Looking to buy Metal Halide lights

[Beth J]

I am looking to buy some metal halide retrofit fixtures to go in a canopy and an electronic ballast to run them.

I need three 250 W lites.

I am brand new to this and am getting a 135 gal tank with a canopy/hood thing. I was told the retrofit would work here.

Thanks

[-=Efrain=-]

Beth - Welcome to RC, CMAS and to the hobby. I am sure someone will have lights for you.. And of course we will want to see photos when its up and running.

[tvrsir]

i have three 250 watt setup for sale.

one

Pendant is a 14"X 11" PFO pendant.

Upgraded to an ARO electronic ballast and XM bulb (4 MONTH OLD).
It also has 2 x 32 watt power compacts on a seperate ballast. 1 bulb is daylight 6500k and the other is 50/50 actinic. The color from this setup was perfect I feel. PC bulbs are only a month old.
"4.5" Icecap fan with temp sensor on origional purchase of the pendant.
Except for a little dust, the fixture is in great shape


two retrofit kit with same ballast and upgrade as above

all bulbs included

2 15k and 1 10k all xm's


i will take $550 for all or trade for 48 inch 6-8 bulb t5 setup

[adamjr]

Badazztealcobra was also selling some. I am not sure if they were sold. I'll link him to this thread.

[broke1]

Originally posted by tvrsir
i have three 250 watt setup for sale.

one

Pendant is a 14"X 11" PFO pendant.

Upgraded to an ARO electronic ballast and XM bulb (4 MONTH OLD).
It also has 2 x 32 watt power compacts on a seperate ballast. 1 bulb is daylight 6500k and the other is 50/50 actinic. The color from this setup was perfect I feel. PC bulbs are only a month old.
"4.5" Icecap fan with temp sensor on origional purchase of the pendant.
Except for a little dust, the fixture is in great shape


two retrofit kit with same ballast and upgrade as above

all bulbs included

2 15k and 1 10k all xm's


i will take $550 for all or trade for 48 inch 6-8 bulb t5 setup

I have a 6 bulb LE Tek light, 8 months old.

[Beth J]

OK I thought I was responding to this thread and ended up with a new one altogether. I really don't understand. I don't know when all the letters are an abbreviation for a generic term MH - metal halide or some brand name of a specific product.

Please explain.

[JRaquatics]

I believe you have a shorter canopy on the tank your getting. I would suggest you look into Lumenarc reflectors. Possibly 2 larges would do. Then get an eletronic ballast, these are smaller and they will allow you the choice of more bulbs. Wattage? It really depends on what you plan on keeping and were abouts in the tank. If I remember correctly you wanted to go with stonies so 400s will allow you the most options but then have to deal with the heat issue.

[Beth J]

When you say shorter are you talking about the dimension from the top of the hood down to the top of the tank? I think that is about 10" but maybe as much as 12". It is tall enough that it has doors that come off so you don't lift the hood up from the tank. I don't see being able to hang a fixture in there. I think it will have to be reflectors screwed into the top of the hood. That is how it is set up now anyways.

My plan is go slowly. I want to end up with stony coral but I was thinking I would start with easier things. Could I get by with less wattage now and then upgrade by adding some more fixtures later as I am ready for them. How many bulbs would an electronic ballast support? Is the electronic ballast the most adaptable?
What about the actinic blue bulbs?

[Fish_wiz2]

I recommend you buy MH now then upgrade later (your wasting $$$ upgrading), an electronic supports up to 2 bulbs (depends on which ballast you buy), yes, actinic bulbs can be just a higher K (Kelvin) value 20,000K will do but if you want to supplement then T-5 or VHO is your road. Good luck.

[ostrow]

Beth, if it is 10" or more, metal halide lighting is fine and I would go with that. I like things easy. The easiest is getting several PFO reflectors and screwing them end to end to fit the length of the canopy, and putting 3 MH bulbs in, with VHOs or T5s running along the front and back of the reflectors for lighting when the halides are off.

OR you can get 3 shorter reflectors and run them perpendicular, each with a halide bulb, and then have T5 setups running along the front and back.