Metal Halide ballast info

[Delphinus]

Originally Posted by mr_alberta

I never knew Iwasaki made anything above 6500K

They've had an insanely blue bulb as a 150W size for a number of years which sounds neat but there seems to have been not enough interest to generate importing other sizes. They call it a "50000K" (although of course it's not really). I've always wanted to give one a try but have never gotten around to it. It's a medium base socket (not mogul or DE) though.
http://www.premiumaquatics.com/Merch..._Code=mh70-150

There is also this new one (14k) which looks pretty neat. Like Willow I want to try some of these soon:
http://www.premiumaquatics.com/Merch...y_Code=mh-175w

Originally Posted by Bartman

So here's the $million question. I've never had MH lights before and this is a new tank. I plan on mostly softies and maybe some LPS. The fixture has 2x175w MH and 2x40w actinic. I think I would like bright, vibrant light (for myself, visually). There's 5 brands of bulb listed above. Which should I choose?

I'm with Willow on this one. You might want to start with a 10k and see how you like it. A "good" 10k should fit your description of a "bright vibrant" light (think "crisp white" or "white with a hint of ice blue").

A good 14k bulb isn't too bad either. I did try the venture 14k's though (in the 250W size) and I found them to be overwhelmingly blue (think disco blue). (Just my own preference, others may like it, but it was a bit of a culture shock for me coming off 6500K's). I ended up trading them in for some Venture 10k's and I am happy with the colour of those bulbs (I do have actinics alongside so that did influence the overall blue-ness). But in the past I've had other 14k lamps (in the 175W size) and found them to be a nice colour. I find 14k's are good all by themselves, but the problem is they tend to have a lot lower PAR. I have 10k's over one tank by themselves (Ushio 175) and 10k's over another (Venture) with actinics and I think I like the look of actinic supplementing slightly better. And you can have a cool dawn/dusk effect. But of course, it's all personal preference.

[Willow]

i called pa and asked what they thought of the iwaskai 14k's. jason told me they had one running on a tank and it was *very bright*. he said it was a shade bluer that a xm10k but not by much. if i was growing sps with 175's that what i would want i guess. my disply now is all lps and i was looking for more colour so i tried out the xm 15k. it really pops the colour out but time will tell if anything ever grows again.

[Delphinus]

Dang it Willow, I think you just convinced me to spend some $$$ that I was saving up for other things. I think I'm going to try these Iwasaki's. Oh well, worst case scenario, they won't live up to the hype but at least then we'll know. I'll let you know how they work out (assuming pa has them in stock right now I'm going to go order 2).

[Maverick]

Damn, that hood looks exactly like mine . I was going to order some of those bulbs as well. J&L said they were trying to get some in, but had no time frame.

Brent

[Bartman]

In this article:

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2005...ew?searchterm=

they test the Iwasaki 14K. I don't know ballasts but is the last one a probe start?

[Delphinus]

Yes, M57 is probe start.

I know I've typed in the list (of ANSI #'s and their meanings) a few times in the past. Let me do a search .... OK here is one, there is a breakdown of the ANSI numbers in this thread (second post)
http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/sho...ight=ANSI+M137

HTH

[Invigor]

Originally Posted by Bartman

In this article:

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2005...ew?searchterm=

they test the Iwasaki 14K. I don't know ballasts but is the last one a probe start?

nice.. the 175w has more output than the xm15k 250w

[EmilyB]

Bumpity...

Is anyone running the 14k Iwasaki's now on a probe start ballast ? What do they look like ?

[fkshiu]

The Iwasaki 14K has been making quite a buzz on RC. I haven't seen pics (which are almost always misleading in terms of what you'd see in person) but from all accounts I've read, it's a true 14K colour bulb (white with a very slight blue tint) with enough PAR to give many 250W bulbs a good run.