400W radiums. anyone here use em?

[Doug]

I have some halide reflectors made from a piece of the white reflector from a fl. shop light fixture.

It gives a better spread to the halides than the parabolic one, on my pendant, but not as intense.

[stephane]

When I have added those spider to my old iwasaki 250 setup the temp have climb of 4 degree and the coral have react very badly so I shut down the MH lightning from 10 houre to 2 houre and climb slowly of 1/2 houre each 2-3 day and even that way some coral have hard time to adjust this intense focus . the frogs spaw who was growing like mad direcly under the MH as just not very grow from the time I add those

[BC_Grl]

I was a little confused with reading the RC thread. From what I was reading, it sounded like overpowering the bulb -using a 430w over a 400w would not only raise your hydro bill unnecessarily, but shorten the lifespan of the bulb.
What about getting a 400w ballast from a hydroponics store? Would that work?

[stephane]

Here are photo and coment from an other board of
Achie's tank from Toronto

Here are some shots after a fulll month of having 2x 400 watt 20k Radiums set up with Dual PFO HQI ballasts. Colour and growth are impressive. This bulb and ballast combo is the best I've experienced yet. Some pieces glow like light bulbs under this lighting.

Archie has attached this image:

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">

[Jayson]

Using the wrong ballast will shorten the life of the bulb. The Son Agro ballast will reduce the life of the bulb down to aprox 6-8 monthes. This is rumored to be the ballast that Pfo sells as there HQI.

[Aquattro]

Originally posted by Jayson:
Using the wrong ballast will shorten the life of the bulb. The Son Agro ballast will reduce the life of the bulb down to aprox 6-8 monthes. This is rumored to be the ballast that Pfo sells as there HQI.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Jayson, are you aware of an alternative to the Blueline that will perform as well? Or will bulb life still be comprimised?

[stephane]

Originally posted by Jayson:
Using the wrong ballast will shorten the life of the bulb. The Son Agro ballast will reduce the life of the bulb down to aprox 6-8 monthes. This is rumored to be the ballast that Pfo sells as there HQI.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Where did you get those number Jayson? I have heard more around 10 month from real user of it.

[ 07 August 2002, 06:21: Message edited by: stephane ]

[Jayson]

I have been talking with Andy of Ice Cap. They will have something out very soon that will perform better than the Blueline. If you want something that will perform very well,recommended by Radium, give you good bulb life, good spectrum output,5 year warrenty you should look into my specials. Stephane the numbers I have given you are from a REAL user as well as tech people from Radium and other reliable people in the industry.I know that you are trying to sell people these SonAgro ballasts but have you ever tried to test the bulbs after 6 monthes with a color spectrom meter? compared to new bulb. I think that if you did this you would then see a big difference and realize that overdriving them will shorten the life span considerably. Thanks

[Bryan]

Jayson:

Are you able to post some specs on the recommended ballast, or what Radium recommends for the bulb at least. I assume they are imported from europe, but how will they perform on our power 60 hz vs 50 hz etc, voltage.

How is the color of the bulb on the recommended ballast?

Can the ballast run other types of bulbs?. We all know how quickly the fad for lighting changes in this hobby<g>

[ 07 August 2002, 07:15: Message edited by: Bryan ]

[stephane]

Here are the spec
wattage:360W
wattage whith baLLast:400W
mains voltage:230V
nominal current:3,5A
luminous flux:8000lm (that why you realy need to overdrive it IMO)
Colour Temperature:20000 k
rapid reignition:4000v
capacitor for 50hz: 45