250 watt SE MH lamps compared

JB NY · #1 10/13/2003, 10:23 AM

For those of you who have not seen the huge lighting thread in the SPS forum. I am now posting here.

Over the last few months I have been testing various 250 watt Single Ended MH lamps. Lately I acquired some extra ballasts that I am testing as well.

The first rounds of tests, posted in the SPS forum, were done over my tank, using a PAR meter to check the readings from various lamps. This time for all measurements, I built a 2'x2' box, sealed the corners, painted it flat black and mounted the lamp 5" from the top of the box. No reflector was used just the bare bulb. The quantum sensor was attached to a leveling plate, leveled and mounted in a fixed position. The sensor was placed aprox. (I forget the extract measurement, I'll check tonight) 7" from the bottom of the bulb. Line voltage was regulated from the house.

Equipment used for the tests were:
Apogee Instruments QMSS-ELEC Quantum meter with senor. Calibrated for electric lamps.
Apogee Instruments leveling plate for the senor
APC LINE-R 600, Voltage regulator/Power Conditioner.
Electronic Educational Devices Watts Up?, Power Analyzer/Watt Meter.
Nikon 995 digital camera used with tripod for pictures.

All images were taken after the lamp had been on for at least 25 minutes. The camera's white balance was calibrating to the lamp, then colors were balanced to give, as close as I could get, the look of the lamp on the tank.

All lamps were burned in for at least 120 hours before any pictures or PAR measurements were taken.

Due to the amount of updates. The most current list and numbers on lamps, ballasts and pictures is on my web site.

http://www.cnidarianreef.com/lamps.cfm

Left is the bulb only. Right is the bulb with actinic supplementation.

click on images for larger size.

Iwasaki 250 watt 6500K MH.

CoralVue 250 watt 10000K MH.

Ushio 250 watt 10000K MH.

PFO 250 watt 13000k MH.

JB NY · #2 10/13/2003, 10:24 AM

CoralVue 250 watt 15000K MH.

CoralVue 250 watt 20000K MH.

Radium 250 watt MH.

XM 250 watt 20000K MH.

JB NY · #3 10/13/2003, 10:25 AM

AB 250 watt 13000K MH.

XM 250 watt 10000K MH.

Blueline Super White

Blueline 10K

Sun 10K

I only have these two ballasts done right now. Over the next few days/weeks I will have data for PFO HQI, Icecap and Hellolights ARO ballasts.

PAR measurements for Ballasts.
WATT Shown are the watts ballast used when driving the lamp.
MAXWATT The peak draw in watts used at one point.
AMP The amp draw of the ballast when driving the lamp.
MAXAMP The peak draw in AMP. (Normally during start up)

ARO Electronic Ballast

Code:

LAMP	PAR	WATT	MaxWATT	AMP	MaxAMP
XM10K	626	249	254	2.15	2.25
IWASAKI 605	250	253	2.11	2.19
AB10K	434	252	254	2.15	2.51
USHIO	408	251	269	2.14	2.61
CV10K	360	249	251	2.11	2.15
RADIUM	327	249	252	2.18	2.23
CV20K	286	249	265	2.16	2.55
XM20K	270	250	253	2.16	2.41
CV15K	243	250	252	2.16	2.22
PFO13K	206	251	252	2.16	2.19

CoralVue Electronic Ballast

Code:

LAMP	PAR	WATT	MaxWATT	AMP	MaxAMP
XM10K	620	252	270	2.05	2.33
IWASAKI	569	247	266	2.00	2.36
CV10K	430	262	265	2.10	2.13
AB10K	368	224	268	1.80	2.39
USHIO	363	255	265	2.08	2.38
RADIUM	337	260	269	2.13	2.89
CV20K	316	260	265	2.09	2.22
CV15K	311	260	265	2.10	2.16
XM20K	257	248	269	2.01	2.19
PFO13K	203	244	268	1.97	2.17

Icecap Electronic Ballast

Code:

