Spectral Analysis of Mogul base Coralvue and Coralvue-Reeflux Metal Halide Lamps

by | May 15, 2005 | 0 comments

Since the previous reports on
some Coralvue lamps [1], I have received a new set of Coralvue lamps 400W
10000K, 14000K, and 20000K lamps. 
Additionally Coralvue is introducing a new set of lamps labeled Reeflux
10000K, the 250W and 400W mogul version of this lamp are also included in this article.  The lamps are also tested with a new ballast
– the Coralvue 400W electronic ballast.

These 5 new lamps were evaluated with
differnt ballasts used to drive these lamps. The lamps are listed in Table
1.  As usual these lamps were tested
using the identical setup to all my previous tests, thus allowing for direct
comparison between the lamps. 

Table 1: List of  Single Ended 
Mogul lamps and ballasts tests reported in this article

Lamps

Ballasts

Coralvue 400W 10000K

Coralvue 400W 14000K

Coralvue 400W 20000K

Coralvue Reeflux 400W 10000K

 

PFO-HQI

Taiwan – HQI

Standard Magnetic (M59)

IceCap (Electronic)

Blueline (Electronic)

Reef Fanatic (Electronic)

EVC (Electronic)

Pulse Start

Coralvue (Electronic)

 

Coralvue Reeflux 250W 10000K

 

PFO-HQI
(ANSI -M80)

Standard Magnetic (M58)

IceCap (Electronic)

Blueline (Electronic)

Reef Fanatic (Electronic)

EVC (Electronic)

 

