Who is running Ushios with "probe starts"?

[John M.]

Just curious who out there is running german lamps with probe start ballasts. I'm currenly running two Hamilton (Ushio) 175's on M57 ballasts and haven't had any problems. I started to run two Blueline Super Whites 10K's, but I just didn't like the color, seemed a bit yellow, I switched over to the Hamiltons which I had bought sometime earlier, before I was aware of the "pulse start"/ "probe start" issue. They fired up just as quickly if not quicker than the Bluelines with self-starters. I know this has been a topic in the past of some debate, but just wanted to know who else is being wreckless with their bulbs? Also, who is keeping SPS corals with 175's? I'm new to MH. Thanks, John.

[StirCrazy]

I ran a Ushio 175 for SPS for about 6 months worked great for the corals.. after about 1 month it started developing starting problems on the M57 ballast.. some days it would start fine others it would take a hour to two hours of restarts befor it fired.

I have sence switched to 250 watt 10K AB's on M80 ballasts and my growth has almost doubbled.

Steve

[John M.]

yeah, no sooner did I install the system, (it's a semi-diy project), than I thought I should have gone with 250 electronic ballasts. It was just he cost over run and the like, mainly my wife was reaching the end of her rope. I was also concerned with the heat from the 250 lamps. I've heard different things. Some people say they continously had a problem with the m57 and the german bulbs and some people say they worked fine.