Iwasaki's on electronic ballasts

[dakar]

Well the new ballasts are in and purring away... actually not so much as a purr, having the coils encased in that epoxy makes them virtually silent The Advance ballasts seems to bring the bulbs up a bit faster than the Magnatek did, not 100% sure why, but I think the Advance's are a tad more efficient.

In any event she's now up to 1200w of pure saki coral growing power.

And as Dave mentioned, I haven't had a complaint with the Fulham ballasts, I've got a WH5 over our daughter's 10g nano powering a 96w quad power compact and she just cooks right along, instant startups and holds the output very steady.

I have an extra WH5 for backup, since they are rated at 128w max output, might do some playing around to see if I can get it to overdrive some NO T12's and T8's just for fun, and see if it will actually do it or if it will throttle itself back.

[jerryc]

Sounds like a good dial i have a dull Hamilton that is made similar the only part
i don't like is its so big.
I wont to go eventual to a electronic ballast just to get more room under the tank

[davejnz]

The Advance ballasts seems to bring the bulbs up a bit faster than the Magnatek did, not 100% sure why, but I think the Advance's are a tad more efficient.

I thought you used the Advance ballast for your 400w saki.I use the Advance H37 for my 250 and it fires instantly,its not even enclosed in a heatsink,just sits on top of the canopy,i do have a ceiling fan that blows on it so i'm sure that helps out.Been running it that way for a while now.I cant wait to get the new electronic Advance H37,I wonder what the efficiency is like compared to the magnetic H37?

[jerryc]

As for as the Standard ballast for 175 to 400 i can get them for cheap but
the electronic has not made it to standard use yet iv been checking with
my suppliers and haven't fond a good deal on them so far

[dakar]

I thought you used the Advance ballast for your 400w saki.I use the Advance H37 for my 250 and it fires instantly,its not even enclosed in a heatsink,just sits on top of the canopy,i do have a ceiling fan that blows on it so i'm sure that helps out.
Been running it that way for a while now.I cant wait to get the new electronic Advance H37,I wonder what the efficiency is like compared to the magnetic H37?>

Dave, I was using Advance H37's (71A3592) for the 250's, but for the 400 I was using a Magnetek, I couldn't find a cheap H33 Advance at the time. The 250's aways came up to full power faster than the 400 did. Now the 400's come up at the same rate the 250's did, makes me think Advance ballasts are better.

Be interesting to see... Think we've got the ballast conversion slotted for next Friday (Sirpat's ballast box) from the AB pulse starts to the electronic 72C3584's. Just waiting on his 250 saki's now.

Here are some snippets from the specification sheets for comparison. The Magnetic 71A3592 is rated for 285w and the Electronic 72C3584 is rated at for 280w. The electronic is rated at slightly lower operating current (0.05 amps) but this could be the difference between the max outputs. Not sure if it will drive the bulb any differently, the difference seems pretty negligible. Though the output voltage is 5V lower with the electronic.

[dakar]

Welll the verdict is in.... Yet another Iwasaki burner has been created

I converted the box over to the Electronic (72C3584) ballasts yesterday and the saki's jumped to life! Waiting on some pics now According to Sirpat they are ultra quiet, and significatly brighter than the 10K's he was running.

I'd guess there will be a pair of 250w M138/M153 complete ballsts showing up in the for sale section shortly.

[nofrills]

Just a quick question from a beginner on the whole Iwasaki 6500k 250watt w/mercury vapor ballast.Are those the ballasts that you just changed over? Can they be wired at 220v and does that help the power consumption? I just got back into the hobby and bought a 75g complete reef tank w/250+live rock estab. for 16 years for $200.00!! I also have a concern about the frosted glass brace on the oceanic tank,,,will that be a big problem as far as shadows and/or light penetration? Just rollin' it all round before i get the rock that's curing back in it's home.

thanks

[dakar]

The ballast used in this project the Advance 72C3584 are dual voltage 120/277 only. Here is a link to the datasheet
http://advancetransformer.com/eCatal...5306775421.pdf

Generallyy multitap ballasts running either on 110v or 220v doesn't effect the overall power consumption, they'll produce the same lighting output without sacrificing effeciency.

No shadows from bracing running a halide on each side of the brace, the overlapping sorta cancels out and shadows.