Blennymower

Nice start to your reef. Nice aquascape. IMO 400 watt MH over your tank is way over kill and will cause you grief with keeping your tank cool.
I sometimes wish I didnt have 400s over my 30" deep 210 gallon tank. A pair of 250s will be all you need to grow SPS and any other coral you can think of.

Yes, I agree. I wasn't planning on going with 400w. I've had 2 250w over the 75 before and that alone gave me heat issues. The Lumatek dimmable 400 watt ballast comes with various options; 250w, 275w, 400w, and 10% overdrive of 400w. I'm planning on using the 275w on a 250w HQI, unless someone suggests I shouldn't.

I like it, looks good.

You can select various bulbs wattages with that one ballast? I've not heard about that. Got a link to read that fact by any chance?

Who makes a 275w bulb?

http://www.marinedepot.com/Lumatek_4...MHFHEB-vi.html

This is the ballast. I don't think there are 275w bulbs. I'm told most electronic ballasts underdrive HQI bulbs, so the 275w option on the ballast can be used to run the HQI up to specs.

I called up Marine Depot to better understand this brand new ballast. It turns out you are completely right. With the dimming knob, you can set it to accept different bulbs. That being said, if you had it set to 400w, I wouldn't screw in a 250w bulb - the ballast would have to be dimmed down to the correct setting before it was powered up. The 120v/240v power supply isn't even a switch. The ballast determines for itself what power is coming in. Very interesting. I asked about heat and any humming noise, but the person I spoke with hasn't had any issues himself. He's running it with a 20,000K 400w bulb nine hours a day, and has been dialing it down to 250w without seeing a visible color shift.

The next thing we hobbyists will want to know is how much power it uses at those different settings, and that would require someone that owns a Kill-o-watt and this ballast.

Sounds like a very interesting ballast.

I've been reading around thread on RC and this ballast seems to run quite and cool. The product summary in Marine Depot gives some good info. The ballast has a processor similar to that of a computer that finds out what type of bulb is connected and adjusts accordingly.

I'm looking to upgrade my lighting, I'm going to check out that ballast.

Originally Posted by Blennymower

The ballast has a processor similar to that of a computer that finds out what type of bulb is connected and adjusts accordingly.

AFAIK, alot of the new electronic ballasts do something similar. The difference is they dont have the ability to change from 250 to 400 watts. A very very nice option if you ask me. If I remember correctly, during a conversation I had with the West Coast Icecap rep. last November, microprocessor was used in reference to the icecaps ballasts as well. Im sure the Galaxy ballast are much the same since they also claim to run both Sodium Halide and MH along with bulb lifespan claims, just like the lumantek.


Like I said, the lumantek 250/400W and 120/240V option is very nice. IM sure you will not be dissapointed in your desicion to buy them.