LAMP	PAR	WATT	MaxWATT	AMP	MaxAMP
IWASAKI	651	252	275	2.17	2.45
XM10K	640	252	262	2.18	2.26
AB10K	422	254	257	2.17	2.30
USHIO	414	252	258	2.19	3.41
CV10K	387	250	251	2.17	2.46
RADIUM	330	252	275	2.19	3.56
CV20K	307	251	253	2.20	2.25
XM20K	270	252	301	2.17	2.81
CV15K	242	251	252	2.20	3.85
PFO13K	227	251	268	2.18	2.86

PFO HQI Ballast

Code:

LAMP	PAR	WATT	MaxWATT	AMP	MaxAMP
IWASAKI	950	355	384	3.02	4.79
XM10K	936	340	348	2.94	5.33
AB10K	659	341	349	2.96	4.55
USHIO	617	349	360	3.00	7.42
CV10K	457	333	335	2.87	3.25
RADIUM	395	311	315	2.75	3.28
CV20K	355	321	330	2.79	5.18
CV15K	336	317	322	2.76	4.55
XM20K	314	327	337	2.85	3.94
PFO13K	308	311	418	2.76	8.08

PFO Standard Ballast

Code:

LAMP	PAR	WATT	MaxWATT	AMP	MaxAMP
XM10K	698	277	284	2,53	5.30
IWASAKI	691	286	331	2.53	6.86
AB10K	566	301	303	2.64	3.81
USHIO	485	284	285	2.53	4.57
CV10K	324	231	233	2.32	4.03
RADIUM	283	231	232	2.38	6.81
CV20K	275	226	261	2.30	7.93
PFO13K	248	257	258	2.50	6.80
XM20K	242	285	285	2.57	3.75
CV15K	242	227	239	2.35	4.14

Julio · #4 10/13/2003, 10:37 AM

Great work, intersting to see how the coralvalue 20k looks pretty white in color.

Brookswashere · #5 10/13/2003, 10:45 AM

Looks like the CoralVue's did better on the e-ballast. Most people state that e-ballast produce 20% less PAR than mag. ballast. Interesting.

joefish · #6 10/13/2003, 10:46 AM

Nice , you realy have outdone yourself now !

maxxII · #7 10/13/2003, 11:01 AM

Joe, you are doing some excellent work that I am finding incredibly valuable, Thank you for that. But now I have to be ungrateful...do you think you will be able to test DE bulbs?
Regardless, I have been greatly helped by your hard work and can't wait to see how the rest of the ballast bulb combos play out.
Nick

Syris · #8 10/13/2003, 11:02 AM

Awesome job

I really like the looks of the PFO 13K but the PAR sucks

The CoralVue 10K looks nice too and PAR looks decent on electronic ballast ( I have Icecap electronic ballast w/AB 10k)
Might get the CoralVue 10k on my next bulb change. Wonder how long they last though and who sells them?

JB NY · #9 10/13/2003, 11:17 AM

Thanks guys. This pretty much consumed my whole weekend and most of the week.

I really like the PFO 13K as well. It looks really nice. I was surprised by the reading too. It seems to do better on the Standard ballast than the coralvue ballast. I found the coralvue ballast ran the coralvue bulbs the best, but other bulbs ran better on some of the other electronic ballasts.

I wouldn't run right out and buy anything based on these results yet. the ARO and Icecap seem to run some of the bulbs a little differently than the coralvue. So hang tight.

B.PETERSEN · #10 10/13/2003, 11:28 AM

Thats great work JB NY. Thanks for the time spent on doing
this. It helps out all us other folks that don't have the equipment to do this ourselfs.

moonpod · #11 10/13/2003, 12:18 PM

Interesting. Looks like that coralvue eballast was tailored to run that 10k bulb. Be interesting to do it again w/other companies eballasts--which it sounds like you're gonna do....

JB NY · #12 10/13/2003, 12:28 PM

moonpod, It looks as if that is the case. I found it interesting that the PFO overdrives all the bulbs except the CV and the CV electronic ballast slightly overdrives only the CV and just a little on the Ushio.

