wanted: MH lighting
 

anyone know of a cheap source for MH lights? or anyone have a setup forsale?

thx

Lights you would find the best prices online, for a ballast i would check out some grow shops like quik grow.

Re: wanted: MH lighting
 

How big a tank is it ?

Do you need a reflector as well ?

Are you using MH in combination with PC or Flourescents ?

The ballasts/mogul base I would get from Britelite ... the wiring from home depot and the reflector custom built from quickgrow hydro shop

I have a 175W setup for sale. See the post in the Buy and sell. :biggrin:

Re: wanted: MH lighting
 

Right now i have a 55g but i'm going to upgrade to a 250g, so how many watts would i need for a 250? and also, do i just need a ballast and bulbs plus wiring?

thx

Try checking some options -
http://www.jlaquatics.com/cgi-bin/sh...Metal%20Halide

There are other online sources for MH lighting as well, but reading about what is available to you will give you a better idea of which way you might want to go. Another good idea is to impose on (and hopefully visit) tank owners to see what they are running and why - more info to help shape your own decisions.

All my tanks with MH have been " in wall " so I just locate the ballast out of the way on X-10 timers and the rig the reflector with 5" L bracket and attach the mogul base to that ... the rule of thumb for MH is each lamp can cover 2 sq ft and anything deeper than 24" should have 400W bulb/ballast

What about these Ballasts? would these work? the price seems low. hmmm.

http://britelite.com/CdnShop/Publish....htm?cat40.htm

I will have a 4' Hamilton Tech canopy for sale at the end of March. It has 2 metal halide sockets plus 2 - 4' 40w flourescents. It also has 2 spider reflectors.

I am running 250w metal halides, but I need to keep the ballasts and mh bulbs.

PM me if you are interested

Jim

Yes they're fine. They're probably probe starts though. It's too bad they don't publish the ANSI code for those. Probe starts are M57, M58, M59 for 175W, 250W, 400W respectively; Pulse starts are M137/157 for 175W, M136/156 for 250W, M135/155 (I think) for 400W. Also there's HQI 250W pulse start M80 (uhh .. I think. I always get M80 and M81 mixed up. One is 250W and one is 150W).

Anyhow that's roughly the going rate for bare bones ballasts like that. Pulse-starts will cost a little more but not too much. You'll have to wire them up yourself and put them in a case yourself but that's not hard.

If you elect to go with pulse-starts make sure you get a long-distance ignitor .. the ones that come standard tend to be good for a ballast-to-lamp distance of 2', which is not very useful for our purposes.

I might be posting 3x 250w metal halide ballasts in the near future. They are cap & coil style (ANSI M58) and will run any mogul bulb you can find. I also have some great reflectors for them.

I'll take offers now though if ppl are interested in them. They won't be ready to sell for at least another 2 weeks.

hmmm i have no idea how much to offer lol

Well if one of you guys have say a dual MH reflector/canopy and dual, or 2 ballasts 250/400watt, pm me. i'm looking for something asap in calgary.

thx

If you dont find one here go to quik grow on edmonton trail used 400w MH ballast with mogul socket for 80bucks.

cool, good deal thx

any pics of your light setup?
:)

Well, after considering my options and $ situation, I decided to buy this:

http://www.canadianmarineaquariumsup...cat=354&page=1

This should suit a reef right?


oppinions?

:)

PC lights will limit the types of coral you can keep.

I've heard that. do you know which definately wouldnt survive? i'm gettin a good deal on the PC light, I will eventually get the MH. My tank has only been up and running since first week of december. I'm just starting out.

:)

You pretty much cant keep any SPS corals or anemones, well maybe a bta. And depending how deep your tank is most hard corals will need to be placed closer to the top.

Hmmm, I seem to find several pics of reef tanks running pc lighting with corals. these ones look cool

http://www.canreef.com/phpBB2/viewto...ls+pc+lighting

Obviously you did not read my post very well i said SPS corals. Like acropora and others. Soft corals should be fine like zoos mushrooms leathers and such LPS will mostly be fine as well but sould be placed higher in the tank to get more light.

I guess the point is, if you plan to do SPS, clams, anemones, why waste the money on PC and switch later like the rest of us did...... :lol:

i run pc lights for the reason that i cant get mh in my hood. trust me if you can get mh do it now, dont waste your money on the pc lights. the bulbs are $$ and don't last long. the colors you get off of mh lighting cant be matched. missing out on sps and clams is something i really regret.

my next big project after i get everything running is a new hood and light rig. mh and t5 is the way to go.

Ok, quick suggestion from some one who has spent more on lighting than on the rest of his tank :rolleyes:

I started with PC,s and VHO combinations, then later I added a 175 watt MH to the set up, and now I am at 250 watt HQI with normal bulbs not Double ended bulbs. Keep in mined that every time I changed my lights I have to build a new set up for them. well in hind sight start with MH for the daylight and VHO for the actinic and save your self a lot of hassle.

I will add that I kept all kinds of hard corals under the PC/VHO set up but there color was well more brown than anything else. the color got a bit better with the 175's and with the HQI 250's it is outstanding. so while they all were able to keep the corals alive only the 250's were able to bring out the nicer colors.

Steve

Yup. & as I posted on another thread, 65w PCs are not very bright & any initial intensity they do have wears out quickly. If you need to go the PC route, 96w is best. Like the others have written, MH is highly recommended, unless spending more $$ on lighting upgrade is what you want in the future. I've got PCs & especially disappointed with the 65w ones.

Why limit yourself?

JME

Anthony