Metal halide question....

[Pman]

Does anybody out there remember a post about metal halide bulbs that had pictures of all the different bulbs and the numbers on them? I have a friend who works for a lighting wholesaler and says that if I can come up with some numbers she can get me any metal halide bulbs I need at cost!!! Would sure love to get my hands on that post! Any help would be appreciated!

[organicreefer]

i used to have a similar connection ...the last time i went in,about 8-10 months ago..he went on the computer and tried to order me one,but he said he couldnt any longer-apperrantly they were only selling them to "aquarium/fish" dealers.thats what i was told anyway......

[Ninong]

Pman,

It would be a lot easier if you said which metal halides you are interested in. There are an awful lot of possibilities here when you take into consideration the various Kelvin temperature ratings, various sizes and various manufacturers. All of the information you are seeking is available on the manufacturers' websites.

Ninong

P.S. -- Here is Iwasaki: http://www.eyelighting.com/metalhalide.html
P.P.S. -- Here is Ushio/BLV: http://www.ushio.com/files/gi_catalog.pdf
P.P.P.S. -- Here is AB: http://www.ab-aqualine.de/

[Ninong]

Hi Pman,

OK, I went back to the Iwasaki site for you and pulled up the technical information on their 250w & 400w metal halide lamps that are commonly used in the reefkeeping hobby. It is under Metal Halide Conversion Lamps. Let me see if I can get it to copy in this post. (P.S. -- What I had to do was use slashes between the various numbers because I can't get the columns to line up.)

Metal Halide Lamps

Clean AceTM - Converts Mercury Vapor to Metal Halide on a Mercury Vapor ballast ONLY


Item No./Lamp Designation/Lamp Watts/ANSI Ballast (1) Burn Position (2)/Initial Lumens/Mean Lumens/Rated Life (hrs)/Color Temp (K)/CRI (Ra)/Bulb Type/Bulb Finish/Base Type/Fixture Requirements

57787/MT250DL/250/H37 Universal/18,200/14,000/9,000/6500/90/ T15/Clear/Mogul (E39)/Enclosed

57885/MT400DL/BH/400/H33 BH/29,000/20,000/9,000/6500/90/T17/ Clear/Mogul (E39)/Enclosed

57934/MT400DL/BUD/400/H33 BUD/32,000/24,000/9,000/6500/90/T15/Clear/Mogul (E39)/Enclosed

If you were interested in 400w Iwasaki metal halide lamps you would notice that there are two choices. One with a burn position of BH (base horizontal) and the other with a burn position of BUD (base up or down). If you are using a fixture with the lamp positioned horizontally, you would choose the BH lamp. If you were using one of those bell shaped pendants with the lamp positioned vertically, you would choose the BUD lamp.

The link I gave you for Ushio takes you to a PDF file. The information you are looking for is on page 22. The 400w lamp you would be interested in is their 400w 10,000K mogul base lamp. The Ushio ordering code is 5000760 and the BLV ordering code is 227121, the designation is UHI-S400AQ.

The comparable AB-Aqualine lamp would be their 400w AB-10000 mogul base lamp.

Since I now know that you have a CSL pendant fixture (of some sort) with a 400w metal halide lamp that you think is a 10,000K Radium, I have something to go on. If the brand is Radium and it's a 400w size, it is probably 20,000K. I have not heard of any 400w 10,000K Radium metal halide lamps over here but I am not absolutely certain of that because Siemens, the parent company, markets metal halide lamps under several different brand names around the world: Sylvania, Radium, Osram/Radium and Osram... and they do make 10,000K metal halides but I don't believe I have ever seen one with the Radium brand before.

You did not say whether this CSL pendant fixture contains only a single 400w metal halide lamp or whether it also contains supplemental fluorescent lighting? In any case, the 400w 20,000K Radium is a good lamp but it has certain limitations that you should be aware of. First of all, it will be a very blue looking light, secondly it will need to be replaced about every 9 months or so, thirdly it is a rather expensive lamp, and fourthly it requires an HQI ballast, which I assume you already have if the ballast came with the fixture.

Whatever ballast you have that runs the 400w Radium lamp should also run either the Ushio/BLV 400w lamp or the AB 400w lamp. It is not the recommended ballast for the 400w Iwasaki lamp.

Please fill me in on exactly what your CSL fixture looks like and check the lamp itself again to see if there is any other identifying information.

Regards,

Ninong

[Pman]

Thank you for making things a little clearer Ninong...appreciate the extra effort! As far as my CSL pendant it is a single 400 watt pendant with 2 supplimental 28 watt PC's. The Radium bulb...now I dont know how accurate the person was from which I purchased this used setup..was supposed to be the 10,000k bulb.I didnt think that Radium made the 10K bulb either the numbers on the bulb are as follows.. better yet lets see if I can attach a photo of the bulb.And as far as the ballast goes...its the standard ballast that comes with CSL's metal halides...tag says 1X400Watt Metal Halide Ballast 120V 3.9Amps/Lamp 468 Watts/Lamp

[Ninong]

That is a very nice Radium 400w 20,000K metal halide lamp. It should be operated with an HQI ballast for optimum performance but can be operated with a regular ballast--I think it loses about 20% on a regular ballast. I really have no idea what ballast you have. You would have to ask CSL whether it is a regular ballast or an HQI ballast.

Ninong