MH Question

[acidbaby1]

I have a 250 watt High Pressure Sodium lamp, hood and ballast made by Hydrofarm. I would like to eventually use this to light a 55-90 gallon reef. It has mogul sockets. Can I put a Metal Halide in this unit? Any potheads out there ever try?

 

[Bubafat]

Nope, wrong type of ballast.

Sorry.

Buba

 

[acidbaby1]

What about conversion bulbs? I remember seeing them somewhere.

 

[Anonymous]

The conversion bulbs you hear about are more than likely the Iwasiki. It is a Mecury vapor that will run in a MH fixture. You could use the HPS bulb although it may be a kind of yellow.

On a different topic.. Why would you need a grow light in S. Fla? Fresh grown was always all over the place when I lived down there! (Not that I ever purchased or inhaled any..

 

[StirCrazy]

er.. I think you mean the Iwasiki is a MH bulbs designed to run in a MV ballast.. it is to facilitate the upgrade from MV lampt to MH lamps with out having to buy new ballasts.
it will run in both a MV and a MH balast set up but when ran with a MV ballast the light is a little more blue that when ran on a MH balast.

Steve

 

[GateKeep]

The light is really more blue under an MV ballast? Isn't the bulb still rated at 6500k?

At any rate, I can't imagine using a 6500k bulb unsupplemented. I did it for a while, and WOW.. it's yellow. I never knew until I popped a 12000k in there, like night and day.

 

[dattack]

Actually the Iwasaki bulbs out there in the 250 W rate is very white. Not as white as a 10000K of course but good enough where the bulbs cost only $45 and provide substantially better PAR.

 

[jimmyj]

I think there is some controversy over MH vs HPS ballasts. I have been told that a 430w son argo ballast runs many 400w mh bulbs better than the M59 mh ballast. I have also heard that the S51 400 HPS ballast runs some 400w bulbs well. the HPS ballasts use a starter, the US MH ballasts dont use a starter. the european MH ballasts use a starter, and many of the bulbs we use are european, thus, US HPS ballasts actually match the specs of euro bulbs better than US MH ballasts. Do a search on reefcentral and youll find many posts on this topic. I know nothing about 250w lamps, but this all applies to the 400w set ups.

 

[skkyy]

What other types of bulbs can readily accept a Mecury Vapor ballast?

 

[skkyy]

What other types of bulbs can readily accept a Mecury Vapor ballast?

 

[Anonymous]

I heard that MV ballast is not really a true MV ballast anymore. It is actually a MH ballast labeled as MV becasue the ANSI specific is so close that most manufacturers just slap a MV-spec (ANSI H-series) on a MH ballast (ANSI M-series).

So the MV ballast that you are looking a bulb for maybe is a MH ballast....