Digital BW, The Print

Has anyone used the new Eboni ink successfully yet?  I put it into a new
cartridge yesterday, in a new CIS system.  Everything appeared to go
smooth as silk, all ink chambers filled immediately, and there are and
were no air bubbles in the ink lines, none at all.  But I have the worst
case of clogging and banding I've ever seen. First I get nozzle checks
that are nearly perfect, then perform a cleaning cycle, and 3/4ths of
them are clogged.  Next check is almost perfect, but yields horrible
banding.  I've made dozens of head cleanings now, with a confirmation
check between each. I have not got one perfect nozzle check yet.  The
printer is a replacement for another epson 1280 that had banding.  This
banding is the worst I've ever seen, about half the paper is white. An
all black square starts out with black ink for about 1/8th of an inch at
the top, and by the time it gets to the bottom, there is no black ink
laid down at all.

The black test patch itself is the worst. the light grays also have
banding but not as bad as the Eboni.  This banding goes way beyond
ordinary banding. You can see it from 2 feet away.

Since everything is brand new, I hesitate to push ink through the
printheads with a syringe, but I've tried about everything else.  Could
I just have bad cartridges? Would pulling them out and pushing them back help?

A test with epson original inks before installing the CIS system
revealed a perfect print with no banding anywhere, so I seriously doubt
its the printer or printheads that are at fault.  

Any Ideas before I start all over again?  I've about had it with
clogging and banding. I think I really need a new hobby, or a different
brand of printer.

Jerry