home depot MH lights

[wjake]

ok there are lights on sale at home depot that are metal halide lights, can i buy those and put a coralife or some other manfact. bulb in there? as long as the watts etc work? should be a cheap replacement, right????

 

[plack]

What do you have in your tank and what do you plan on keeping in it ? Also you mentioned putting a corallife bulb in there are you talking about the actual bulb or the ballast? Also the color will probably not be in a range thats best for coral keeping. If it were that simple thousands would have bought them already.

 

[wjake]

any bulb that is "an aquarium bulb" it comes with a magnetic ballast i know not the best but again, not a bad deal at home depot

 

[The Apprentice]

Home depot lights

Hi WJAKE
Welcome to Reef Frontiers I am by no means a expert on this but I tried the same since I have a little electrical back ground First 90% of any Metal halide fixture for home uses a yellow or 1000K up to 4000K bulb= not good for raising Corals,clams,anomie's, OK for fish
Second OK now use the fixture & Ballast wrong most ballast wont drive (ignite,strike or pulse start our Bulbs used in the Aquarium trade, Mainly because these bulbs are German engineered and made to run at a little lower Voltage. Mainly Its hard to find Metal halide ballast in the 110V range for home fixtures. Mainly they are Hi or low pressure sodium or Mercury vapor lights again same Mogul base but different ballast . I am not the light answer man but this is what i learned 2 years ago trying to do what you are now...sorry for the bummer rap ...Jeff

any bulb that is "an aquarium bulb" it comes with a magnetic ballast i know not the best but again, not a bad deal at home depot

 

[hexman]

it can be done if it is a pulse startballast(m57,m58,m59ballast) it will fire some bulbs (xm's and hamiltons are the 2 i use) ass for the imput wattage most ballasts can be wired fo any voltage between 120 and 440 with not too much problem

what i did was throw away the reflector that comes with it but saved th mogul socket i then took a 12 gauge extention cord cut it in half and wired the output from the ballast to thefemale end of the cord there arre only 2 wires going to the socket..then i took the same 2 wires on the male end and connected them to the 2 wires coming out of the mougal socket and mounted the socket in a housing/pendent that i made from aluminum and hung the housing about 10 inches above my tank doing it ths way makes it so you can remote mount the ballast somewhere else so you dont have to look at it and the use of an extention cord allows you to be able to dissconect the power supplys/ballasts from the fixture(ie hood /pendent) for esay moving /service.

hope this helps

chris

 

[hexman]

Second OK now use the fixture & Ballast wrong most ballast wont drive (ignite,strike or pulse start our Bulbs used in the Aquarium trade, Mainly because these bulbs are German engineered and made to run at a little lower Voltage.

magnetic ballasts(exept m80 ballasts witch will fire all mh bulbs) will fire pulse bulbs,but will not fire probe start bulbs witch is acctually what most german enginered bulbs are.

once again hope this helps

Chris

PS- if it would help i could post pics of my lighting set up for you

 

[big t]

Chris, good advice, but you need to reverse it. The homedopot ballast is probably a MV ballast, or at best a Probe start ballast. Pulse start are the more expensive ones that can fire all bulbs, as well as M80 which are hqi ballasts that are pulse start at that run the 250w closer to 300w.

 

[wrightme43]

Man maybe check around at diy reef, or cool touch lighting.
Get a M58 ballast socket case cords and all for under 300 each. more along 250. Its quality stuff. I have found saving money in reef aquariums is by buying the good stuff to start so I dont have to buy it again and lose my first money.
Welcome to R.F.

 

[Poorbob2000]

Howdy Hexman,

Happy Thanksgiving!! I was wondering how the Ballasts were working for you? On these 400w MH, you were able to use them? If you ever needed more...I have 13 of the 400w lights. Let me know.

Have a Great Weekend!!

Bob

 

[hexman]

happy thanksgiving to you too bob... the ballasts worked out great thanks i may actualy hit you up for a few of those 400watters in the future...thanks again bro

chris

 

[Poorbob2000]

Howdy Chris,

Glad to hear they were useful. Just let me know if you need more. I have 13 of the M58 400watt MH Ballasts/entire light assemblies and am open to pretty much any trade. If you know anyone that could use a HeavyDuty MH 400 watt ballast/socket/ etc... let me know and I will make them a heck of a deal. They have completely filled my storage shed and the wife thinks I have fallen and hit my head...sigh...

Bob Bennett

 

[zaireguy]

bob what do you want for the 400?
thanks
Ron

 

[dobly_1999]

Hey guys, I am thinking about purchasing the HAMILTON METAL HALIDE 175W 20K BULB. I have a Universal M57 and mogal base. I plan to retro my canopy to hold the PC 65watts (2 blubs). Do you guys know if the M57 will work with the Hamiliton?

 

[Matthew]

These balasts are very loud.