Crazy lighting!

[Cody Ray]

Well for Christmas I recieved a 250watt 20K XM SE retrofit kit with electronic ballast. Although this was nice I decided that I wanted more so I installed a 150watt 14K ushio DE HQIballast halide into the reflector. With both bulbs running I get a nice white look and TONS of shimmer lines. Something that I have noticed in the past 10 minutes is that 1 of the bulbs changes spectrum slightly. This creates an awesome cloud affect as the tank darkens for a few seconds then brightens. I will have to do a video for everyone :D

[jacmyoung]

If this is the special effect you seek, there are capacitor dealers that can retrofit your ballast so the MH light output can be reduced to less than half that also saves power when in low light, it can be set on a timer or motion sensor.

But if the light output is shifting on its own I would think something is wrong with the setup.

[gcarroll]

Cody, do you have a pic of the mod that you made? I'm just curious if you are using a UV filter with that 150 watt DE bulb.