Lighting equipment question

gflat65

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I have been playing around with lighting on the new 120 (zoas and softies, primarily). I bought some Iwasaki 15K's (175W) because it said they should fire on M57's. I got them to fire on one ballast, but not on two others (and assumed the fourth ballast would fire them because it is the same and as new as the one that fired the Iwasaki's-Bluewave and ~2yr old). Below is my recent experience. Any ideas?

I had a dual brand X 175W ballast that I was told was 10-15 years old when I bought it. It was running some older 15K XM's in a standard looking reflector set up (base mounts into a piece that mounts to the reflector). I tried running the 15K Iwasaki's on those ballasts in those fixtures and it would not fire them.

In the back, I had a Blue Wave 175W ballast (M57) running 12K Sunburst over the QT. The fixture is largely homemade. I bent some stainless steel plate and bolted a socket to it via an L brace. I tried one of the 15K Iwasakai's in it and they fired up immediately. I have another M57 ballast that i used to run (ballast has less than 2 years use). I figured I could put the Bluewave and ~2yr old M57 to the 120 and run the Iwasaki's. I rewired everything but left the fixture's mounted where they were. With the Bluewave and the ~2yr old M57 hooked into the reflector assemblies over the 120 (where the dual 10-15 year old ballasts were), neither ballast would fire the Iwasaki's and neither fires the XM's as bright as the 10-15 yr old ballasts did. Now, the 10-15 yr old ballasts are firing the 12K and it looks brighter.

My confusion... The Bluewave ran the Iwasaki's on the homemade reflector, but not on the manufactured reflector- the only difference being the socket. The dual ballasts (10-15 yr old) seem to be running the 12K brighter than the bluewave did (whiuch ran the Iwasaki's at one point). What is going on? I would at first think the sockets may not be stout enough of soemthign crazy like that, except the older ballasts are burning brighter than the other ballasts with both lights (even though they couldn't fire the Iwasaki's... Any ideas?
 

da6d2003

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I'm going to watch this with interest because I have had a similar problem myself.
 

surfn

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i have some experience with that iwasaki bulb, as i was one of the first people to use them back in march/april. i used it for about 2 months before ditching it. i also ran it on a magnetic ballast, it ran fine, although not quite as bright as when ran on an icecap ballast.

yes, it is bright, and white. but it gave off no flourescence on any corals. except some pinks on some sps. it dulled any green flourescence on corals i had, bleached a few others, and all my zoas turned to a dull/ugly brown.

i thought even the 10k double ended AB's did a better job at giving off flourescence in corals than the iwasaki 15k.

alot of other local club members in my area also used the iwasaki's for a couple months, they have all since switched to something else as no one seemed to like them.

they look great on paper, and when you first run them, but corals just didnt seem to respond with any color in the long run. and i thought growth was negligable.

but thats what i get for jumping on the bandwagon before they had any proven results. i also have not seen any updates w/ pics of corals from people using this bulb long term, leading me to believe people arent running them anymore.

hope this helps, JMO though. good luck with them!

i think iwasaki definitely has something special if they could get the bulb w/ a little more blue spectrum, or something to get the corals to flouresce more. b/c it is definitely bright!
 

da6d2003

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Last night I switched my tank from a 150w hqi 20k XM bulb to a 250w 20K AB bulb and fixture. It hasn't burned in yet so it's looking a bit strange right now.
 
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gflat65

gflat65

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Thanks for the info, surf. I may have to rethink which bulb I go with. I'm running M57's, but want something slightly blue, but not too blue... I'll likely run VHO's with the MH at the beginning and end of photoperiod.
 

surfn

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gflat65 said:
Thanks for the info, surf. I may have to rethink which bulb I go with. I'm running M57's, but want something slightly blue, but not too blue... I'll likely run VHO's with the MH at the beginning and end of photoperiod.

