HQI ballast w/ Moguls???

[Rick_B]

I recently purchased 2 2' 250W 20K mogul style retros. The ballast that came along with the units were HQI ballasts or M60 ballasts. A standard mogul style unit should use a M58 ballast. In talking with Hamilton, they claim that if I use the HQI ballast with the mogul bulb I will get a couple of results.

1) A more intense and brighter bulb -> a good thing
2) A hotter colour spectrum -> since I like blue, a good thing
3) A shortened bulb life, only 9-12 months compared with 18 months -> a bad thing.

Has anyone experimented with different bulb and ballast types? I am really interested in knowing if I can use this combo and still use the bulbs beyond the 12 month mark with sucess

Rick

[Delphinus]

I think you mean ANSI M80.

The M80 ballast will likely give you better results for most of the bulbs as it is the closest to the specs needed by the European bulbs we seem to use mostly.

18 months lifespan though? I don't think you'll find that with any bulb except for maybe the Iwasaki's. The bulb will fire, of course, but the spectral drift or whatever it is would be noticeable far sooner than that.

If I could choose any ballast I wanted to run my 250's, mogul or not, I'd choose the M80. The M58 is an older design, most bulbs we use in the hobby these days have difficulty starting on the M58's. I would definitely not go out of my way to buy an M58 if I had the M80 already.

[StirCrazy]

Originally Posted by Rick_B

I recently purchased 2 2' 250W 20K mogul style retros. The ballast that came along with the units were HQI ballasts or M60 ballasts. A standard mogul style unit should use a M58 ballast. In talking with Hamilton, they claim that if I use the HQI ballast with the mogul bulb I will get a couple of results.

1) A more intense and brighter bulb -> a good thing
2) A hotter color spectrum -> since I like blue, a good thing
3) A shortened bulb life, only 9-12 months compared with 18 months -> a bad thing.

Has anyone experimented with different bulb and ballast types? I am really interested in knowing if I can use this combo and still use the bulbs beyond the 12 month mark with sauces

Rick

well a couple untruths here. a 250 Watt HQI ballast is an M80 (was the M60 a type o?)

1, yes you will get an increased output very good thing.
2, won't be noticeable
and 3, the most common mis belief is a M80 will shorten bulb life. well this is a hard one to explain sense a M80 still puts out the proper amount of power for a 250 watt bulbs it is just applied differently Voltage and Amp are in different proportion, CCF is different, and because of the pulse start of the M80 it is actually easier on the bulb in that respect. I ran my AB's for 2+ years on the M80 and they still had useful life left in them. so it is hard for me to understand how it shortens the life of the bulb and the only explanation I can come up with is that they assume because the Son Argo overdrives bulbs and stresses them that the M80 must do the same. at any rate if I had to do it again I would go with M80 ballasts and Mogul bulbs in a heart beat.

Steve

[Rick_B]

Thanks for the info. The ballast is a M80 not a M60, it was a typo. So the concensus is that the M80 is the better ballast to use. It will not reduce the lifetime of the bulb, it will give me more output, and it will [/u]not affect colour spectrum.

The only parts that I am unclear on is what do CCF, AB's, and Son Argo mean? I am using a corallife 20K and a hamilton 14K bulb (the units are on different tanks). How long should these bulbs last before replacing. I have always been told 1.5 years

[Rick_B]

sorry about the weird underlining, I am still getting used to the site.

[Delphinus]

"Your mileage may vary" but I find a good rule of thumb is that you should plan on replacing your bulbs on a yearly basis. (12 months, or thereabouts).

1.5 years is maybe do-able, but I think you will notice that your tank gets suddenly a lot brighter when you swap out your bulbs. This sudden intensity could theoretically be enough to shock a few things.

CCF = "current crest factor". That's really getting into technical details of ballast design though.

AB = Aqualine-Buschke (sp?) - a German brand of bulb

Son Agro = a ballast used for Sodium lamps in the 400W range, that's adaptable to use by metal halides. Overdrives lamps since technically it is 430W instead of 400W. So lights appear brighter. Technically there is no such thing as a "400W HQI" ballast but if you hear that term, they are referring to these ballasts.