Lighting Part 4 Reflectors and Ballasts - Podcast Episode 80

[Rob]

Part 4 in the lighting series.
In this part we are going to talk about reflectors and ballasts, not extremely technical, but some important topics to cover, here is a highlight of what we discus in this show

Topics:
Reflectors
- Types
- - Parallel
- - Vertical
- Designs
- - Hemispherical
- - Squared
- - Spider

Ballasts
- Magnetic
- - Probe start
- - Pulse start
- Electronic




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[Rob]

reserved for more info

[Pinecone_Jeff]

Wow, that's great to hear that your other mandarin survived!!! I love those little guys.

Support. That's what it's all about. Rob, in these 80 podcasts, I've learned more than I have in the past 4 or 5 years. Not so much learned new stuff but more like you've made things so much clearer for me. I think everyone is pulling for your tank to regain it's former beauty and more!

Well, about the lighting series, lights have always been such a mystery to me. Now that I'm starting to design my new tank, I know I want to do stoney corals like Montipora and the like. So this episode really came in handy. I've always wondered about all those reflectors out there and why there're so many strange looking ones and whether or not they actually worked. Well, now I do.

Did you do a lot of your research from Sanjay Joshi's (sp?) work? I've always felt his papers were so over my head. But I think I might go back and take another look at them to better understand how these lights work and why you use certain ones in certain situations.

Anyway, it's good to hear your voice so chipper even in the wake of your disaster.

Cheers!

Jeff

[Rob]

yes, i have researched some of Sanjay's papers in the past, but for this show they are a bit much so i didn't really get into them.

im still looking for some of the good diagrams i have found so i can get them posted.

[Astrivian]

Okay now i have a ballast question too

Do you need a ballast (magnetic or electronic) for each of your MH bulbs? If you have four bulbs, you need four ballasts?

The PC ballasts seem to give wattage, i.e. a 200 watt ballast can take four 50 watt bulbs, two 100 watts, etc. Right?

[Rob]

yes, when dealing with MH you need one for each bulb. now that said there are dual ballasts sold, which is one box that contains two ballasts.. so you can power 2 bulbs with one actual box (containing two ballasts)

for Fluorescents one ballast can power multiple bulbs

[Astrivian]

Oh joy.

There is just no way to make MHs cheap is there