Electronic for MH Pendants?

[MikeD]

I'm going to be running two reef optix 3 fixtures in our upgraded tank. Would you recommend going with the sunlight ballast 7 (Dual) or two electronic style ballasts? It seems that the electronic ballasts (icecap) may be more expensive though. Are electronic really that much better?

Mike

[Jeremy B.]

Electronic ballasts are smaller, pull less power, and put off less heat. They will also typically run just about any bulb in their respective wattages, wether it be DE or SE. In every DE setup the electronic ballast will put out less light vs the magnetic hqi ballast though. Depending on which bulb it could be anywhere from 10% to almost 30% difference. If you let me know which bulbs you intend on running I can let you know the output differences between each ballast.

Thanks,
Jeremy

[MikeD]

I wanted to do 2 hqi 250 phoenix in reef optix. But the tank is 24" deep so I think I should stick with the Bluewaves to have more light output perhaps?

Mike

[Jeremy B.]

Hi Mike,

The light output difference between running an Icecap and the magnetic HQI ballast on that particular lamp is right at about 20% (greater with the magnetic hqi).

Thanks,
Jeremy

[MikeD]

Thanks Jeremy. Can you tell me the best bulb or the best options for me if I want to run 250 watt DE with no actinic supplements? I don't have T5 or VHO and on my last setup, I used a Phoenix lamp which was very nice in color - I didn't feel the need to add any blue! However, I also want what's best for the corals.

Thanks again and I got my 2 ROIII's from you guys today!

[Jeremy B.]

Hi Mike,

Of all the DE 250w lamps that are more "blue" the Phoenix will perform the best as far as light output goes. The only lamps that will give you more par than the Phoenix lamps would be the 10k Ushio, 10k Aqualine, 10k XM, etc, all lamps that will need to be supplemented.

I run the Phoenix by themselves and am really happy with them.

Thanks,
Jeremy