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stangchris

don't you love a good curve ball

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by
stangchris
, 07-25-2012 at 02:34 AM (2134 Views)
so my tank has been chuggin along very nice! I got a new fixture a couple months ago, guy had a new in box outer orbit from current USA. came stock with 10k bulbs, first thing I did was swap factory t5 with ATI blu plus coral plus and Fiji purple. hqi bulbs where 10k and I was happy with growth but hated yellow color, so I bought some Phoenix 14k. upon installing the I thought they looked too blue. next day I wake up go to check everything and notice a ballast for
my t5 is out so down to 2 bulbs from 4(no warranty) no biggie 30 bucks and some electrical work which I like. so a buddy comes over to pick up some coral and he notices how dull the metal hilade look. damn it so I do a lil research and find out the magnetic ballast are sin# m138. this is a very old type ballast and It drives the bulb diff which gives that real blue look!!!! so here I go looking for a new ballasts luckily a online vendor had a galaxy dual 250w ballast for a good price(hell yea and no LFS had any in stock) so I ordered one and my problem should be fixed this Thursday! i love this hobby you learn new thing all the time....any one want to buy some magnetic ballast cheap

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Categories
‎ Electrical , ‎ Lighting , ‎ DIY projects , ‎ Equipment

Comments

  1. SoLiD's Avatar
    C'est la vie. It never really ends in this hobby. You should know that by now.
  2. melev's Avatar
    This is why it's tough to make good purchasing decisions in this hobby, because you never know what you might not know about what you needed to know.
  3. Electrobes's Avatar
    Wow that's a lot of work for a light fixture!
  4. stangchris's Avatar
    so wiring was simple for the new mh ballast, just cut and spliced in a standard male and female 3 prong connections. ended up with a nice Galaxy dual 250w ballast and i love it the bulb color is so much better with the phoenix 14k. now im waiting on the new t5 ballast.

    PAR readings where good with new ballast besides how quiet they are. directly under at water surface is at 1100 which is about 8-10 inches. mid tank is 200 on the ends and 350 in center mid level, sand bed is at 150. so im happy with that
  5. melev's Avatar
  6. stangchris's Avatar
    as soon as i get the new t5 ballast and i open the fixture up i will add detailed pics