MH queston

[Beermaster]

My dad got me this MH setup from his electrical guys at the site, its a 250w M58 ballast
250w Multi-Vapor MH bulb from GE
from what i have found on the net the buld is only 4500k





its a very nice housing and refelctor i'm just hoping that i can use it

[muck]

Whats the dimensions of the housing?
You may be able to just buy a proper spectrum bulb.

[KrazyKuch]

you can use that ya.....

[Invigor]

m58 should power most SE 250w bulbs you throw at it, unless you get into 14000k or 20000k bulbs.

[rusty]

I just got two of those and I am taking it apart to use on my new tank!

[kuatto]

Nice score I've got a 250 1400k bulb running on an M58 and have no problems with firing it up each time.

[rickjames]

That ballast should fire all SE bulbs except the european ones, regardless of colour.

[KrazyKuch]

Make sure though That it is wired for 120Volts......those quite often are only wired for 347V !!!!

[StirCrazy]

Originally Posted by rickjames

That ballast should fire all SE bulbs except the european ones, regardless of colour.

which are 70% of the bulbs in our hobby, the problem is the ballast will start them at first then 6 months later you will have problems getting the bulb to light, might light first shot might take 1/2 a hour or more. I find the 175 watt's seam to be more sensitive to this also.

the good news is as long as the bulb will physically fit in you can use it and if you want you could even change the ballast in there to a pulse or HQI type ballast.

Steve

[danny zubot]

A good bulb to start with is the ARC bulbs that aquaria.ca STILL has on sale for $50.00. That setup looks pretty heavy though, any thoughts on how you'll mount it?