Hardware store halogen lights

[sharuq1]

You know those super bright halogen lights they sell at the hardware stores for construction workers and such? Well, for some reason, because they are bright and look alot like mH my fiance seems to think they would befine on a reef tank. I told him they were not the same thing, the color temperature is wrong, they'd do nothing but grow pest algae etc.... However he's a stubborn one and still seems to think it would work. You tell him canreefers, tell him why, lol. :lol:

[spreerider]

halogen lights are the same as incandescent but use a quartz tube with halogen gass inside to make the filiment last longer and alows higher wattage,
they are not good at all for aquariums, they are very yellow and look badly but will grow algea great.
you can modify one of the 150w ones to fit a HQI metal halide bulb then all you need is a ballast and bulb, cheapest reflector available for HQI,

[sharuq1]

He's asking me why can't he use some other hardware store thing for a ballast or not use one... :rolleyes:

[cwickham]

he could use a MH ballast from a hardware store if they have one, usually they just have floresant ballasts. the halogen lights also produce a ton of heat, and produce almost no uv light

[mseepman]

You should take a look at this thread on nano-reef.com and it will answer most of his questions about how to make the changes you need to make to a halogen for it to work.

http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=91165&hl=70w

Then buy a 70W bulb from this guy on e-bay (I've got 5 bulbs from them now and am very very impressed)

http://cgi.ebay.ca/70W-70-watt-14K-HQI-DE-Metal-Halide-Bulb-Lamp-Reef_W0QQitemZ350059625877QQihZ022QQcategoryZ46314 QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

This should work and be one of the cheapest ways you can do it in my opinion.

[Delphinus]

Straight up, if it worked, people would be using them. Every few years someone thinks they can use halogens ... there's just no spectrum to them. I don't think they're even any good for growing plants.

[banditpowdercoat]

Straight up, if it worked, people would be using them. Every few years someone thinks they can use halogens ... there's just no spectrum to them. I don't think they're even any good for growing plants.

Nope, But sure help me see when I an wrenching on my Hot rod LOL

[spreerider]

if you tried to hook a MH light up with no ballast it wouldent have the voltage to create an arc and if it did manage to arc it would have no current limit and would burn out either the bulb, the fixture, or wire, or it would trip the breaker.
you need a matching MH ballast to run one.
google how MH lights work and then show the site to him.

[cwickham]

yeah ballasts step up the voltage to the thousands

[spreerider]

i think for MH its around 800V for a 1000W, HPS is 5000V pulse, Pulse type MH may be alot higher.