Doh, the one day I am not home you come over.. figures...

seriously though call J&L's and ask Alan how commen miss fires are on the 175 watt Ushio 10000K bulbs.. I got this one from Brad and he never had a problem with it but it has done this sence day one here.. J&L said this usaly goes on for a month or two andit will stop.. hmmm 3 months now.. mind you it is getting better.. started first time twice this week :wink:


Steve

Troy, I never had a problem with 175w bulbs. The one Steve has fired every time for the 3 weeks I had it, but Steve has had constant trouble. I took it back to John and he fired it right away, so it's kinda hard to complain about it:-)
I read somewhere that the Ushio 175W were now being built with an in-bulb ignitor. John could probably confirm this with PFO if you ask him.

FWIW, I use Phillips M57 ballasts, never had an issue with starts. I think this is year 3 or 4 with these particular ballasts.

Never have a problem with them firing and I always got good colour out of my corals from them.

well here is another tidbit.. a quote from the article I was talking about.

"Although the data is not statistically analyzable, a few points of observation can be made. The variation among the 2 new lamps was almost 20%, and variation between the used lamps was about 15%. The pulse start ballasts do not significantly impact the output of the lamps. But, the used lamps had PPFD values within the range of the new lamps tested. This could potentially imply that the Pulse Start Ballast is less severe on the lamp and has increased the lamp life. This would be very significant for the reef aquarist since it would increase the length of time the lamps could be used, and merits further study."

now this is on bulbs that have had starters added also. if you look at the AB 250's I have (german bulbs, along with BLV and Ushio) they have had a starter added but the design of the bulb is still bassed off of the European standard. so to run to design they need a lower voltage and a higher curent.. ended up witht he same power consumption though.

Take a look at Brad's lights for instance.. they ran fine for ever on his ballasts.. but on the son agro (which is a repensation of the european counterpart, well closer than the ones he was using anyways) he got a 38% jump in PAR output and even whiter color.. I am not saying that a normaly ballast won't work.. just that another may work better. and that it looks like there is benifits in using a pluse start over a normal ballast in terms of bulb life and color shift.

JMHO

Steve

I think I read your post somewhere that the bare ballast is around $150 but would like to know for sure. And, who's carrying them.

The best ballast I have used for german 10k bulbs is the Ice Cap 175 watt. I recorded very ,very similar reading in lux as a 250 Iwasaki. I have never had any misfire issues. Thanks

How old were the ballasts you measured the Iwasakis on Jayson? I've never read anywhere that there were those kinds of output improvements when using E ballasts. If I remember correctly, the Iwasaki beat a lot of the higher K 400W bulbs.

I thought briefly about Icecap ballasts then came back down to reality when I saw the price per ballast.

Troy, I ran mine on a regular type ballast. Dont know the specific model, just an ordinary ballast.

I then purchased a pair of Icecaps tp drive them. They were brighter, but not a large difference. However the ballasts are very nice and are suppose to give the bulbs some longevity, which the 175w German 10K, already has a reputation for.

After I sold my electronic ballasts, I purchased another duel, regular type. This was to run a pair beside my 400 12K. That set-up worked fine. I sold them to a friend, who ran them on his 120g. WE though it would be fine over the tank, but as time went on, it became our opinion that there was not enough light for the corals, with that particular set-up.

Definately more light from 4 vho bulbs over the same system. Soooo, if I was to use them alone, as a lighting source again, I would,
- run them on electronic ballasts
-not try to cover more than 2 sq. ft.
-not try to run to deep.

The ballasts were both Ice Cap the ballast were both around 6 monthes old. It is not just any E ballast only the Ice Cap that you will notice the difference. You can feel free to contact Andy over at Ice Cap for more specifics as to why this. If I remember correctly it is because the are run on a 20,000 hetz output. Thanks