Who's using a Galaxy or Lumatek Adjustable Ballast?

[Hefton]

I just ordered 4 - 250w/400w selectable Lumatek's. I will be running two Sfiligoi Exaggerate pendants each with one 250w and a 400w in each fixture. They currently (Lumatek's) are on sale at Marine Depot, and I think the Item Code: LK1235 includes the wiring from the ballast to the fixture.

 

[iReefer]

any update?

 

[chris goetz]

any update?

Time for an update.
Bryan(agent462) stopped over today with his par meter and Bluewave 7 ballast. First we tested my lighting which consists of 2 250w radiums running on Lumatek adjustable ballasts and 2 3' SA VHO running on an icecap 660. The Lumateks are set to the second setting for 275w. This setting draws 290-291w at the wall.
We measured par all over the tank and it was excellent. It ranged from 150 in the bottom corners to 900 directly under the bulb just under water. We took 10 measurements to get an idea of the par at different spots in my tank.

We then turned off the Lumateks and hooked up the Bluewave 7 ballast. Except for the ballast everything stayed exactly the same. After letting the bulbs cool for 10-15 minutes we fired it up. It took a little longer for the bulb to get to it's normal color. I watched the wattmeter while it started up and it started around 250w and climbed over about 30 seconds and ended at 585w.
We then measured par all over tank and it was identical to the previous readings with the Bluewave 7. After checking the 10 spots we had noted earlier and confirmed they were essentially the same(within 10-20 par).
Lastly we compared the color of the tank under the two ballasts by eye and we could not tell any difference.

This was great news for me as it confirmed I'd made the right choice buying the Lumatek adjustables and not the Bluewave 7 ballast. I get all the par and crisp look of the Bluewave 7 ballast with the ability to use the same ballasts with both 250w and 400w bulbs. The only disappointment was there was no electrical savings, but honestly I didn't switch to halides from T5 to save on electricity. :)

 

[tater11]

great info.i'm using the lumatek 250/400 ballast just put 3 new 250watt radiums in tonight.using the 250watt mode never used radiums before i was surprised they are alot brighter than i thought they would be.will see if they change any once they burn in.