 
All good advice given so far. Throw those Odyssea pieces of junk out the window. You're wasting as much money in bulbs as one good M80 ballast costs by burning those DE Phoenix lamps on such a crappy ballast. It's definitely not doing the bulbs favors for lifespan or overall output. Adding another royal blue strip isn't going to come close to the effect of driving a pair of 14k Hexarc Blue lamps at the proper wattage.

Anyone know if there are still the good ole REEFLEX CUBE M80 ballasts still out there? Or anyone building a clone. Those were my absolute favorite for form factor and durability back in the day. Really miss those ones. Still have a pair running on a clients tank - I think the ballasts are almost 7 years old now and haven't missed a tick. Show me an LED powerbrick that has that kind of reliability pushing 330W for 8 hours a day everyday for 7 years. Ain't gonna happen. Just not sure what to replace them with when they finally go out. The hamilton's aren't my favorite but I have a couple used M80s I could put on. Got about 10 of their M58 ballasts and cayman sun fixtures laying around, but the M80s are harder to come by these days
 
rockskimmerflow said:
All good advice given so far. Throw those Odyssea pieces of junk out the window. You're wasting as much money in bulbs as one good M80 ballast costs by burning those DE Phoenix lamps on such a crappy ballast. It's definitely not doing the bulbs favors for lifespan or overall output. Adding another royal blue strip isn't going to come close to the effect of driving a pair of 14k Hexarc Blue lamps at the proper wattage.

Anyone know if there are still the good ole REEFLEX CUBE M80 ballasts still out there? Or anyone building a clone. Those were my absolute favorite for form factor and durability back in the day. Really miss those ones. Still have a pair running on a clients tank - I think the ballasts are almost 7 years old now and haven't missed a tick. Show me an LED powerbrick that has that kind of reliability pushing 330W for 8 hours a day everyday for 7 years. Ain't gonna happen. Just not sure what to replace them with when they finally go out. The hamilton's aren't my favorite but I have a couple used M80s I could put on. Got about 10 of their M58 ballasts and cayman sun fixtures laying around, but the M80s are harder to come by these days
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Well here it is and I still use it to power my halides :)
It had to be rewired after all these years but works like clockwork even after 10 years ! Doubt even any electronic ballast can come close to it .

IMG_2803.JPG


But it's not my absolute favorite ballast . That would be my trusty Sunlight Supply Bluewave dual ballast weighing crazy heavy ! Lying in the garage as I don't have exact use of it now .

Regards,
Abhishek
 
Nutramar Foods
Abhishek said:
Well here it is and I still use it to power my halides :)
It had to be rewired after all these years but works like clockwork even after 10 years ! Doubt even any electronic ballast can come close to it .

IMG_2803.JPG


But it's not my absolute favorite ballast . That would be my trusty Sunlight Supply Bluewave dual ballast weighing crazy heavy ! Lying in the garage as I don't have exact use of it now .

Regards,
Abhishek
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Haha nice! Good to see someone else has one still going strong. Those cubes were my favorite cause they werent so freaking heavy and large as many of the others at the time, yet still did the job in style. Was hoping somebody knew of where they might still be available for sale or if there was a clone being built out there.
 
rockskimmerflow said:
Haha nice! Good to see someone else has one still going strong. Those cubes were my favorite cause they werent so freaking heavy and large as many of the others at the time, yet still did the job in style. Was hoping somebody knew of where they might still be available for sale or if there was a clone being built out there.
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I rebuilt mine as all wires were torn off . I have a spare exactly similar but it won't be cheap to ship . Plus since they are no more available it would cost a bit !

Honestly I think you are better off buying a new M80 from Hamilton although am not exactly sure they will be exactly similar in performance to the old reeflux cubes and sunlight supply bluewave 7 .

Regards,
Abhishek
 

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