PFO vs. Coralvue

[VGB]

One of my PFO 400 watt HQI ballast quit.

They have gone up in price since I bought them about three years ago. I am not that pleased with the quality because of the three, two of the ballast off/on switches have shorted and I had to bypass the switch to get them to fire. Also the case does not appear to have held up well to salt-water corrosion. I wonder what they look like on the inside.

Faced with shelling out around $150-$180 for a replacement ballast, I have considered getting the Coralvue 400 DE 20K system for abot twice what a PFO ballast cost.
As a dedicated 400 watt Radium user, is the Coralvue ballast electronic and will it fire a Radium if I chose not to use the Coralvue lamp? I will be just stuck with a DE pendant if I don`t like the Coralvue bulb provided it will fire a Radium lamp

I could not find this information nor would anyone answer the phone at Coralvue.
Any experience with Coralvue DE 20K would be appreciated.
Thanks.

[Ram_Puppy]

Check out this page:
http://www.cnidarianreef.com, on the right side, click on the 250 watt lamp test link.


Not all figures are in the tests, but it looks to me like the PFO's are not as good as the coralvues, which are not QUITE as good as the ARO's, which are not QUITE as good as the ICECAPs. (there is speculation ICECAP and ARO use the same ballast, and that may be true to an extent, but it appears ICECAP tunes their ballast differently, if such a thing is possible, if not, Icecap and ARO just look similar but are not the same. The figures in the tables support this.) If it helps, I am going with Icecap ballasts on both my T-5's and Halides in a month or two, For a few dollars difference between them and ARO, I will take the energy cost savings in cooling my house! :)

Hope that helps.

Remember, Greg is a sponsor and a coralvue vendor, he can hook you up. Coralvue carries a 3 year warranty, and greg bends over backwards to make sure your happy.

[VGB]

Thanks for the information and doing my leg work for. 8)
I don`t keep with with things concerning reefin` like I used to.
All things considered, I will probably buy a new PFO ballst. Found then for 139.00.
Again. THANKS!!!
Vic B.

[Tim Marvin]

I was a PFO/HQI guy all the way until I ran the coralvues. The bulbs didn't fire well on the HQI/PFO ballast so I switched to coralvue ballast. I have tried probably every bulb on the market and I am haveing the best growth and color right now with the Coralvues running.

[RobertG]

I am running the coralvue 250DE, they are sweet. I really like the color they produce in my corals. Also the electronic ballast run them very efficiently. Others running the 400's have said good things about them.

Good Luck

[JimD]

Robert, what color temp bulbs are you running? Can you post a pic or two?

[VGB]

Update:
The ballast is working. I decided to open the case and found the wire nut on the neutral wire had corroded.
I have moved the ballast as far away from the tank as possible to avoid possible salt corrosion.
I wonder if I should worry about it.

The ballast case is aluminum and shows signs of corrosion and some of the wiring appears to aluminum.
Salt and aluminum don`t go together well as my CO2 tank will testify.

I would like to try the Coralvue lamps and this is probably my next purchase/experiment.
The replacement DE lamps are more costly than Radiums but do they last longer?
I dediced to take the least costly way out this time as I have just installed a new Radium in the position of the ballast.
Perhaps I will get a Coralvue 400 watt tet-up soon. I have been waiting for 400 watt DE systems. 8)

Thanks for all the replies.

Yes Joshua, it me from Blossom park. My webb wanderings have been limited the last year or so and I don`t keep up as well as I should with the lastest/greatest in reefin`.
I also haven`t been as active at the MAAST site as I should have as my ignorance of this topic shows.
Thanks for the help.
The hydnopora is doing great and still well behaved. Its about the size of a basketball and I recently took the hack-saw to it to save some space.
I didn`t think anyone wanted pieces of it but I have several that need a home. Glad to hear what I gave Troy has now grown and spread.
Feel feel to come by and take any clippings you want and well as anyone else.