Lighting suggestions?

[fkshiu]

Originally Posted by Myka

^ I see you have the XM 10K with the HQI ballast. Can you post a pic of your tank? I'd really like to see the color you're getting, and just how much blue pull the T5s are giving you.

I don't understand how a ballast that only pushes 250w could push 330w through a bulb....? Do you have any references on that information?

I apologize to the original poster for the hijacking, but:



And here's Sanjay's results for 250W bulbs on an HQI ballast:

http://www.reeflightinginfo.arvixe.c...&Submit=Submit

The column to look at is "watts". Note that the 250W SE XM 10K is a PAR monster, but uses 374 watts (!) with most others falling in around 330. The ballast is simply overdriving the bulbs the same way an Icecap 660 ballast overdrives, for example, 54W T5HO bulbs to around 80W giving you more PAR ooomph.