Blue wave Ballast.

[fish freak2012]

we are re-vamping our current lighting system, and getting 3 400 watt Radium MH Bulbs. to ignite these bulbs a magnetic ballast is required. (we are also getting new ballasts) a person on a local site gave me a link to the ballasts he got for his radium bulbs, but the site was "on back order" so we will not be ordering from there.are all blue wave ballasts magnetic. because i just found a blue wave ballast that said it was a pulse start ballast. i thought that all blue waves were magnetic. I HOPE ALL OF THIS MAKES SENCE.LOL
our soon to be lighting syslem will be...
~3 400 watt radiums
1 blue wave dual 400 w ballast.
1 blue wave singular 400 w ballast.
-- all will have lumenarcs
--2 6ft vho's

 

[acrylic51]

No not all Blue Wave ballast are magnetic.....Blue Wave 7 are HQI. What size tank are you running 400's over Fish Freak2012?

 

[fish freak2012]

we are going to have these lights on our 265 reef? these bulbs are supposedly designed for tanks over 18 inches deep. our tank is 30 inches deep.

 

[acrylic51]

IMO.....400 waters are overkill......What are you planning on keeping? The heat alone is going to be intense, and the more I read I'm begining to believe we over light are tanks. The purpose of lighting to me is to highlight the inhabitants, not to bake or light the entire tank....JMHO
Plus your using Lumenarc reflectors, which are pretty decent reflectors IMO....you'll get alot more light output from them than what you think....The only thing better as far as reflector might be the LumenBright......

 

[fish freak2012]

we home-made our lumenarcs so they are not as perfect as the ones that cost like $100 a piece.lol the one concern i have is the heat.i have read some horror stories lately about acrylic supports breaking on acrylic tanks due to heat. the entire back to out canopy is open, and our acrylic is about 3/4 inch thick.do you think this can withstand the heat. the lights are a ways above the top of the tank.

 

[acrylic51]

I would in NO WAY mount those lights over my acrylic crossbraces, they will play heck on them.....How far above the tank are you going to mount the lights? Again you could use 250's and be good, just couldn't place SPS on the bottom of the tank. What are you planning on stocking in the tank?

 

[fish freak2012]

the bulbs will be a foot above the acrylic. what if we ditched the luminarcs and got some spider reflectors this will allow more air flow. we already have 2 250 watt bulbs and they are not as bright as we would like. that is why we are upgrading.

 

[acrylic51]

1' isn't alot....I ran the true Lumenarc reflectors and they are intense, so you should be pretty close. What style reflectors are you currently running? You can't truely base brightness on bulb wattage per say. Different bulb/ballast combinations will give you different intensities. Check out Sanjay's lighting study, and there are a few others, that will explain in great detail good bulb/ballast combinations.

 

[scsinet]

Since when do Radiums require magnetic ballasts?
Any 400w halide ballast that is electronic, magnetic pulse-start (M135), or HQI should fire those lamps right up... overkill aside...

 

[acrylic51]

That's what I'm referring to.....the electronic would fire the bulb, and the google search and info out there show several recommended electronic ballasts to run the Radiums on at close to spec.....

 

[bmkj02]

I really want to get these same bulbs but my ballast are M59's Magnetics. Im keeping an eye out for some HQI ballast cheap till then