[Bobby]

ANYONE HAVE THIS LIGHT KIT OR ORDERED ANYTHING FROM THIS PLACE.THIS SOUNDS TO GOOD TO BE TRUE TO ME. WOULD LIKE TO HEAR WHAT YOU ALL THINK ABOUT IT. HER IS THE LINK http://www.aquauniverse.com/componen...hop/Itemid,31/

[Reefland]

A couple of things here...first I have never bought anything from these people. Secondly, the m-58 ballast that it comes with doesn't power bulbs as hard as the m-80's. Lastly, it doesn't say what kind of bulbs you get other than "10k or 20k".

[Ninong]

Originally Posted by Reefland

A couple of things here...first I have never bought anything from these people. Secondly, the m-58 ballast that it comes with doesn't power bulbs as hard as the m-80's. Lastly, it doesn't say what kind of bulbs you get other than "10k or 20k".

Scott,

It says the ballast is an Advance M58 ballast assembled by Catalina Aquarium (never heard of them). You have a choice of either 10,000K or 20,000K 250w Coralife metal halide lamps. They are clearly shown in the photograph.

I have never heard of the people selling this kit.

[Bobby]

Been on the web most of the day looking at pfo m80 ballasts. I came across a post talking about the M80s would shorten the life of the bulb because it runs hotter. is this true? All I'm really looking for is a good setup for clams and not to have to run actinics. Here is what I came up with. M80 with XM10000k SE comes in 9921k. M58 with XM10000k SE comes in at 12083k . The M80 pushes out 182ppfd and the M58 pushes 137ppfd. Is the ppfd reading the same as par? I'm not really into hard corals so what would be a good par for my tank? I'll post were I got this info. in case it helps. Thanks

[Bobby]

here is one of the links www.reeflightinginfo.arvixe.com/index.htm and this is the other www.cnidarianreef.com/lamps.cfm

[Ninong]

Originally Posted by Bobby

Been on the web most of the day looking at pfo m80 ballasts. I came across a post talking about the M80s would shorten the life of the bulb because it runs hotter. is this true? All I'm really looking for is a good setup for clams and not to have to run actinics. Here is what I came up with. M80 with XM10000k SE comes in 9921k. M58 with XM10000k SE comes in at 12083k . The M80 pushes out 182ppfd and the M58 pushes 137ppfd. Is the ppfd reading the same as par? I'm not really into hard corals so what would be a good par for my tank? I'll post were I got this info. in case it helps. Thanks

Yes, PPFD is one of the units of measurement of PAR.

The M80 ballast is better for some lamps (bulbs), especially DE lamps and some German mogul base lamps. Obviously if it's producing more PAR but at a lower actual Kelvin color temperature, then it's overdriving the lamp compared to the M58 ballast. I don't have an opinion on that one way or the other. Personally, I would probably go with the M80 ballast, especially if I planned on running actinic suplementation anyway. If you're going to run just halides, I guess you could consider the M58 ballast, even with the lower PAR numbers, if you think you might like the "look" better.

[Ninong]

I don't have any experience with these new XM lamps but they seem to be pretty good according to all of the test results that I have seen.