MH - where should i get em?

[Quinn]

howdy folks.
just getting going here with a 90g, thinking about 2 250w MH. obviously they're well expensive, i'm wondering what the cheapest place to buy would be. i'm planning to build my own canopy, by the way.
and another thing, HD sells MH lighting, and it's much cheaper than the stuff on the MO sites. is there something about it that makes it useless to reefers?

[rossb]

There is much to be said on this topic. Basically the color of the light is an important factor. In a simplified view light can be said to have a certain color...and as the color temperature increases it appears whiter to the human eye. All of the cheaper lights are designed with the human eye in mind...and not fish.

The color is rated in degrees Kelvin(K). As an example the light color ... at the equator ...at noon is about 6500K. You would be looking for bulbs in this temperature range (and up ...to say 20K by some accounts). The cheapo lights are usually below 4000K.

It is an important thing to learn...fish are not cheap dates. :lol:

[Quinn]

could a person use HD fixtures and slap good aquarium bulbs in? someone was telling me that the HD lights promote algae growth but this has got to be due to the bulbs, not the moguls/ballasts themselves.

[Delphinus]

Correct ... it is the bulbs. My ballasts came from HD before they stopped selling raw ballasts. At $30 per ballast I am VERY sorry they no longer sell them! Although at $30 per ballast I guess I understand WHY they are no longer selling them... they had to be losing a fair bit on that one.

Technically I'm not sure if fish care about colour temperature so much. ;) Corals might though ;) :P ... For me, the issues of using <4300K bulbs are twofold: 1) very "yellow" or "green" in appearance, offering no aesthetic value; and 2) promote undesireable algae growth. Spectrum of a bulb of course plays a pretty important role too.

[Quinn]

it seems to me that it would still be cheaper just to buy the whole units from HD (i have access to a 10% discount as well), and then replace the bulbs (heck maybe someone trying to culture algae will buy them). since i'm building my own canopy, this makes good sense to me.

[Samw]

..

[Canadian Man]

Hey teevee
You have to make sure that those fixtures are not a Mercury Vapour ballast.
The ones at Revy come in 175w but they are a MV ballast.
Just a thought.

[Canadian Man]

On another note here is some prices to think about.

1.A single pfo ballast in a box ready to go is $135 at j/l (250w version)
2.Most lighting places supply halide ballast for about $75 to $95 for the bare ballast so you have to supply a box and such for them.

So in my searching the PFO ballast's are a great deal. one of my lights are on the pfo ballast's and I had a bare ballast all ready so the other light is on a home made setup.
cheers

[Quinn]

i was considering going with PFO from aquariumpros.ca, i probably wouldn't feel comfortable with HD stuff anyways. canadian man, i checked out your site, looking good. apparently you're the king of DIY. i'll let you know how my canopy goes. :)

also, i'm hearing some people say that i should also stick actinics in there, and some people say don't bother. i plan to run 10k bulbs, what do you folks figure?

[Troy F]

I think you'll still want a couple of actinics in there but you don't need them the same way you would with the Iwasaki bulbs.

I put together my lighting with a couple of Iwasaki specific ballasts and I saved money but not that much over the price at J&L and their ballast box is nicer :) .

[EmilyB]

Even if you don't "need" actinic to soften your lighting, it is a plus to run on a separate timer for dusk/dawn lighting. I'd never be without it, as it allows for a slower transition to night/morning, which is natural, plus a time for viewing different tank activities.

[Canadian Man]

Thanks teevee!
I'm blushing. :oops:

Please keep me informed on how your hood construction comes along and some pics if possible would be great.

The most favourite part of my tanks day is when the halides go off in the evening and the actinics are on for 2 hours or so by themselves.
I would run actinics with 10k bulbs.

[Quinn]

sounds good folks. you seem to feel so strongly about actinics, i'll look into it then. i agree that providing a more natural cycle would be nice.

[Delphinus]

It depends on the ballasts that the fixtures use, but remember that some ballasts can run both halide bulbs and mercury vapour. If the ballast says M57/H35 then it runs 175W bulbs of both types, M58/H36 then 250W, etc. etc.

[Canadian Man]

Your correct Tony,
But those ballast's are unfortunatley the more expensive of the halide ballast's that you can get from local light suppliers.
The "multi purpose" ballast that you speak of are around $90 to $100 which is what I was quoted recently when I was looking into my halides.

[Delphinus]

:shock: Wow, when Home Depot was selling them, they had them vfor $50 or $60, when they decided to stop selling them they unloaded all their stock they did so at $30. No wonder they suddenly flew off the shelves!!

I actually was thinking that maybe the MV fixtures for 175W at HD, were using those multi ballasts. Maybe not though, considering the fixtures are only about $100 or so.

...

Just one additional food for thought. I'm sure I've read somewhere that Iwasaki bulbs are not recommended for use on "combination" ballasts. I have no idea what "combination" ballast means. What worries me, is Iwasaki's are a special case. You can run them on a mercury vapour ballast, you can run them on a metal halide ballast ...... so why shouldn't a "combination MH/MV ballast" not be perfect for these bulbs?? I should mention one of my ballasts for my 75g is one of these ballasts. The other is a used MH ballast I got from hydroponics store and I never opened the casing to see what kind it is (m58 or m58/h36). I wonder if I'm doing damage by this?

I guess I should probably write Iwasaki myself and ask them this question. I should look for some tech support contact info I guess...