Coralife Aqualight Pro

[Tom Barr]

I recently purchased these lights and was happy enough to get a few for a client recently.

The low profile and wide split between the PC bulbs(15") allows for a large difference in light strike angles. The nice switches, external ballast, reasonable cost, moon lights, nice easy to use hanging kit make it a well rounded fixture.

I do not like the 96W 35" long bulbs, I think they should use only 24" bulbs in all their fixtures. They use the 22" bulbs in the 24" fixture.

I suppose I could take the sucker apart and add a 2x 55-65w ballast in place of the 96W ballast and then rewire it.

But that's a PITA.

There is room though.

The other thing is I like to use the straight pin 9325K, changing the end caps is relatively easy though. The GE bulbs only come in the 22" length and 55 w though, no 96 W lengths.

Regards,
Tom Barr

 

[plantgut]

The problem I have with Coralife Aqualight Pro and most other HQI fixtures is that they all include magnetic ballasts. Magnetic ballasts make the bulb flicker 60x a second, are inefficient, expel a lot of heat, make nosie, and shorten life. When I pay top dollar for a fixture I expect a electronic ballast. In fact, the only fixture so far to include them is the Odyssea. Check out the reviews on Reef Central: Reef Central Online Community - odyssea MH fixture review... new electronic version

 

[Tom Barr]

Aren't those the cheapy China fixtures?

I have high EMF inside due to pumps etc in my stand.
I do not want to put an electronic ballast near all that EMF, messes with them.

I've fried several e ballast for this very reason, even if I place them far away, we still had EMF related issues. I thought it was just junky ballast. Then the e ballast got roasted inside a few days.

The Mag ballast are less inclined to issues and burn out for that reason.

If there's low EMF, or if you can place them away from the stand etc, then an e ballast is key.

Still, upgrading a ballast is something that can be done. Yes, I'd prefer E ballast whenever possible, but they will fry out and the folks that sell you these don't ever tell you the EMF issues.

I know because I have a very good friend who is the best electrical person in this area.

Otherwise I'd suspect bad luck, but I've had a lot of that with ballast over the years. Once I figured out the EMF issue, I've had few issues since.
An option is to use shielding for EMF, which is what I do these days.

Noise is the real issue with mag ballast for myself and start up times.
They will shielded as well.

Regards,
Tom Barr

 

[plantgut]

Those were the cheapy China fixtures. They've now cleaned up their act and are producing decent MH fixtures. Everyone on Reef Central is buying those fixtures. The problem is the ballasts. They're electronic but they only deliver 160 watts of the claimed 250. So people replace the ballasts. The 48" fixture sells for $359 so it still ends up being cheaper with the replacements.

 

[plantgut]

Then there are the Catalina Aquarium fixtures that include electronic ballasts and okay bulbs. I'd just go with retrofits.