Metal Halide Questions

This is a commercial light fixture. The 200 to 277v means you can either feed it wth 208/240v 1 phase or 277v. You can not use this fixture with 120v. As far as your other questions you must match ballast to lamp or risk harm to the user and or shorter lamp life.
 
That looks to be a high bay fixture, which for comparison purposes is the size of a very large watermelon.....dangling that thing over a tank would look quite silly.

You could most likely use the ballast in a DIY fixture, ditching the reflector that comes with it, but if you don't have the electrical experience I would stay away from anything that requires 220V.

As for bulbs, it would run a reef temperature (10000K-20000K) bulb, but it would have to be a 400W, anything smaller would cause problems. 400W is fine for large applications on deep tanks with a bit of volume, but on anything shallower then about 2 feet and 200 gallons you will have heat problems to contend with.
 
Oh yea, HID stands for High Intensity Discharge, or in layman's terms means a bright "hind parts" light....
 
You won't find aquarium color temp lights that run at 100W, look for another option that uses 175 or 250W.
 
HQI stands for Hydrargyrum quartz iodide. Don't try and go cheap by buying a light that is not meant for your tank. You will end up spending more to replace it later. Save your money and do it right the first time.
 
Back
Top