metal halide question

[Zeus29]

Hello everyone, I am having a hard time finding any reviews on coralvue metal halide bulbs. I was hoping that someone here may have used them, and would be able to give me some feedback. I don't want to use them if they are going to be a waist of money.

[charlie]

Morning!!!




Have you tried this:
Sanjay Joshi links

I think you may be talking about Reefflux bulbs?? If so I have been using the Reefflux 10K for a few years now and I really liked them, both in the 250w and 400w.

[Ninong]

Hello everyone, I am having a hard time finding any reviews on coralvue metal halide bulbs. I was hoping that someone here may have used them, and would be able to give me some feedback. I don't want to use them if they are going to be a waist of money.

Hi Zeus29,




Yes, Sanjay has tested Coralvue lamps. Click on Lamp & Ballast and then select the correct information.

If you're having trouble, tell us the size of the lamp (wattage), whether it is single end or double end, the model name (Kelvin rating, etc.), and the ballast that you intend running it on and we'll do it for you.

That will tell you the PAR (in PPFD) that Sanjay measured 18" from the center of the lamp using extremely expensive laboratory equipment. It will also give you the color corrected temperature (CCT) and the power (in watts) that it draws on that particular ballast.

You will see that there can be a very large difference in the performance of the same lamp depending on which ballast you choose. I just checked the 250w single end CoralVue ReefLux 10,000K on two different ballasts, one magnetic and one electronic, and came up with radically different numbers. Extremely different numbers.

On the magnetic ballast (PFO M80) its CCT was 10,953K and on the electronic ballast (Blueline) its CCT was 14,953K. On the magnetic ballast it drew 335 watts and on the electronic ballast it drew 252 watts. On the magnetic ballast it produced 113 PPFD and on the electronic ballast it produced only 82 PPFD. Clearly the M80 magnetic ballast is superior to the electronic ballast for this lamp. It's color is much closer to the manufacturer's advertised color and it produces 38% more PAR than the electronic ballast. The only advantage of the electronic ballast is that it draws only 252 watts vs. 335 watts for the M80 ballast.

Anyway, if this is all Greek to you, just tell us exactly what you want to check. First we need to know the wattage of the lamp. Then we need to know if it is a single end (mogul base) lamp or a double end lamp. Then we need to know the model (e.g., ReefLux 10,000K or ReefLux 12,000K or whatever). Then we need to know exactly what ballast you intend using with this lamp.

If you're not familiar with PAR and CCT, etc., we can explain that later.



P.S. -- That search feature will tell you nothing about reliability or what others think about the lamps tested. Often you will find comments in Sanjay's various articles (click Articles) if he has written an article that included data on the particular lamp that you are thinking of purchasing. Even then, his comments usually do not cover things like reliability (how long the lamp lasts and what sort of service you got from the warranty, if any). Sometimes Sanjay comments on the useful life of various lamps -- how often they need to be replaced.

Chances are you won't find what you're looking for in his articles. But that's where we come in. Some of us have read all of Sanjay's articles over the years and remember what he said. Usually we remember.

P.P.S. -- Dr. Sanjay Joshi is an Engineering Professor at Penn State.

Just for the record, here are the PAR and CCT numbers for four other ballasts that Sanjay tested with the 250w 10,000K ReefLux mogul base lamp: M58 - 70 PPFD & 17,060 CCT; Reef Fanatic electronic - 94 PPFD & 12,422 CCT; Ice Cap electronic - 86 PPFD & 15,953 CCT; EVC electronic - 90 PPFD & 10,118 CCT.

[charlie]

Ninong, you may not be able to see real well, but you do have the memory of an elephant!!!!!!!
Thanx for the assist.

[Zeus29]

Thanx for the help! The bulbs I am looking for are coralvue bulbs. They are 175 watt, single ended, 14000K. The Reefflux bulbs are made by coralvue, but they also have their own coralvue bulbs. They might be relatively new on the market, i am not really sure. My LFS only sells coralvue bulbs. My LFS sells them for $85.00, but I can get them for $50.00 online. I just don't know that much about them. I trust my LFS, but I would like to see if anyone else has used them. Oh, by the way the ballast i am using is MagnaTek ballast.

[Ninong]

Sanjay has not tested that lamp. The only CoralVue 175w lamp that Sanjay has tested is the CoralVue ReefLux 175w mogul base 12,000K.

[Ninong]

As a general observation, most 175w 14,000K lamps put out very little PAR compared to the best any of the 175w 10,000K lamps. And some of the 150w HQI DE 10,000K lamps are superior to most any 175w mogul base lamps.

[Ninong]

I trust my LFS...

You can trust your LFS to say something nice about everything they have for sale.

[Ninong]

Sanjay has tested only two 175w mogul base metal halide lamps on the Magnatek (M57) ballast:
AB 10,000K - 64 PPFD & 11,687 CCT
XM 15,000K - 39 PPFD & CCT too high to measure

I am willing to make a prediction right now. The AB 10,000K lamp will produce 40-50% more PAR than the CoralVue 14,000K lamp on the Magnatek (M57) ballast and its CCT of 11,687 will be much more desirable (to most people) than the CCT of the CoralVue 14,000K, which will probably measure much higher than 14,000K on this ballast. That assumption is based on the fact that it runs the AB 10,000K at 11,687K and it runs the XM 15,000K so high that the CCT cannot be measured on the equipment -- in other words, it's too monochromatic to register.

P.S. -- Even though Sanjay did not test it on the Magnatek (M57) ballast, I suspect that the Ushio 175w 10,000K mogul base lamp would have higher PAR than the AB 10,000K on your ballast. It would probably register more than 70 PPFD and its CCT would be closer to 10,000K than the AB lamp's CCT.

It's hard to predict CCT for various lamps on the different ballasts; however, all M57 ballasts should produce similar numbers on the same lamp. I don't think the brand should make any difference. An M57 is an M57.

I ran a fixture with two 250w 10,000K HQI DE lamps on magnetic ballasts (M58) and tried both AB 10,000K and BLV (Ushio) 10,000K. I kinda liked the appearance of the BLV lamps a little better because they were slightly more bluish-white than the AB lamps. That's amazing because AB claims that their AB-10,000 lamps are actually 13,000K. That's what they have been claiming for the past 10 years or so.

The various lamp manufacturers claim a lot of things in their marketing. Sometimes the most hilarious claims relate to Kelvin ratings.

[Zeus29]

Thank you again for all of the help. I appreciate it. i am just going to have to make a decision. I have 10000K bulbs now, but I want something with a little more blue. I am going to have to decide between the Reeflux 12000K and the coralvue 14000K. I know that my LFS would not steer me wrong. The guy who runs the store is very highly regarded in the reef aquarium industry. I just like to do my research and get other peoples opinions before I buy anything for my aquarium.

[Ninong]

Sanjay actually has tested the CoralVue ReefLux 175w 12,000K SE lamp on an M57 ballast and it registered a miserable 25 PPFD. That's incredibly bad.

Sanjay tested the 175w Ushio 10,000K lamp on an M57 ballast and got a reading of 75 PPFD. So it would take three ReefLux 12,000K lamps to equal one Ushio 10,000K Lamps. The AB-10000 measured 64 PPFD because it's bluer than the Ushio 10,000K in the 175w size. It would take 2.6 ReefLux 12,000K lamps to equal one AB-10000.

Even the XM 15,000K, which is very blue, measured 39 PPFD. It would take 1.6 ReefLux 12,000K to equal one XM 15,000K.

When you go to bluer lamps, you typically give up a lot of PAR.