help picking ballest about to place order

[Garth Schafluetzel]

250W Blue Wave 2 Dual Pulse Start Remote Ballast
- Options : 2 15ft lamp cords w/male plug +$28.95 is the ballest im about to order i believe with 2 retro reflectors. i plan on running 250 SE radiums and 1 DE 250wat XM 20k on my 125. i just wanted to know any personal experience with this ballest i dont want to buy junk ya know. i plan on keeping a mixed reef

 

[mpoletti]

This is my favorite ballast to run any true HQi bulbs on, SE or DE. I run 4 radiums off on two of these.

Many people also gun the gallaxy ballasts with good results as well.

 

[Garth Schafluetzel]

ill give the post a little longer and see what people say but untill febuary ill just have cheap large spyder reflectors the retro ones but i plan to upgrade after my birthday but i figure these should do the job untill then

 

[Garth Schafluetzel]

no one else bump

 

[FaviaFreak]

the Blue Wave and Galaxy are some of the best ballast out there for sure, I don't think you can go wrong with either one!

 

[Ian]

Theres also the Lumatek to look into but they're so new, it'll be hard to find a good comparison.

I know Steveohh has a couple @ $75 so maybe that would be the deal breaker for you...

 

[cee]

M80 is the ANSI designation for a true HQI 250W ballast which is where the Radium bulbs work best. A pulse start ballast will work, but will underdrive the bulbs a bit and produce a bluer output. I can't comment on the XM DE bulb as I've never run DE bulbs.