Advanced Aquarist's Online Magazine

FEATURE ARTICLE BY SANJAY JOSHI

Spectral Analysis of 250 Watt Double Ended Metal Halide Lamps and Ballasts - EVC, Happy Reefing, IceCap, AB, and CoralVue

Introduction

Since the previous two articles [1,2] on 250W Double Ended metal halide lamps, I have received several more 250W DE lamps, and some more 250W Electronic ballasts - Blueline, Reef Fanatic, and EVC.

10 more 250W DE metal halide lamps available within the reef hobby were evaluated along with 5 ballasts used to drive these lamps. The lamps and ballasts are listed in Table 1. As usual these lamps were tested using the identical setup to all previous tests, thus allowing for direct comparison between the lamps.

Table 1: List of lamps and ballasts tested

250W DE Lamps

250W Ballasts

EVC 10000K

EVC 14000K

EVC 20000K

AQUALINE BUSHKE 20000K

HAPPY REEFING 10000K

HAPPY REEFING 14000K

HAPPY REEFING 20000K

ICECAP 10000K

ICECAP 20000K

Coralvue 15000K

PFO-HQI (ANSI -M80)

IceCap (Electronic)

Blueline (Electronic)

Reef Fanatic (Electronic)

EVC (Electronic)



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Spectral Output of the Lamps (Single Ballast)

Since the ANSI-M80 is the recommended ballast for 250W double ended lamps, we decided to compare the lamps using this ballast to establish a baseline of performance.

Figure 1 below shows the spectral output of the 10 different lamps when operated by the same ballast - the M-80 ballast. These spectral plots are for the shielded lamps.

Figure 1: Spectral plot showing a comparison of
the spectrum all the 250W DE lamps tested

Table 2: Comparison of PPFD, CCT, and Power use of the
different 250W DE lamps with the M80 ballast - unshielded and shielded

Lamp	Power	Voltage	Current	Unshielded		Shielded
Lamp	Power	Voltage	Current	PPFD	CCT	PPFD	CCT
AB 20000K	308	122.1	2.78	57.7	na	45.7	na
EVC 10000K	365	124.8	3.18	179.9	5988	147.2	5700
EVC 14000K	333	122.5	2.91	82.8	na	66.78	na
EVC 20000K	338	122.8	2.95	81.8	na	64.7	na
HAPPY REEFING 10000K	315	122.3	2.84	124.6	9050	101.2	8170
HAPPY REEFING 14000K	290	122.5	2.75	76.2	6784	59.2	6299
HAPPY REEFING 20000K	325	124.5	2.87	103	na	84.4	na
ICECAP 10000K	305	123	2.74	78.7	na	63.1	na
ICECAP 20000K	296	122.1	2.69	66.2	na	53.7	na
CORALVUE 15000K	285	123.4	2.66	66.6	na	54.1	na

Comparison of Lamp Performance Under Different Ballasts

This section presents the results of testing the different lamps using different ballasts. For each lamp tested different ballasts were used to fire the lamp and data is presented for the unshielded and shielded case. Spectral data is only provided for the shielded case, since we feel that most lamps will be used in this manner.

1) Aqualine Bushke 20000K

Table 3: Aqualine Bushke 20000K

Ballast	Power	Voltage	Current	Unshielded		Shielded
Ballast	Power	Voltage	Current	PPFD	CCT	PPFD	CCT
M80	308	122.1	2.78	57.7	0	45.7	0
IceCap	250	123	2.3	47.3	0	38	0
Blueline	250	122.7	2.15	51	0	40.1	0
Reef Fanatic	256	123.1	2.19	47	0	38.5	0
EVC	272	123	2.31	51.7	0	40.6	0

Figure 2: Spectral Plot of the Shielded Aqualine Bushke
20000K Lamp with the different ballasts

2) EVC 10000K

Table 4: EVC 10000K

Ballast	Power	Voltage	Current	Unshielded		Shielded
Ballast	Power	Voltage	Current	PPFD	CCT	PPFD	CCT
M80	365	124.8	3.18	179.9	5988	147.2	5700
IceCap	254	124.3	2.25	119.6	6844	97.3	6446
Blueline	252	123.9	2.14	117.4	6641	95.4	6240
Reef Fanatic	255	123.5	2.17	113	6308	94.16	6172
EVC	272	122.3	2.32	119.8	5983	97.38	5629

Figure 3: Spectral Plot of the Shielded EVC
10000K Lamp with the different ballasts



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3) EVC 14000K

Table 5: EVC 14000K

Ballast	Power	Voltage	Current	Unshielded		Shielded
Ballast	Power	Voltage	Current	PPFD	CCT	PPFD	CCT
M80	333	122.5	2.91	82.8	na	66.78	na
IceCap	248	122.1	2.26	63.3	na	50.7	na
Blueline	250	122.4	2.14	66.7	na	54.1	na
Reef Fanatic	250	122.4	2.15	67.3	na	53.8	na
EVC	269	122.2	2.31	68.19	na	55.12	na

Figure 4: Spectral Plot of the Shielded EVC
14000K Lamp with the different ballasts

