Hamilton 150w 14k bulbs...are they really dim?

[ogredawg19]

Ok so I bought this bulb from a fellow reefer who stated that the bulb was only a week old, so I'm assuming that my bulb hasn't really broke in yet. But I was wondering if I am the only one experiencing this or are all hamilton bulbs are really dim compared to other brands. I had a phoenix, xm 20k, and ebay 20k bulb before and all of them are brighter. I don't really mind the dim look, actually I like it. I don't mind as long as I'm not getting less par.

Does dimmer bulb mean lesser par? I've only been using it for few days and so far my corals/anemones are looking normal.

[ogredawg19]

anyone?

[gabe3d]

I'm not sure if it is the same but with my 250 SE it was brighter than the XM 20k. In my experience as the Hamilton 14k gets older, they start getting whitish/yellow and less blue.

HTH,
Gabe

[dippin61]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9468370#post9468370 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by gabe3d
I'm not sure if it is the same but with my 250 SE it was brighter than the XM 20k. In my experience as the Hamilton 14k gets older, they start getting whitish/yellow and less blue.

HTH,
Gabe

i found the opposite.. my hammy 250w 14k was horribly dim.. my xm 20k is at least twice as bright.

ppfd on the hammy is around 53

ppfd on the xm is around 79

[gabe3d]

I'm looking at spectral plots on Sanjay's website and the following information is as follow.

PFO M80 HQI ballast
hamilton 14k ppfd: 99
xm 20k ppfd: 79
http://www.reeflightinginfo.arvixe.com/spectraldata-line-2.php?Watts=250&Watts2=250&LampManuf=XM&LampManuf2=Hamilton&Lamptype=Single+Ended&Lamptype2=Single+Ended&LampName=19&LampNameText=XM+250W+20000K+SE+1&LampName2=9&LampName2Text=Hamilton+250W+14000K+SE+1&BallastName=8&BallastNameText=PFO+250W+HQI+%28M80%29&BallastName2=8&BallastName2Text=PFO+250W+HQI+%28M80%29&Shielded=N&Shielded2=N&Minwavelength=400&Maxwavelength=700&Submit=Submit

Icecap 250MH ballast
hamilton 14k ppfd: 69
xm 20k ppfd: 53
http://www.reeflightinginfo.arvixe.com/spectraldata-line-2.php?Watts=250&Watts2=250&LampManuf=XM&LampManuf2=Hamilton&Lamptype=Single+Ended&Lamptype2=Single+Ended&LampName=19&LampNameText=XM+250W+20000K+SE+1&LampName2=9&LampName2Text=Hamilton+250W+14000K+SE+1&BallastName=6&BallastNameText=Icecap+250W+Electronic&BallastName2=6&BallastName2Text=Icecap+250W+Electronic&Shielded=N&Shielded2=N&Minwavelength=400&Maxwavelength=700&Submit=Submit

[ogredawg19]

thanks to both of you for the response. I think both of you are right. I talked to my the manager of my LFS and he said that Hamilton bulbs are very inconsistent, and that's why he stopped selling them. He said he's had some bad experiences with the hammy and had switched to Coralvue and XM.

Dippin61: Did you keep the bulbs? and if so, how did your coral responded to the hammy? Did you buy yours new?

I switched back to the cheap EBAY bulbs I just got (20K) which is at least 2x brighter than the hamilton bulb I got.

My anemones weren't as opened today (when the hammy was installed) which worried me so I switched back to the 20k bulb.

[ogredawg19]

Oh BTW, my other question is still unanswered :)

Does a dimmer look means lesser par?

[dippin61]

yes.. mine were bought new.. growth was horrible.. nearly none in a year.

20k xm .. for about a month now.. already have growth..

and my numbers were for a mag ballast, and not a HQI, seeing as how the hammy isnt normally run on a HQI ballast, because they are not made for HQI ballasts.

as far as HQI ballasts and bulb go.. helios 20k hands down.

heres for the mag ballast..

53 ppfd on the hammy

73 ppfd on the xm ....

http://www.reeflightinginfo.arvixe.com/spectraldata-line-2.php?Watts=250&Watts2=250&LampManuf=Hamilton&LampManuf2=XM&Lamptype=Single+Ended&Lamptype2=Single+Ended&LampName=9&LampNameText=Hamilton+250W+14000K+SE+1&LampName2=19&LampName2Text=XM+250W+20000K+SE+1&BallastName=9&BallastNameText=Magnetek+250W+%28M58%29&BallastName2=9&BallastName2Text=Magnetek+250W+%28M58%29&Shielded=N&Shielded2=N&Minwavelength=400&Maxwavelength=700&Submit=Submit

[gabe3d]

I just looked at those charts and it's amazing how much better the 10k and 20k XM bulbs run on the Magnatek ballast. Strange thing is that almost all the 14-15k bulbs run extremely poor on the maganatek even the 15k XM (55 ppfd). I wonder why this is.

True, Hamiltons aren't HQI bulbs and are overdriven when ran on a HQI ballast which will shorten the life of the bulbs, (around 7months and i have to replace).

[dippin61]

yeh.. didnt mean to imply they were never ran on HQI.. just normally not. and was just going off of what i ran.

i agree.. on a hqi ballast, the hammy 14k wins hands down, but on my mag ballast, man was it crappy. i had to have 1 vho 110w 50/50 on with the MH just to have it bright enough. I mean it was really really bad.

And its no joke, almost a full year with nearly zero growth, and brown colors.

put the xm in, and ive had a huge growth explosion, and my colors are returning better and better each day.