Why upgrade to Icecap 660?

[bison23]

A 2 bulb VHO retrofit I am looking to buy comes standard with an Icecap 430 ballast. Everywhere i read it seems people are saying upgrade to a 660. What benefits does this upgrade have? Bulbs burn brighter, different light spectrum, I don't get it can someone please explain.

-Brian

[bison23]

I should mention that I am going with 6 foot, 160 W bulbs

[Fish-o-holic]

Upgrading to the 660 will enable you to run more lights or bulbs. With the 440 ballast, you can run up to 320w of light. With the 660, you can run 660w of light. HTH

[murfman]

yeah but with the 660, you can only run two 6' bulbs

[kgross]

The 660 does put a little more power to the bulbs than a 430 does, but not enough to make a noticable difference in this situation. My question to you is there any chance you will change to 4 or 5 foot bulbs in the future, if there is a slight change, get the 660, if not stick with the 430.

Kim

[kebo]

you may want to check but i don't think that it is possible to use a dimmer on the 430 if you are going to run two 6' bulbs. i have the 430 and i wish i had upgraded due to this fact alone. i think the upgrade is only $20 at champion lighting.

[North Bay 101]

I had a ballast that ran 2 160 watt VHO bulbs. I switched it out and bought an Icecap 660. I decided to run 3 5' actinics on my 6" tank. I have the same coverage with the 5' bulbs as the 6' bulbs. With the Icecap 660 I can run 3 5' bulbs so I increased the amount of actinic light going into my tank.

[allykahn]

Here is the reply from Icecap

http://archive.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=372284