4) EVC 20000K

Table 6: EVC 20000K

Ballast	Power	Voltage	Current	Unshielded		Shielded
Ballast	Power	Voltage	Current	PPFD	CCT	PPFD	CCT
M80	338	122.8	2.95	81.8	0	64.7	0
IceCap	252	121.8	2.31	64.1	0	51.2	0
Blueline	252	122.9	2.16	65.3	0	51.6	0
Reef Fanatic	254	123.1	2.18	65.5	0	53.1	0
EVC	271	120.9	2.34	69.4	0	55.1	0

Figure 5: Spectral Plot of the Shielded EVC
20000K Lamp with the different ballasts

5) HAPPY REEFING 10000K

Table 7: HAPPY REEFING 10000K

Ballast	Power	Voltage	Current	Unshielded		Shielded
Ballast	Power	Voltage	Current	PPFD	CCT	PPFD	CCT
M80	315	122.3	2.84	124.6	9050	101.2	8170
IceCap	208	123.7	1.97	50.5	6346	41.2	5975
Blueline	250	122.6	2.14	83.4	7652	66.4	7044
Reef Fanatic	255	123.3	2.18	85.1	7862	65.2	7076
EVC	272	123.8	2.28	87.8	7867	70.9	7166

Figure 6: Spectral Plot of the Shielded HAPPY REEFING
10000K Lamp with the different ballasts



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6) HAPPY REEFING 14000K

Table 8: HAPPY REEFING 14000K

Ballast	Power	Voltage	Current	Unshielded		Shielded
Ballast	Power	Voltage	Current	PPFD	CCT	PPFD	CCT
M80	290	122.5	2.75	76.2	6784	59.2	6299
IceCap	252	123.8	2.28	96.5	8113	78.5	7508
Blueline	248	121.3	2.15	71.68	7018	57.1	6584
Reef Fanatic	256	122.6	2.19	87.1	8517	70.6	7707
EVC	272	123.1	2.31	118.1	9326	95.2	8484

Figure 7: Spectral Plot of the Shielded HAPPY REEFING
14000K Lamp with the different ballasts

7) HAPPY REEFING 20000K

Table 9: HAPPY REEFING 20000K

Ballast	Power	Voltage	Current	Unshielded		Shielded
Ballast	Power	Voltage	Current	PPFD	CCT	PPFD	CCT
M80	325	124.5	2.87	103	na	84.4	na
IceCap	248	124.6	2.26	81.8	na	65.9	na
Blueline	251	124.3	2.12	83.1	na	67.6	na
Reef Fanatic	256	124.3	2.17	82.9	na	67.1	na
EVC	272	124.6	2.28	92.8	na	75.1	na

Figure 8: Spectral Plot of the Shielded HAPPY REEFING
20000K lamp with the different ballasts

8) ICECAP 10000K

Table 10: ICECAP 10000K

Ballast	Power	Voltage	Current	Unshielded		Shielded
Ballast	Power	Voltage	Current	PPFD	CCT	PPFD	CCT
M80	305	123	2.74	78.7	0	63.1	0
IceCap	245	122.4	2.27	63.3	0	48	0
Blueline	250	122.9	2.13	66.1	0	52.8	0
Reef Fanatic	255	123.8	2.17	62.1	0	49.2	0
EVC	272	124	2.28	68.8	0	56.8	0

Figure 9: Spectral Plot of the Shielded ICECAP
10000K Lamp with the different ballasts



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9) ICECAP 20000K

Table 11: IceCap 20000K

Ballast	Power	Voltage	Current	Unshielded		Shielded
Ballast	Power	Voltage	Current	PPFD	CCT	PPFD	CCT
M80	296	122.1	2.69	66.2	0	53.7	0
IceCap	246	121.7	2.31	56.9	0	45.4	0
Blueline	250	122.7	2.16	55.6	0	44.4	0
Reef Fanatic	255	122.6	2.19	57.9	0	47	0
EVC	272	122.1	2.3	62.8	0	50.3	0

Figure 10: Spectral Plot of the Shielded ICECAP 20000K
Lamp with the different ballasts

10) CORALVUE 15000K

Table 12: CORALVUE 15000K

Ballast	Power	Voltage	Current	Unshielded		Shielded
Ballast	Power	Voltage	Current	PPFD	CCT	PPFD	CCT
M80	285	123.4	2.66	66.6	0	54.1	0
IceCap	DNF
Blueline	248	124.1	2.08	56.3	0	45.5	0
Reef Fanatic	256	123.7	2.17	58.7	0	47.9	0
EVC	271	121.9	2.31	59.8	0	48.0	0

Figure 11: Spectral Plot of the Shielded CORALVUE
15000K Lamp with the different ballasts

Acknowledgements

We 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: Patrick at PFO Lighting, Andy at IceCap Inc, Perry at Sunlight Supply, Vince at Ocean Encounters, Moonpod at RC, and Champion Lighting, Reef Fanatics. Finally, we would like to thank Dr. Paul Walker of Penn State University for the use of the spectroradiometer.

References

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