Industrial Metal Halide

W

wglenn

New member
Hey all,
A warehouse I work for is removing 1/2 of their metal halide lamps. What would the possibility be of removing the ballast / fixture and retro fitting into a hood :) Wondering if it would work (technically, and physically for corals) because I can get 3 of them for free.... Thanks!
 
GET THEM!!! It might take a little reqiring, but when my local walmart changed their lighting system, I missed a good 50 400w MHs. Sure, you would have had to buy a new bulb and reflector, and rewire it to fit a 120v socket and side mount the base. But 50 for free!? I still kick myself in the rear for passing them up... :(

PS Even if you dont use them and you get them for free, throwing them away won't hurt your wallet :D
 
have nothing to loose, do a little research and try to get some wiring diagrams from the manufacturer post them here and I'm sure somebody will be able to help you get them going.
 
don't bother. there more than likely 4600k at best. way to yellow for a tank.those reflectors are subpar for an aquarium.
waste of time IMO
 
I'm sure they are just regular magnetic coil and cap ballasts, should work fine.

They will need to be wired externally from your hood though. Your first post maybe indicates a desire to wire them/retrofit the ballasts into your hood. That definately won't work. Too heavy/too hot/too much possibility of frying yourself w/ moisture.
 
The ballasts, capacitors and sockets can be usefull for a 400w setup. Just remember these core ballasts and capacitors can catch on fire when they burn up and go bad so a metal enclosure is a good idea. I've seen alot of burned up ballasts, caps, exploding bulbs in my line of work. Dont forget to check the ballast to see if it's multi-tap and one of those multi taps is 120v or 240v otherwise it's gonna be useless to you. It might say on the fixture 120/208/240/277/480. If so your in business.
 
Ok cool! Thanks guys. Yes I would definately wire the ballast outside the tank ;) I will check tomorrow and see if I can find out what kind they are.
 
Even if they are multitap I bet they cut off the other wires when they wired it for 220. Good luck to you, if they didn't cut the wires it will work just fine.
 
There is no housing with a core ballast. It's coated wires wrapped around a magnetic coil. Anyways it would be very rare to cut them too close to reuse, most of the time we electricians wire nut or tape off any exposed ends. Advanced and Universal manufactures stretch the plastic casing of the unused wires past the copper therefore no need to cap off or cut off. =)
 
I'm an electrician and I have wired up many of these bad boys. There is no difference in industrial and the ones you buy in the store. You will have no problem. I have used about 47 of the ones I snagged from work with no problems. Good luck...
 
Well the plug would indicate the voltage. Every different voltage amperage has it's own specific cord cap configuration. You'll want to replace the lamp with one that has the appropriate colour to wht you are doing but the ballast/ fixture should work great. I'm planning the same thing. I can get industrial fixtures for next to nothing through work so I'm going to build a custom set up and save a ton of $$$.
 
Dude, they're free... you CAN'T go wrong! If for some reason you can't use em', throw em' away or put them on eBay. Just use my saying, "If it's free, it's for me". :)
 
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