broke in 14K pics

[StirCrazy]

Originally Posted by ProPs

talked to john at j&l prior to picking up my 14000k bulbs
and he said they prefer you using a pulse start ballast on the bulbs for longer use/life

well as much as I respect J&L's opinion on coral and fish, there lighting advice has never been more than I would expect from any LFS. they don't push HQI there as most people won't spend the extra money to buy the ballasts and they also find it hard to push something they don't run as would any store.

in the last year we have descovered from the big lighting companies that 400 watt HQi ballast are not real HQIs but rather a cheep Son Agro ballast not even made for MH lights. We have also learned that most 250 watt MH bulbs actualy run to the original design on 250 watt HQI ballasts (which are true HQI ballasts)

I my self ran a set of AB 10K 250 watt bulbs for just shy of 2 years with only a 7% loss in output. on normal ballast these bulbs were losing 12% after 1 year.

Steve