Metal Halide Bulbs

[Jack]

Where is the best place to get bulbs? Where's the cheapest place?

[Jack]

crap.

[reefburnaby]

Hi,

I believe you can get Iwasakis from local distributors.

- Victor.

[Bryan]

Commercial lighting on Annacis Island. 400 watt Iwasaki for about $90.00.

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by reefburnaby:
Hi,

I believe you can get Iwasakis from local distributors.

- Victor.<hr></blockquote>

[Reefmaster]

hi jack. we get ours from j+l. at one point albrite had some 20k 400W but i think they are all sold andthey won't be bringing in any more.
shane

[Reefmaster]

jack
just a note on our experience - we tried an iwasaki 6500 on a magnatek ballast and it was really green - like butt ugly green! we returned the lamp to j+l and john said they had alot of problems with that bulb on magnatek and advance ballasts. i later read that the iwasaki 6500 was considered a "conversion lamp" and was actually designed to be run on a mercury vapour ballast. (ref. marine fish and reef 1999 pg 88-100).

elsewhere i read that the R designation on the 6500k's resulted from iwasaki redesigning the lamp to properly run on MH ballasts but i don't know where i read that - and if someone else knows otherwise throw it out here. my memory is that the R would properly run on core+coil ballasts while the non R would still be fine on electronic and MV ballasts - but i don't know for certain that this is correct (thats my disclaimer)

i mention this in case you encounter a similar problem. the reference above does note that many hobbyists have been using the MH ballasts without apparent problems - but IME when we tried the iwasaki 6500k it was really bad. we ran it for two weeks trying to burn it in then switched back on an old yellowy 5500k until we got a replacement 5500k.
i'm interested in replacing our 5500's with 6500's if the lamps would run reliably on our ballasts -- but i sure the heck am not going to replace two or three ballasts cuz one silly lamp type won't run on it properly (poor john didn't realize my thrifty approach to this hobby when he suggested that)!!!
shane

[Jack]

wow, 400 Iwasaki's are what I am looking for. Where exactly is that store?
I'm lookin for either the 6500's or the 10000k's. But if I can find the Iwasaki's for 90$, I will go with that and some actnincs. Thanks guys,