New ballast

bountyhunter23

bountyhunter23

Member
Ok guys have not posted anything in a long time. Everything has been going great. BUT my magnetic ballast is going out and i need a new ballast for my MH. I have NO clue what to get. I have been researching, and researching. I have a 150w over my 20L and there is not much to choose from for that wattage. SOMEONE please help. I am also indecisive about going up to 250 with such a nano. I have a PFO ballast on my 30 but its alright. I have looked at everything from coralvue to lumatek. I was really looking at the dimmable ballast but most say that you cant start up a 150 only 250 and dim it down to a 150.... I have such a head ache. lol
 
acrylic51

acrylic51

Active Member
Hmmmm, a relative decent cheap alternative ballast would be ARO.....my other option would be IceCap for a replacement.
 
bountyhunter23

bountyhunter23

Member
I have also looked at those as well. The IceCap is hit or miss with some ppl. The 150 apparently isnt the best? ARO i read about those but didnt really look at them. Ill have to check them out
 
bountyhunter23

bountyhunter23

Member
Here are the ones i was looking at:
Lumatek
Coralvue
IceCap
Galaxy
AquaMedic Reeflex
AquaMedic Electronic Ballast
BlueWave
Hamilton Technology Electronic
Hamilton Technology HQI
Most of those id have to go up to a 250w, and idk how well that would work on my 20L?
 
geoj

geoj

Active Member
I have a Ice-Cap and I like the energy savings and the fact that it runs cooler than most. The down side is it does not push bulbs to generate PAR as well as others. If you have not yet do a search on "Spectral Analysis of MH Lamps Sanjay Joshi & Dave Morgan" there are some charts that cross references some common bulbs and ballasts.
 
bountyhunter23

bountyhunter23

Member
Yeah i came across that earlier. I was really hoping to find a electronic ballast. The 20L was my first tank and back in the day i put a pendent that i got of ebay. Ive always needed to upgrade the ballast but got distracted with my other tank. What do you guys think of going up to 250w? The ballast selection is a lot more vast than with 150. I really wanted the lumatek or galaxy but like i read some people said they wont fire 150. Its about time for a new bulb anyways so if a 250 will work then i might just do that. Also was really thinking about a hamilton technology HQI or electronic.
 
geoj

geoj

Active Member
I ran my 250w XM 15k on Ice-Cap over my 25gal tall worked well but some of the lower light corals like frogspawn and Recordea lighten in color.There will be no shady spots, so if you are going sps you will be ok, just keeping the heat down will be more of a chore. If its a mixed reef I would stay with the 150w but find a ballast and bulb match that puts out good PAR at 14-15k.
 
acrylic51

acrylic51

Active Member
Why not just bump up to a 175w ballast? Bulb selection is also a little better than what you might find in the 150w range......
 
ibew41

ibew41

Active Member
how about a Galaxy ballast some are selectable on the output ie 150,175,250 and the also will work at 120v or 220v
 
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