the iwasaki doesn't have any blue in it. thats for sure. just pure white. other people i know who have run it longer (on icecaps), said it started looking yellow around the 5month mark. so, given the fact a magnetic ballast (such as M57) over drives the bulb, you will ultimately turn it to yellow faster than running on icecaps, and get less life out of the bulb, not to mention those studies that show its actually brighter on an icecap ballast for some odd reason.

i also ran VHO's with the iwasaki, and couldn't stand the combination. but thats just me since i've decided i dont like the purple look from certain actinics in the 450nm range. i like 420nm (a true blue) much better.

i know you are a big sps guy, so i'd recomend the reeflux 12k (very white, with amazing flourescence on blue sps corals).
 

da6d2003

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gflat, I'm sorry to have hijacked or tagged on your thread here.

surfn, which 250w AB bulb would you suggest using for a zoo tank then?
 

surfn

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da6d2003 said:
gflat, I'm sorry to have hijacked or tagged on your thread here.

surfn, which 250w AB bulb would you suggest using for a zoo tank then?

which 250w AB bulb? arent there only 2? i'm only aware of the 10k and 20k AB bulbs for DE. for zoas i'd obviously go with the 20k.

i dont have much experience with DE bulbs. but i've heard the 14k pheonix is pretty good.
 
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gflat65

gflat65

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The 14K Phoenix is really nice. It made my blue tort pulse. It was a little too much for VHO's, too, though. My wife has decided she doesn't like the purple from the VHO's as much, anyway, so I may be going along the 12-15K route... I've heard the Geisemann (sp?) 14.5's are pretty nice. The time has come to buy new bulbs. Amazing what kind of stress that can cause...
 

da6d2003

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I wanted to get away with only 1 hqi on this tank and no actinic supplementation. The problem is that I still want the colors to pop. I don't know if there is such a bulb.
 

surfn

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da6d2003 said:
I wanted to get away with only 1 hqi on this tank and no actinic supplementation. The problem is that I still want the colors to pop. I don't know if there is such a bulb.

i think you have plenty of options.

20k AB
20k XM
14k Pheonix
the Geisman like Gflat mentioned.

many more bulb options than just those.
 

johnanddawn

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hmmmm i find this thread interesting as i also bought the iwasaki right after it came out and love it! i'm running it on an icecap on my SPS nano and have awesome results:
125sep25mo.jpg

figijul16monti.jpg

125sep25top.jpg

125sep25hairy.jpg

i currently have a ushio 10K with my VHO actinics on my 125 but the next bulb in there will be the iwasaki!
 

surfn

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nice pics!

what size tank was your sps nano?

i know the icecap ballast with that bulb makes a BIG difference. and it is the only way i'd run that bulb.

did you notice any difference in your softie corals? mainly zoas?

i did get much better pinks and blues out of my sps from the iwasaki. but i felt like i lost all flourescence from green corals. my green slimer, green cap both turned brown under the iwasaki.
 

da6d2003

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Thanks surfn. I ordered the phoenix today. It's the only one I haven't tried. I needed another bulb for my collection. :wink:
 
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gflat65

gflat65

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Well, after spending all day playing around with every combination possible so I could figure out why the bulbs fired in one place and not another, the only conclusion I can come to is that it is the sockets. I put one of the Iwasaki's in the socket that had fired them before with the Bluewaves, but running one of the old ballasts and it fired. After hours of mind numbing Zen (tried not to get too ticked off...), I ended up with the old dual ballasts running both of the Iwasaki's over the 120, but with new sockets. The sockets I used were much older then the ones in the reflector. The ones from the reflector (wouldn't fire bulbs) connected the supply wires by a fitting that crimps onto the wire and then acts as the nut for the screw that holds it in place (either one end of the metal jacket inside the socket, or to the center spring). The ceramic was rated for higher power, but the metal jacket was a smaller gauge than the older ones that ended up firing the bulbs. The older sockets allowed me to screw the wires directly into the back of the socket, rather than using wire nuts. I'm not sure if it was the metal jacket gauge, the wire connections, or a little of both, but those seemed to be the only differences between sockets.
 
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