Coralvue 10000K

Table 1: Coralvue 10000K performance on all ballasts

Ballast

Power

Watts

Input Volts

Input Amp

PPFD

CCT

Efficiency

PPFD/Watt

Magnetic

445

121.8

3.96

88

0

0.1978

Pulse

426

123.1

3.93

66.2

0

0.1554

HQI

508

121.7

5.57

102.5

0

0.2018

ReefFan

425

123.4

3.59

78.3

0

0.1842

EVC

419

122.8

3.58

84.9

0

0.2026

Icecap

412

122

3.47

76

0

0.1845

CoralVue

452

122.6

3.81

85.3

0

0.1887

Taiwan-HQI

465

122.9

4.04

93.8

0

0.2017

Blueline

384

123.2

3.23

75.9

0

0.1977

fig1-Coralvue400W-10K.gif

Figure 1: Coralvue 10000K Lamps on all ballasts

Coralvue 14000K

Table 2: Coralvue 14000K performance on all ballasts

Ballast

Power

Watts

Input Volts

Input Amp

PPFD

CCT

Efficiency

PPFD/Watt

Magnetic

444

121.3

3.98

78.2

0

0.1761

Pulse

422

123

3.93

64

0

0.1517

HQI

517

121.1

5.52

96.6

0

0.1868

ReefFan

425

121.3

3.64

76.5

0

0.1800

EVC

418

121.3

3.58

75.4

0

0.1804

Icecap

421

120.5

3.59

79

0

0.1876

CoralVue

452

121.4

3.84

72.7

0

0.1608

Taiwan-HQI

456

121.9

3.97

78.9

0

0.1730

Blueline

383

121.1

3.3

68.3

0

0.1783

fig2-Coralvue400W-14K.gif

Figure 2: Coralvue 14000K Lamps on all ballasts

Coralvue 20000K

Table 3: Coralvue 20000K performance on all ballasts

Ballast

Power

Watts

Input Volts

Input Amp

PPFD

CCT

Efficiency

PPFD/Watt

Magnetic

425

122.5

3.82

110.3

0

0.2595

Pulse

405

123.1

3.89

106.1

0

0.2620

HQI

532

121.6

5.4

146.9

0

0.2761

ReefFan

423

121

3.63

108.7

0

0.2570

EVC

417

120.9

3.57

117.1

0

0.2808

Icecap

418

121.8

3.53

112.7

0

0.2696

CoralVue

447

120.6

3.82

125.2

0

0.2801

Taiwan-HQI

458

120.8

3.98

128.6

0

0.2808

Blueline

383

120.1

3.31

104

0

0.2715

fig3-Coralvue400W-20K.gif

Figure 3: Coralvue 20000K Lamps on all ballasts

Coralvue Reeflux 400W 10000K

Table 4: Coralvue Reeflux 400W 10000K performance on all ballasts

Ballast

Power

Watts

Input Volts

Input Amp

PPFD

CCT

Efficiency

PPFD/Watt

Magnetic

395

122

3.64

101.5

0

0.2570

HQI

535

121.6

5.22

170.9

0

0.3194

ReefFan

425

121.6

3.64

137.2

0

0.3228

EVC

418

121.7

3.57

130.3

0

0.3117

Icecap

417

121.6

3.52

129.2

0

0.3098

CoralVue

437

121.6

374

127.3

0

0.2913

Taiwan-HQI

458

122

4.02

143.8

0

0.3140

Blueline

381

122.6

3.22

115.5

0

0.3031

fig4-reeflux400W-10K.gif

Figure 4: Coralvue Reeflux 400W 10000K Lamps on all ballasts

Coralvue Reeflux 250W  10000K

Table 5: Coralvue Reeflux 250W 
10000K performance on all ballasts

Ballast

Power

Watts

Input Volts

Input Amp

PPFD

CCT

Efficiency

PPFD/Watt

Magnetic

245

121.4

2.63

70.6

17060

0.2882

Icecap

253

122.4

2.31

86.1

15953

0.3403

Blueline

252

122.2

2.15

82.2

14953

0.3262

HQI

335

122

2.95

113.9

10093

0.3400

ReefFan

257

122.2

2.21

94.1

12422

0.3661

EVC

272

122.2

2.32

90.17

10118

0.3315

fig5-reeflux250W-10K.gif

Figure 5: Coralvue Reeflux 250W 
10000K Lamps on all ballasts

Discussion and Summary

The Coralvue 400W mogul 10000K, 14000K and 20000K all have a
very similar spectral plot with the typical large peak at 452 nm. One would
expect them to have different spectral shapes but as seen from the data this is
not so.  In fact, the lamp with the most
PAR in this category of lamps is the 20000K lamp.  Figure 6, shows a comparison of these 3 lamps when running on the
same ballast (the PFO-HQI ballast).

fig6-coralvue-all400W-hqi.gif

Figure 6: Spectral
Plots of the Coralvue 400W mogul 10000K, 14000K, and 20000K on the PFO-HQI ballast.

The Coralvue Reeflux 10000K is a rather interesting lamp,
which should have a more appealing look given that it has the large spike at
452 nm which is typical of the “20000K” lamps but has additional peaks at 534,
588 and 670 nm which should help in “whitening” the appearance of the lamp.  The 250W lamp had a correlated color
temperature ranging from 10093K- 17060K depending on the ballast used.  The 400W lamp has a very similar spectral
profile but with different spectral irradiance the software was unable to
compute the CCT for this lamp.  Figure 7
shows the spectral plots of these 2 lamps on “HQI” ballasts.

fig7-Reeflux-all-hqi.gif

Figure 7: Spectral
Plots of the Reeflux 400W and 250W  mogul 10000K on the corresponding “HQI” ballasts

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank several people whose help
made this study possible. They were kind enough to provide us with lamps and
ballasts for testing: David from Coralvue, Patrick at PFO Lighting, Andy at
IceCap Inc, Perry at Sunlight Supply, Vince at Ocean Encounters, and Champion
Lighting, Reef Fanatics.  Finally, I
would like to thank Dr. Paul Walker of Penn State University for the use of the
spectroradiometer.

References

[1] www.reeflightinginfo.arvixe.com

 

  • Sanjay Joshi

    Sanjay Joshi in real life is a Professor of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering at Penn State University. He has been a reef addict since 1992, and currently keeps several reef aquariums at home including a 500G SPS coral dominated reef. He also co-manages the 500G aquarium at Penn State. He has published several articles in magazines such as Marine Fish and Reef Annual, Aquarium Frontiers, Aquarium Fish, and Advanced Aquarist. In addition, he has been an invited speaker at several marine aquarium society meetings in the US and Europe. He received the MASNA award in 2006, for his contributions to the marine aquarium hobby.

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