cheap metal halides

[drbdc]

Wondering what everyone thought of these. I bought 3 to incorporate 2 into my DIY canopy I'm building and 1 for my fuge in the room behind it. I guess I'll have to disassemble 2 and rewire for the canopy. The 1 for the fuge I could just mount above it.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 43199&rd=1
:?:

 

[Fatal Morgana]

Make sure it comes with ballast. It may has a built-in ballast within the fixture, but you have to make sure it does has a ballast somewhere. Paying $50 for a fixture without ballast is overpriced, since fixture is just the metal box with a reflector, and the bulb is too low for use for reef.

No ballast, useless.

 

[scans]

I found similiar ones several years ago on ebay. 400w each. Using 2 of them in my 240 reef. Just keep the hood well cooled.

 

[Fatal Morgana]

So did yours come with ballast, or it is just the fixture/hood?

Oh, BTW scans, welcome to RDO's DIY forum!

 

[drbdc]

The ballasts are included.

Scans--- did you disasseble the fixture and locate the ballasts outside the hood or did you just mount the unit as is inside the hood?

I am going to basicly part them and reassemble kinda like a retrofit kit. The one I'll put on my sump/fuge I'll just mount on a bracket of some sort.

 

[Fatal Morgana]

Then it is a decent deal if the ballast is included. You need better bulb, however. I relocate the ballast and capacitor since it will make my canopy sag due to the weight ( it is 400Watter, so a little bit more heavier). I used an old computer case for the ballast and cap., and run the wire to the hood via a 3-wire cord (8 ft long appliance cord, 16 or 18 AWG, and I ground the hood).

 

[benthos]

Yeah, I have used something similar, I think they lit a tennis court at one time. I bought two 250 watt MH for $40.
I even used the housing as a pendant. Be careful when rewiring... mine were connected to the 210 wire I geuss to be used outside and luckily the wires were labeled so I could switch it to the 120 to use for the wall outlet.

 

[Fatal Morgana]

Yes, many of these outdoor ballast are multi-tapped for use with several different voltages. It is important to know these issue with DIY project so that you don't hurt yourself.

 

[Juck]

The bulb in the fixture looks to be a medium base, not a Mogul. Does anyone make a good medium-base 175w Aquarium bulb (i.e. 6500k, 10k, 14k, etc)? Or are you using a medium-to-mogul converter?

 

[drbdc]

Haven't set mine up yet, need to build my hood still. Actually haven't looked in the box at the base. That can easily be changed for about 5 bucks each though for a mogul socket.