advance M58 ballasts

[Delphinus]

Which bulb are you thinking of? The M58 is 250W, and according to the Ushio website the M58 is actually the recommended ballast for their 250W single-ended 10000K bulb. Which is odd, because the M58 is the traditional "probe" start whereas for their 175W bulbs, and their 400W bulbs (and I think their 1000W bulb too) they want you to run them on the "pulse" start ballasts. Why the difference for the 250's, who knows. I've been running my 175W bulbs on M57's, and up till last week I had no idea this was the wrong ballast. They fire up OK, no flicker, and really gotten a long run out of the bulbs. So I don't if this info helps you but maybe it does??

cheers

PS. I run my Iwasaki's (not exactly the higher-K bulbyou're asking about though) on M58's and they seem to be OK, although one of them does have a slight flicker on startup for about 5 minutes and then it goes away after that. You don't notice the flicker looking at the tank but you will notice it if you're looking at the bulbs for whatever reason. It also make a strange high-pitched, barely audible squealing sound when it's flickering (can't hear it with the hood closed). What could be happening here, I have no idea. The light still fires, so I haven't really pursued what's going on there.