Can I replace MH magnetic ballast that came with my pendant kit with electronic?

[qfrisco]

Hi all - I've been a big proponent of T5HOs but don't like not getting that shimmer, so I've been planning a move to MHs later this year. Well, that plan got moved up quite a bit when a fellow reef club member put his Aqua Medic pendant kit up for sale. I just couldn't pass up the deal.

So, whenever I did move to MHs, I was planning to go with electronic ballasts for efficiency. Since the pendants I got came with magnetics, I was going to try them out for a couple months, and if my power bill is outrageously high, I was going to switch them out with electronic ballasts.

My question - would it be ok to switch-out the magnetic ballasts that came with the pendants with electronic ones? What considerations do I need to think of, other than making sure the bulbs I pick are compatible with electronic ballasts? My thinking is, the pendants just have DE sockets, and they should work just as well with magnetic and electronic ballasts, right?

[Reefer Brian]

For the most part a electronis ballast will run just about any bulb. What bulb are you running?

[d4a2n0k]

It will work but DE bulbs are designed to run on a magentic ballasts. Its not that electronics are more efficient, they just run at their rated watts. A 250w electronic ballast uses 250w but a 250w magnetic ballast uses ~300w but that 300w also means more light than an electronic. So its not like they are wasting energy, they just use more but you also get more out of them.

[qfrisco]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12703765#post12703765 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Reefer Brian
For the most part a electronis ballast will run just about any bulb. What bulb are you running?

The pendants currently have Aqualine AB in them, but they're about 9 months old. I was looking at the Reeflux 12000k bulbs to replace them with once I install the pendants. From what I've read the Reeflux 12000k bulb can be used with both magnetic and electronic.

[qfrisco]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12703776#post12703776 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by d4a2n0k
It will work but DE bulbs are designed to run on a magentic ballasts. Its not that electronics are more efficient, they just run at their rated watts. A 250w electronic ballast uses 250w but a 250w magnetic ballast uses ~300w but that 300w also means more light than an electronic. So its not like they are wasting energy, they just use more but you also get more out of them.

Thanks, D4. I didn't know that. I thought the additional power the magnetics used were just wasted somewhere else. I didn't realize they were essentially overdriving the bulbs.

[d4a2n0k]

When using DE bulbs, its not overdriving them. They are designed to run at the higher watts. You can run SE bulbs on a magnetic ballast, then it will be overdriving them. I think the Radiums are the only SE bulbs designed to run on magnetics but the rest of the SE's will work but their life span will be shortened.

Some say that running DE bulbs on electronic ballasts shortens their life as they are under-driven but they will work. I still havent seen any backup to this.