Yardbirds Metal Halide floodlight good for aquarium?

[alve]

Yardbirds is selling this 175W MH floodlight for $138 (http://www.elights.com/methalflood13.html) . Would this work for aquarium lighting? Right now I have only PC on my 100g and would like to upgrade and thought maybe two of these would work (they are a lot cheaper than the aquarium MH's so I wonder if they would work). If they do, will I need another light bulb than the one it comes with and which one? Hope somebody can give me some advice about this because even after reading lots and lots of treads about lighting it's still very confusing what is the best now. So many different bulbs, ballasts... very confusing for me.

[Kenzy]

It looks like the MH lamp that is supplied with it is rated at 4000K which is a bit too low. That would look very yellow in an aquarium. I would do a bit more shopping to see if you can find a better price with a more suitable lamp.

Edit: take a look at what Hellolights has to offer.

[prof10000]

Look for color temp...

It looks like all the bulbs they sell are about 4000K. 7200K is close to daylight, 10000K is close to pure white. Everything above 10000K will appear blue and everything under is yellow.

You need daylight to get things to grow well and people want blue for aesthetic purposes.

Dave

[prof10000]

too fast for me,

[alve]

Would another brand (10K) bulb work in this fixture?

[moconet]

There are a couple problems here with the light fixture.

First off, it doesn't give much information about the ballast. It says the Socket is Pulse Rated, but it does not say that the ballast is. So, chances are most American Made Bulbs will work with the ballast.

Secondly, the unit comes with a Medium Base socket. Most aquarium bulbs have Mogul bases - much larger.

Shall I continue? The next problem that exists is that we do not know the Wattage. Is it a 175, 250, 400, 1000 ?? It doesn't say. I would leave this unit to the uneducated Homeowners...

I would suggest something like this from Cool touch Lighting: Dual 250 Metal Halide system for $155.

I just ordered a 400 Watt system from them and have heard nothing but good news, so far. This light would be appropriate for your type of system, assuming that it is not over 24" deep.

You would have to build a housing, however, it will only require basic skills to do so. I built mine of of Aluminum flashing and wood.

The lighting that I would say you should use would be American made bulbs since the standard ballast that comes with these kits are Probe start. Most bulbs will work with these systems. From there, you can choose your color temp. usually 10K is the favorite.

HTH,

darrin

[alve]

Wow, thanks for the advice! That's indeed a great deal. What would you recommend for a 100g, Dual 250W or dual 400W since I see the 400W is only $10 more and when I upgrade my lighting I want to do it good this time. Thanks for all your advice guys!! I almost bought something completely unusefull.

[moconet]

Well, I am using the 400s over a 75 gallon. This may be overkill but I will be upgrading the tank in the future.

It really all depends on what you stock. SPS?

Do you have heat issues?

I actually ordered the 400 Watt with the upgrade Pulse start ballasts ($30 more) for European bulbs. I did this because of what I read from the major Transformer company Advance:

What are Pulse-Start Metal Halide ballasts?

Pulse-Start is a term generally referring to a new generation of metal halide lamps above 150W and their associated ballasts that are being increasingly used today in applications replacing traditional (Probe-Start) metal halide and high-pressure sodium systems. Pulse-Start Metal Halide lighting systems produce white light and have nearly the same efficiency and life of High Pressure Sodium. Pulse-Start lamps require ignitors to initiate the arc. A Pulse Start system has better lumen maintenance over the operational life of the lamp and produces more light output at a given wattage than standard Probe-Start metal halide.

--------------

If more companies are using Pulse start ballasts I want to be ready for it. Pulse start type bulbs are like: Ushios, Radiums, etc...

I am going to be using Ushio 10K bulbs simply because I have seen the results from local Aquarists tanks. They have a proven track record.

HTH,

darrin