JB NY · #13 10/13/2003, 12:33 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by maxxII
Joe, you are doing some excellent work that I am finding incredibly valuable, Thank you for that. But now I have to be ungrateful...do you think you will be able to test DE bulbs?
Regardless, I have been greatly helped by your hard work and can't wait to see how the rest of the ballast bulb combos play out.
Nick

Thanks!! I do not have any DE lamps. But I did purchase a DE HQI Socket and make it so that I would be able to test DE lamps if I had them.

moonpod · #14 10/13/2003, 12:33 PM

Well it makes sense. I mean realistically, while an eballast CAN run all bulbs, there are gonna be ones that run better than others on that specific ballast--the ballast has to be tuned somehow right? The world awaits more of your work...independant testing is what everyone wants.

saltshop · #15 10/13/2003, 02:59 PM

Outstanding work Joe! Now can you run each bulb with the nipple facing in the opposite direction?

J/K When you are done this might be the single most comrehensive look at 250w SE bulbs that is out there (we really need to find you an AB bulb). You had better start saving for that Li-Cor meter!!

Do you still plan on having the spectral analysis done on the bulbs at a later date? Would be nice to see how that varies from ballast to ballast as well. The ballast to bulb match up I am finding almost mesmerizing and can't wait to see the results for the other ballasts you have. At least now people know I was not joking or just using a marketing ploy when I put the part about running the CV bulbs on the electronic ballast in the product descriptions.

Thanks again for all of your hard work!!

JB NY · #16 10/13/2003, 03:40 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by saltshop
Outstanding work Joe! Now can you run each bulb with the nipple facing in the opposite direction? J/K When you are done this might be the single most comrehensive look at 250w SE bulbs that is out there (we really need to find you an AB bulb). You had better start saving for that Li-Cor meter!! Do you still plan on having the spectral analysis done on the bulbs at a later date? Would be nice to see how that varies from ballast to ballast as well. The ballast to bulb match up I am finding almost mesmerizing and can't wait to see the results for the other ballasts you have. At least now people know I was not joking or just using a marketing ploy when I put the part about running the CV bulbs on the electronic ballast in the product descriptions. Thanks again for all of your hard work!!

At this point the all I've been doing is measuring bulbs!.Yeah, I agree the ballast to bulb stuff is really interesting. I didn't expect to find that. It takes about 40 minutes to do each bulb once on each ballast so it's time consuming. I'll live with the 2% difference in PAR the Apogee gives, those Li-Cors are expensive!!

Yeah I really need to get an AB bulb. Preferable one that is burned in. Bulbs I have that still need to be burned in before tested are XM 10K, Icecap 10K and 20K.

Most bulbs already have a spec analysis. Ones that don't I might be able to get done, depends how much time I have and how many people want to see the spec.

TANGBOY5000 · #17 10/13/2003, 03:49 PM

Iwasaki wins again! Thank you for doing this for all of us, I really appreciate independent testing.

Desert Fox · #18 10/13/2003, 04:13 PM

Another post of praise. Thanks so much for all the time, money, and effort you've dedicated to this.

~Fox~

Brookswashere · #19 10/13/2003, 04:19 PM

This thread should be a "sticky". Mods. Thanks

Genetics · #20 10/13/2003, 06:55 PM

I am posting here from the sps page. JB your work has influenced the bulb I am buying for my new tank and probably will influence all MH bulbs and ballasts that I buy hereafter.

Julio · #21 10/13/2003, 09:13 PM

i am sure this has influenced us all in choosing which bulbs are better, thanks for the great info, and we should definitely share this with everyone we can.

in2deep · #22 10/13/2003, 09:30 PM

I know it's severely a judgement call all the way but which bulb do you like the best and which one really "pops" the colors if there is a standout in the group. The photos are great but sometimes you gotta be there. Thanks, Mike. P.S. i got a 10 month old A/B D.E. 10K if you want to borrow it for testing.

Julio · #23 10/13/2003, 09:31 PM

Hey JB,
You should try and have this published on a publication, just a thought.

cbonito · #24 10/14/2003, 12:13 AM

I see that the XM 20k is pretty low on PAR. I had one of these though, and it boosted coloration before I broke it.

I am getting a lot of positive info on the 400 watt version though.
I hear it's whiter?

I'd like to see the 400/250 watt comparisons, as the mogul bulbs are way more common out there. DE info would be cool though.

tor101898 · #25 10/14/2003, 12:18 AM

thanks for giving us an insight into lighting differences.