MH bulb comparison pics

[BCOrchidGuy]

So, what are you saying, Bob's wrong? or maybe you mean, Bob's equipment is faulty? Or maybe you're trying to say, "it's not my fault"? either way I don't see this as a post that would ecourage me to buy your bulbs. On the contrary. I see this as a grasp to point a finger.
Bob had a problem or an issue, you refunded his payment (YEAH perfect) but now you're telling us that someone else with a TAR ballast is running Bobs old bulb and it's working fine. If you aren't trying to say what I've thought you were, please enlighten us.
I'm glad I've seen you post this and vendors thing where you ask us if this is anyway to do business. You'd think by now you would have seen that nothing gets past us for long. Someone else would have brought that up and said, wow isn't this guy a dork but instead you did and you made yourself look rather small and unprofessional, I'll thing twice about trying to save a buck on lights.

Doug

[venkiw]

Doug,

I was not trying to point a finger at anyone, I was just trying to bring closure to this situation. I didn't mean to offend anyone.

I get emails, and posts on other boards about the 175 watts 10K bulb being defective, unfortunately this spreads like wild fire. Even I was convinced that the products were somehow mislabelled when I first heard the reports on reef central, which is ultimately costing me 4000$ more on my next batch of bulbs for additional quality assurance.

It is frustrating when all of the 4 - 175 watts 10 bulbs that were deemed defective by the buyer as "pee yellow" and returned have all worked fine both on TAR and Electronic ballasts. I am even at a lack of words to explain what is going on as it is puzzling.

While I agree that there may be a few TAR ballasts in the market that may not be compatible with the 175 watts 10K bulb. Or the ballast may be defective as well as, which we cannot rule out.

After all this effort we still don't know what is causing the problem. Having spent 4000$ on this issue and still not finding a solution is frustrating as well. I guess I vented out my frustration, and didn't mean to offend anybody - I repeat.

Venki

[Bob I]

I hate to continue this thread, but I must. The bulbs as far as I recall were advertised as working on any ballast. I admitted to Venki by way of a PM (which has not been picked up BTW) that I appear to have an oddball ballast. It is a BritePro 175W ballast that is supposed to run a 175W MH bulb, or a 175W Mercury Vapour bulb. It is a brand new Cap & Coil ballast. When I ran the SA bulb, the colour was pee yellow, and the ballast ran quite cool indicating the bulb was not firing properly. The colour originally was great, but only lasted for a few hours. At this point in time I am running an old AB bulb. I am getting 15,000 lux at the bottom of the tank, which seems quite respectable. Yes Venki has put $40.00 into my Pay Pal account, which I don't know what to do with, as I have never used Pay Pal, but I am sure I can use it somehow.

I am not blaming anyone, but I am trying to inform other folks who have purchased 175W bulb from Venki that I am having some problems.This forum is great, as we are not isolated in our problems, but are able to inform other people of the problems we are experiencing. In that way we are united, and perhaps we can cure the problems before they spread.

[EmilyB]

It reminds me of an old saying....

"Fools rush in."

Anyway, the wrong ballast will make any 10kk bulb look yellow ime.

[Bob I]

Originally Posted by EmilyB

Anyway, the wrong ballast will make any 10kk bulb look yellow ime.

That is probably correct. However, the bulbs were advertised to work on ANY ballast, and works fine with the AB bulb.

As I have said a number of times, the function of a ballast is to act as a current limiting device. It appears that my ballast would not allow the correct amount of current to develop. In that way it is possible the Venki bulb was unable to develop the correct level of current to fire properly.

In that respect it might be wise for the bulb distributor to amend his advertising to state that the bulb will function properly on ballast he has tried. He might also list those ballasts, and also state that it may not work on some ballasts.

I would think that would be a good compromise.