Ballast talk

[ZANYMASTER]

I recently bought one of those eBay MH/T5 combos where it had one of cheap ballast and oddysea light.The light was 10k so I'm giving it away so I replaced it with a XM 20k and while waiting for my used Blueline ballast,I used it to light the XM bulb and it super blue but while I made the switch for the blueline,It's more of a crisp white than blue.Even though this Ballast is energy efficient,is it under powering it?Thoughts?

 

[ZANYMASTER]

No one?

 

[lfsmarineguy]

The ballast is a huge part of what color the bulb actually produces. The wrong combo can produce some really weird colors even from quality bulbs. For instance, if you hook an Ushio 14k SE to a Sunlight Supply Galaxy ballast you can get some great crisp blue white color. But the same bulb mated to a coralife ballast for the same wattage creates a sickly greenish yellow spectrum that borders on psychological warfare. If I am getting something I haven't worked with before for a customer I always try to contact the company and see if they have any info on the combo we're trying (the good ones usually do). I personally try to stick with Sunlight Supply since I have never had any issues and they have always gone out of there way to help or correct an error.

I don't know what combo you have setup but you could try looking over Sanjay's lighting guide, there's a ton of info in there.

 

[ZANYMASTER]

Yeah,Thanks.I read that the Icecap ones do tend to over power bulbs a bit to get the desired effect and full potential of the bulb but the down side would be that it would shorten the life of the bulb.I'd rather under power it rather than over power to extend the life of the bulb.