Question about lighting

[40gnano]

Hey all,
I seen another post about Home Depot Metal halides.
I was wondering, those MH "floodlights" there roughly 500W, if i go and put a 150W Actual MH bulb in there, do I ACTAULLY need a ballast?
Why don't they come with ballast? (Home Depot MH Flood lights?)

Thanks

 

[coralfish]

I don't know which HD lighting system you are talking about, they make several, from MH to Mercury Vapor to High Pressure Sodium to Incadecent and so on, but...

MH bulbs need a MH ballast, same wattage for both....a 250W bulb will not burn on a 150W ballast. Also, MHs come in 70, 150 250, 400, and 1,000 watt choices... I don't know of a 500W choice.

 

[40gnano]

The 500W halogen bulb in the HD MH's.

 

[Entropy]

Setups like the one you describe will do a great job of lighting up your tank, but they don't have the spectrum to grow anything other than nuisance algae. Some these bulbs would work fine over a big fish only tank, but they have no place being over a reef setup IMO.

 

[faze07hd]

do not go the cheap route, it will end up costing your more in the long run.

 

[coralfish]

No good for reefs....not even a good choice for fish only.

 

[coralfish]

BTW, Halogen and MH are very different types of bulbs/fixtures.

 

[40gnano]

I know they are, but i read another thread. They bought these MH setups from home depot, and then bought a Actual reef MH bulb off eBay, and put it in the Home Depot MH...

 

[kretzkiller]

listen to everyone. you dont want to do that. even if you did and it worked for a while before you run into problems, once you do there wont be anyone to help you out because no one runs hd setups. i agree with the above who said dont go cheap. you have already done better than most by asking questions before doing it, now just listen to the answers

 

[40gnano]

Alright thanks, I go the right way.