400 Watt Metal Halide

[pompe60045]

I have a 400 Watt Metal Halide set up that is too bright and too hot for my 55g - is it unsafe to use a 250 Watt bulb on this ballast ?

 

[Anonymous]

Yes it's unsafe.

 

[Anonymous]

What Gman said...bad idea.

 

[blackcloudmedia]

Wow really?
Im gonna go ahead and assume your posting this as a joke? 400 watts would boil an egg in a 55 gal unless you have a thousand gallon sump. Then to ask if a 250 watt bulb will go in a 400 watt ballast?? Is this you Len? :lol: :wink:

 

[Ben1]

Im gonna go ahead and assume your posting this as a joke? 400 watts would boil an egg in a 55 gal unless you have a thousand gallon sump. Then to ask if a 250 watt bulb will go in a 400 watt ballast?? Is this you Len?

The first SPS tank I ran was a standard 55, I used 2 x 400 watt SE Iwasakis, and 4 x 110 watt VHO's and was able to grow SPS like weeds. I attempted to do 2 x 400 watt 20k radium and 2 x 96 watt actinics over my 58 before I went T5's and struggled with keeping the tanks temp correct, the chiller ran non stop. So in some cases it can work, maybe overkill but it works. I think the iwasakis put out mega par too, IIRC they were 6500k and that why I used so much actinic.

But yeah using a 250 in a 400 ballast is a bad idea.

 

[blackcloudmedia]

You grew SPS like weeds? Hmm.....Ive got a golden ticket....

 

[Ben1]

You understand what I mean....I grew them with no issues in that tank :roll: Some SPS do grow like weeds, for instance most validas I've tried, green slimers, montis like digis and caps.......

 

[blackcloudmedia]

I know what you mean lol I was just kiddin. :lol: