400W MH advice needed

I am planning 3 400W MH on my 72x36x48deep tank. I know that I want to go with electronic ballasts my not sure which ones. I'm also not sure the best brand of bulbs to go with. I am leaning towards 14K.

Any suggestions greatly appreciated. Also any thoughts on what kind of bulbs I should run in addition to the MH.

Probably should mention that I plan SPS and clams.

 

if it were me I would run a 250 watt hqi ballast with radium 400 watt se bulbs. This is what I would do if I had it to do over

 

can you help me understand why?

 

something about the 250 watt hqi ballast being able to push the 400 watt bulb pretty good. and the color is phenomenal. The science is above me but I've seen it done and it has great color. not too blue but not at all yellow either. The par is also off the wall with this set up. I wish I knew more about the set up but i've seen it and it's very successful. Several of the guys in my local reef club do it like this. I'll see if I can get you more info

 

Bulb wise Radiums are nice hands down,, you just need the correct or best ballast to get the most from them.

250watt Lumatek Ballast running 400watt Radiums will last longer than if using 400watt ballast at least thats what ive read...

Ive seen the ReeFlux 400watt and Hamilton 400watt run on Lumatek 250ballast ,, Looks amazing color wise.

Ive tried non electronic 175watt ballast with 250watt SE Radium as experimental purpose last week





Why because,,
My friend said my ballast would blow his bulb and not run it at all.

So I fired up the last old 250 SE Radium(His back up Bulb) @175watt

My NONelectronic Ballast is pushing to like 200watts for a M137. Its just enuff to fire the OLD 250watt SE Radium bulb. This also means A new Bulb should last longer provided it fires evertime .

In contrast my M137 is running @200watts with a 175watt XM20K . this was More White than Blue and also Explains why my XM only lasted 7months. My good friend calculated the watts or Draw at wall for me @201watts. Im no Electrician, its easy to see how a Higher watt bulb can probally last longer on a lower watt ballast.(less bulb changes)

(250watt SE Radium) signigficantly more Bright and Blue than the 175watt in Par and flouresing color on same ballast. Although it wasnt being used at 250watts it shure made a big differance. Also made ballast hum a little more when warming up.

I wish i had a ARO electronic 175watt to test with or a Lumitek. Im almost thinking electronic ballast below 200watt wont fire a 250watt radium bulb. Ive read where the Radiums needs Pulse start(igniter) if way under the recomended wattage on 250's. How the 400's work is just amazing.

The way i see it ,,
As long as the bulb fires and cycles to full on and No flicker ( the ballast will run it. ) (M137 = 175watt has been able to fire and run the Old 250watt Radium for 8hrs and with no flicker. Just dont drop on hardwood floor when changing


Now that i know it can work,.Im a little skeptical ,this Bulb was Old. A new One May need more juice to fire, I dont Know.


ATM looking for good price Radium.

Hamiltons are Radium arnt they?
May buy a Pheniox/Reefflux/coralview 250SE to try before i spend $100 on Radium for myself. Seeing if it blows it was only half the price.

@worst case ill finally get to buy a nice electronic ballast to run 250watt or 400watt bulbs.

Note:
Which ever 250watt bulb i get next month , Ill post the main outcome on 175watt NON Eballst Pics too.

This is what reefing is about , treading new water and finding better ways.

 

thanks for this explanation. It explains alot

 

Funny how this thread popped up just as i need to do a bulb swap on me 175..

Stilll researching prices..best so far is 89bucks ,,

AFishybusiness
Sold out of Radium 250 @69bucks.
Radium : Fishy Business

they have 400's @69bucks still.

 

I would run at least 14k (not ushio as they are very 10k looking) on 400watt ballasts if not 20k bulbs. See a 400w bulb can overcome the PAR deficiencies when running at 400w , versus the 250w 14-20k bulbs. So you get the best of both worlds PAR and color.

 

I know I just had to put a piece of glass between my 400 watt 14k sps bulbs and my water because my corals are getting fried. I just upgraded my reflectors and this is getting nasty. I even cut my light cycle back to 5 hours with no avail.

 

I think that's a good point for my situation. With a 48" deep tank, I need lots of punch and good reflectors to be able to get enough PAR to penetrate 4' of salt water. The good news is that I will have plenty of spread by the bottom of the tank.