Ballast for reef brute twin arc bulbs

[abhishek@1985]

Hi ,

As my radium 250s are coming near to the end of the lives , thought above trying Reefbrite Twin Arc bulbs due to the unique 10K/20K that you get .
However, I have only sunlight supply dual HQI ballast (bluewave) that I use to fire my radums.
Will these bulbs work fine with the same ballast ?

Regards,
Abhishek

[Duality]

Yes. I ran the twin arc bulbs when they first cam out. I used them for a few months then ended up going with radians. The twin arcs I ran were 14k/20k if I remember correctly. This is how they worked. Then then bulb was cold the 14k would always fire first. Then after the bulb was hot I would cut the power off for a few minutes then refire the bulb and the 20k would fire up. But if u waited to long and let the bulb cool to much the 14k would refire instead of the 20k.
When I ran them I would run 10 hour photo periods. I'd run the 14k for 4 hours before I would come home from work. Then about the same time I would get off I'd have the ballasts turn off for 2 minutes then refire the 20k side of the bulb. You can't give the bulb to much time to cool tho. I found that if the bulb cooled for 10 minutes or so the bulb would always fire the 14k side again.


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[abhishek@1985]

Awesome !!! Thanks for the reply . What ballast did you use to fire them ?
Also, by any chance did you note the PAR ? How good are they compared to radiums?

Regards,
Abhishek

[Duality]

Originally Posted by abhishek@1985

Awesome !!! Thanks for the reply . What ballast did you use to fire them ?
Also, by any chance did you note the PAR ? How good are they compared to radiums?

Regards,
Abhishek

I was running them on icecap electronic hqi ballasts. I never par-ed the twin arcs. Also I never used radium bulbs. I personally liked 20k XM bulbs. I'm sure radium were pretty nice but I loved the look of MXs so I kept buying them.
To be honest it's been so long sense I've used MH I forget about them. Every now and then it crosses my mind to go back to MHs. But I really don't miss running a chiller and dealing with the heat. I've been running LEDs so long now. I bought radions when they first came out and ran those for 6 years or so. Then last summer I was given 4 ethereals by Maxspect. So I'm testing them out for maxspect.
I really didn't see much of a difference in running the twin arcs from what I can remember witch lead me to switch to LEDs.