All you ever wanted to know about MH lighting.

[Owen22]

Hey Moe, I hope this gets picked up in your useful thread sticky.
Ok looking for help on this one.
Can we start a discussion on MH lighting.
1)What is the difference between using a Magnetic pulse ballast and an Electronic Ballast.
2)While type and Kind (not brand) of bulbs do you and can you use with each.
3) Someone please expain the DE HQI, SE, XM, and all the other bulb types and what they mean. (also referring back to previouse questions, what bulb types go with which ballasts)
4) lastly lets go over different outputs. 70W, 150W,175W, 250W, and 400W. (also relate this to the type hqi, de,se,xm)

This could be a long post.

PS- also it would be helpful to go over output in relation to Kelvin rating as well, 6500k, 10000k, 14000k, and 20000k. Pictures and or opions about the color and way the bulbs make your tank look would be great.

 

[NateHanson]

1)What is the difference between using a Magnetic pulse ballast and an Electronic Ballast.
2)While type and Kind (not brand) of bulbs do you and can you use with each.

On the first 2 items, there are a couple articles that go to great lengths comparing the outputs of many bulbs on many different ballasts. I don't have the links, but I'm sure someone will pop up with them. Basically there's no short answer, but you can get some useful data for a specific ballast and 250w bulb combination.

3) Someone please expain the DE HQI, SE, XM, and all the other bulb types and what they mean. (also referring back to previouse questions, what bulb types go with which ballasts)

Aside from wattage, there are just 2 major classes of bulbs. Single Ended (SE) and Double Ended (DE). XM is actually a brand name of various types of bulbs.

4) lastly lets go over different outputs. 70W, 150W,175W, 250W, and 400W. (also relate this to the type hqi, de,se,xm)

DE bulbs are available in 150w, 250w, and recently 400w.
SE bulbs are available in 175w, 250w, 400w, and 1000w (i believe).

So there's a very superficial begining. Now some more experienced folks can fill in the details (and if necessary correct any errors I made )

PS- also it would be helpful to go over output in relation to Kelvin rating as well, 6500k, 10000k, 14000k, and 20000k. Pictures and or opions about the color and way the bulbs make your tank look would be great.

Personally I think 10K alone is too yellow, and 20K alone is too dim. I'm currently using a 20K XM 175w, and 2 Ushio 10K 175w. I really like that color mix a lot.

Nate

 

[Owen22]

Nate, awsome reply. And Timely too.
If it's not too much trouble. Could you post a pic, of each of your bulbs running (seperately if possible) over the tank so we can see what the difference looks like?

Thanks

 

[chuck]

check RC for a post by water keeper, he goes VERY deep into the lighting

 

[marco67]

I'd have to check at home for links but for now if you do a search in the advanced aquarist under Sanjay Yoshi you will find the exact pages your looking for

 

[denvig]

This may help
http://www.cnidarianreef.com/lamps.cfm

and this
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=201570

 

[Moe_K]

For reference pictures & stats on the light produced by various 250 watt MH bulbs and ballasts, check out Joe Burger's website:
www.cnidarianreef.com and look on the right side for the link to his "250 watt Metal halide Testing."

 

[nunofs]

Sanjay's site: http://www.reeflightinginfo.arvixe.com/

Nuno

 

[NateHanson]

Could you post a pic, of each of your bulbs running (seperately if possible) over the tank so we can see what the difference looks like?

Thanks

I'll try to do that tonight.

 

[Owen22]

Moe, if we can grab some of these images and othing info off other boards and post them hear, will you edit this thread down, after we gather the info and include it in the useful threads sticky?

 

[maurod]

I don't know WaterKeeper, but he may be the funniest Reefer I've ever had the pleasure to encounter online.
This is the lighting saga thread on RC.

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=550860&perpage=25&pagenumber=1

 

[Owen22]

Ballasts

probe start will run american bulbs with ignitors built into the bulbs like coralife and venture bulbs. some german and euro bulbs will run fine on these, but without an ignitor, the bulb struggles to light and bulb life may be decreased. also reliabilty goes down.

pulse start will run the german/euro bulbs (ushio, AB, radium, etc.) these bulbs don't have built in ignitors, so the ballast has the ignitor wired into the circuit. the ignitor provides the high voltages needed to fire the bulb. you can run probe start bulbs on these ballasts, but the two ignitors may try to fight each other and possibly cause a fire.

HQI ballasts are similar to pulse starts in their wiring and ability to run bulbs. the output is a little higher which is meant to run the double-ended bulbs (commonly called HQI bulbs). people run mogul bulbs on these and they run a little hotter and brighter because they are being overdriven. this in turn shortens the life of the bulbs.

EYE ballasts are mercury vapor ballasts. they are similar to a probe start ballast, but the only bulb you can run on these are Iwasaki 6500K bulbs (because these are actually MV bulbs, not MH bulbs like most think). the ballast will damage MH bulbs if you try to run one on it.

Electronic. ahhh, the great electronics. these will run any bulb at the rated wattage: probe start, pulse start, iwasakis, DE (double ended-HQI). if you think you might change your mind in the future, get an electronic. you can change bulbs to whatever you want and not have to worry about the ballast being the wrong type. electronics run cooler (a magnetic MH ballast will burn your hand if you touch the coil after it's been running for awhile). they also use less energy.

 

[nunofs]

For a listing of bulbs and matching ballasts, see also: http://www.aquarium-lighting-guide.com/metal-halide-ansi

Nuno

 

[nunofs]

Ah, finally found the link I was looking for... this is a site that takes Joe Burger's data and images, and presents it side by side for a really cool direct comparison:

http://metricksystem.com/chris/250wcolour/

Nuno

 

[nunofs]

Moe, if we can grab some of these images and othing info off other boards and post them hear

Personally, I don't think it's a good idea to duplicate/copy those images here... mainly because of copyright issues, and also because posting links is easier and eats up less disk space and bandwidth on our server.

Nuno

 

[NateHanson]

Here are some images. Feel free to spread them around the internet like a Paris Hilton home video.

one 20K 175w MH

 

[NateHanson]

2 10K 175w MH only

 

[Moe_K]

I'm glad you bumped this, Nate.

 

[NateHanson]

2 10K bulbs and 1 20K bulb

 

[nunofs]

Nate, just a word of caution regarding comparing color temperature across multiple images: for this to work, you need to "lock" the white balance when you take the various pictures, otherwise the camera will compensate for more/less blue in the tank... that is to say, you can set the white balance for the first picture, and then you need to keep that same setting for the rest of the pictures... if the camera doesn't allow setting the white balance manually, then the comparison won't work.

Nuno