MH Bulb Question

[ellebelle]

I recently purchased a Blueline electronic dual 175w MH ballast, and I'm trying to decide what bulbs to get. The Blueline product description claims it works with ALL brands of bulbs. It definitely works with Aqualine bulbs, but I brought it to the swap and it did not fire a 175w Ushio 10K. I've been looking through all of Sanjay's specral data after watching his talk, and I'm interested in the Helios 175w 12500K or the Hamilton 175w 10K. I want a bulb that uses more the color spectrum than blue and has a higher PPFD. However, I can't figure out whether either of those will fire on the Blueline ballast.

Any ideas/experiences?

 

[ellebelle]

bump? No one has any experience with this?

 

[meschaefer]

Funny that your ballast didn't fire the Ushio's. I have the same ballast and have been using Ushio's without a probelm for years. I can't remeber what other bulbs I have tried, as it has been so long but I have never had a bulb not fire with that ballast.

 

[regal]

I used to run the 400W blueline ballasts. For some reasons, when I added new bulb, it wouldn't fire the first time. But my experience is only limited to XM and reeflux bulbs.

 

[loismustdie]

They didn't fire an Ushio? That is strange. 1 company I like to deal with tries to sell blueline and ushios together since they feel it is a great bulb/ballast combo. I have used it (175) in the past and felt it was a good combo. A little too yellow for my tastes though. FWIW, the only time a blueline didn't fire an ushio, the blueline was fried. I hope this is not the case, which I doubt it is since you have fired other bulbs.
No experience with the bulbs you mentioned. I'm going to try a blue line with an Iwasaki 15K. I have the bulb and ballast, but haven't set up my frag tank yet to try to fire it up. I'll let you know how it goes.

 

[fritz]

It should fire any bulb, perhaps something is wrong with it? You may want to look into the Iwasaki 15k if you're looking for blue + crazy par.

 

[loismustdie]

Fred, the Iwasaki isn't blue. very white. looks a lot like XM 10K.

 

[ellebelle]

I'm looking for not blue and crazy par. I'm going to use my old PCs for actinic supplementation to cancel out some of the yellow in the light.

I'm wondering now if I'm just having the same problem as regal and I just needed to let the ballast "rest" and try again later.

 

[ellebelle]

Fred, the Iwasaki isn't blue. very white. looks a lot like XM 10K.

If you look at Sanjays color spectrum data, the Iwasaki 15K is very heavy on the blue - almost no peaks towards the middle of the spectrum.

 

[fritz]

For not blue and crazy par on a 175 I think Iwasaki is your best bet.

 

[loismustdie]

I'm looking for not blue and crazy par. I'm going to use my old PCs for actinic supplementation to cancel out some of the yellow in the light.

I'm wondering now if I'm just having the same problem as regal and I just needed to let the ballast "rest" and try again later.

XM 10K on IC ballasts would have been your best bet.
I'd look for some one else's ushios and test them out. May have been a bad bulb.

 

[fritz]

If you look at Sanjays color spectrum data, the Iwasaki 15K is very heavy on the blue - almost no peaks towards the middle of the spectrum.

If you check out the PPFD though you'll find it has MUCH higher par than the Ushio. I know a lot of 175'ers that swear by the Iwasaki and greatly anticipate a 250watt version. The par of their 175 is on "par" (no pun intended) with a 250 watt bulb.

Also go more by the visual look than by the spectrograph. If you read up on lighting design you'll find that the human eye works really weird. For example how do you make a really bright "white" light? Blue. The human eye sees light blue light as BRIGHT white. There is a fine mix that can be done with gels that won't translate well on a spectrograph. These are seen by the eye and interpreted by the brain in a very nonintuitive manner.

What I'm saying is go on a field trip and look at people's tanks. Find what color you like. As Chris mentioned the iwasaki is white, not blue as the spectrograph would have you believe.

La-da-Mercy

 

[loismustdie]

I just fired it up. It's white. Looks very similar to an XM 10K. Maybe not with that touch of yellow though. Nice bulb. Can't wait to get it on the frag tank. Iwasaki's are more expensive than most bulbs. I'm looking forward to the 250's as well... even though I don't hold much value in PAR/PPFD. I like how it looks though.
BTW, the yellow light from MH will actually wash out the little bit of blue you will get with PC's. Not the other way around.

 

[meschaefer]

I am running a very similar set up to what you want to do. I run a blueline e-ballast 2 x 175 Ushio 10k, with 2 x 55 PC actinics. These are over a three foot long tank.

I find that the Ushio's by themselves are a little on the yellow side, but with the actinic supplmentation they look like a crisp white. (kind of confirms Fritz's statment that blue light can be interperted by the mind as white light)

That being said, when I set up my new tank I will be looking for MH bulbs that are a little Bluer withou the need for supplmentation.

 

[fritz]

I find that the Ushio's by themselves are a little on the yellow side, but with the actinic supplmentation they look like a crisp white. (kind of confirms Fritz's statment that blue light can be interperted by the mind as white light)

That's exactly it as a matter of fact:
yellow light + blue light = white?

One would think that the tank would have a green glow but light doesn't work the way paint does.