150HQI vs 175 Mogul
 

OK, which would win? Coralife 150W HQI pendant
http://www.jlaquatics.com/product/mh...+1+x+150W.html

Or a Mag ballast 175W Mogul base? The Mogul base at present is a lamp shade style pendant, but even if it had say a U bend reflector?

I got both now, but the HQI I think the bulbs are old, like a couple years?? doesnt seem very bright

150 watt HQI will blow away a 175. the 175's are not a stellar size for MH. I had a 175 for about 6 months, then I upgraded to a 250 watt and it was night and day.

Steve

Steve, would you include the 175w Iwasaki 15k in that mix? Its suppose to be as bright as many 250,s. I have a 150w HQI and I would not say it overly impresses me. At least with the 14k bulb I,m running.

My 175w Ushio 10k bulbs on Icecaps, were as bright if not more, thus I,m thinking something like the Iwasaki would be. Of course I could run the 10k that came with the fixture. Much brighter but not impressive colors.

Another problem I find with the standard 150w HQ fixtures, is their smaller type reflectors. I,m having trouble getting enough spread for my 28in.tank. So again, I think a good 175w bulb in a Lumenarc, would be brighter overall?

I've heard the 175 Iwasaki is the way to go if your going 175.

You can also buy a Sunlight Supply LumenMax 3 for your 150 watter......... they come in 150 watt DE fitting.

Cheers,
Vic

I just bought a 250watt Lumenmax 3 for my Solana cube and its a great reflector. Only a 20x20x20 cube but the coverage is great. I have SPS on the bottom that are doing fine as well so far. I am using the Phoenix 14K on a Galaxy E-ballast and love it.

well if you want to through a HPS bulb into a MH discussion :mrgreen: I am not familier with the iwasaki blue bulbs, a side from they were aperantly an ugly blue when they were released, then nothing. so no word of a lie, I have not seen anything on them untill you just mentioned them so how good can they be.. :wink:

I had the USHIO 175 watt 10K's and while they were not bad I have seen many 150 watt HQI bulbs that would blow it out of the water, it was only marginaly brighter than T5's so how good can that be :mrgreen: seriously though, I would put 175's inbetween the PC/VHO/T5 and 150 and up HQI. now there is one factor that might mislead some with the 175 as it is a mogal bulb it has better coverage than a DE bulb so it makes the tank apear brighter, but the intensity is below a 150 HQI.

Now what are ou going to keep, the only differance I noticed is my digitata went from a slow grower under the 175 to crazy fast growth with the 250 SE on HQI ballasts. but if you have a 175 another problem is selection, a 150 HQI has far more bulb choices.

Steve

Well, based on Sanjay's data 150W HQI ballasts actually draw around 190 - 210 watts and most 150w DE bulbs put out around 60 PPFD with the Icecap 6500K (very yellow) putting out the most at 78 PPFD. These are all shielded results because you have to run shields with DE bulbs.

In contrast, an Iwasaki 15K SE bulb on an 175W electronic ballasts draws about 165-170 real watts and spits out PPFD in the very high 80s all while having a 14500K colour temperature (where most reefers want it).

In other words, you're using LESS electricity but getting MORE PAR out of an Iwasaki 175W bulb than any 150W HQI DE bulb. By all accounts, the Iwasaki is an extremely crisp white after burn in.

I was going to say something about the PAR and shielding... but fkshiu got it already.

Mogul halides will usually beat double-ended bulbs because doulbe ended bulbs MUST have a shield for UV, while mogul-based bulbs do not. Though HQI's usually are brighter/stronger, that shield will almost always cause the bulb to fall in the poop-hole compared to an identical mogul-based bulb.

This is all if your talking about the PAR - which should be a big part of what matters in choosing the bulb for coral response.

Cheers,

Chris

I'm currently running the Iwasaki 15k and just switched to a Vertex 175w e-ballast from a PFO pulse start tar ballast. I don't have a par meter but the Iwasaki bulb is significantly brighter with the e-ballast over the tar. Having said that, if you're comparing par output between a 175w Iwasaki mogul and 150 hqi bulb, you'd have to factor in the ballast choice as well.

don't forget also that most electronic ballasts under drive bulbs. we did a test on a DE bulb powered by a electronic Icecap ballast and the same bulb powered by a M80 ballast and the M80 put out about 23% more PAR. now this was a 250 watt HQI but it is something to put in the back of ones mind.

Ok so where can I find more info on the Iwasaki's? I never realized there were people using them anymore as you never hear about them.

Steve

That's the wierd thing about the Iwasaki 175W 15K bulb - it actually spits out more PAR with an electronic than a TAR ballast while using less juice according Sanjay's results which are backed up by user observations like Son of Skyline. What is also impressive is that its colour comes exactly as advertised which is a lot more than can be said for most bulbs.

With respect to HQI ballasts, you have to factor in the extra electrical usage that an M80 uses over and above a 250W electronic ballast (+330W vs 250W) - that extra light you're getting with an M80 comes at the cost of more electricity. That said, certain bulbs like the Radium 20K are spec'd for the M80 and would be a waste on an electronic. It comes down to user preference: Is the extra PAR you get worth the extra electricity you're going to use? Of course let's not forget magnetic/TAR ballasts which will fall in the middle somewhere.

this is a valid argument for someone living in California where power is way way more expensive than it is hear.

My 90 gal which had about 10 pumps, two 250 watt M80's and two 3 foot VHO's.. hmm plus two 55 watt PC and a few fans and a chiller, only made a differance of 20 bucks on my power bill per month. One of the best thing about living in BC is cheep cheep power. so switching the ballasts over to electronic after I did a apm draw reading at the plug would have saved me about 7 bucks per month.. realy nothing compared to the 30ish % more PAR I got.

I think because of all the enviormental issues with power usage and such ya sure save the power and money, but when you look at it there are several things you can do that would have a much more dramatic effect on your power bill, like turning the heat down in your house 3 degrees F, that saved me 18 bucks a month and I didn't give up anything, oh change all your lights to CF instead of normal bulbs, that saved me 25 bucks a month cuz the darn kids can't turn out a light :mrgreen: and I have done some others things also, which has resulted in a 60.00 / month reduction in my power bill, not cuz I thought it was to expensive, but rather cuz I thought it was a waist of power as I have all the same comforts that I did befor.
for eg, if switching to CF's would have given me less usable light from the lamp fixture, there would still be a incadecent 100 watt bulb in there, but I was able to obtain more light for 1/4ish of the power so I was happy.


Steve

I was going to run the Iwasaki/electronic on my cube but the only 175w electronic I can find is Icecap and the interference from them drives the am radio crazy {which my wife is listening to},

Put it in a Faraday Box - any old metal toolbox or electrical junction box would work just as well.

Yup, inside a metal box, then ground the box. That will shield the electronics.

Oh, thats interesting guys. Thanks