70w Metal Halide for under $90

[jj_harrison]

Ok I couldn’t wait to put this on any longer. I haven’t got my bulb yet but I should have it in about 2 days.
I built a 70w Metal Halides for my 15g nano. I put this light together for about $90 total and it doesn’t look too bad for a DIY. I played with some ideas of building a clamp or hood but I though the lamp design would be good. I think if I built this again I would make a clamp.
I used a small electronic ballast for a 70w MH HQI And a Halogen light fixture. The wiring was pretty strait forward. The reds go to each end of the bulb and the black and white go to power and ground everything.
I mounted a plate to the bottom of the light so I could attach conduit to the pendant. I used ½” conduit arc 90 with a mail + female attached to the plate. I did the same thing on the base. I put some pipe on the ballast to weigh it down some it was a bit top heavy.
I plan on adding some moonlights and fans to the setup.

 

[jj_harrison]

Here are some more shots of the ballast and finished

 

[jj_harrison]

I think you could build a 150 for about the same price the pendant is supposed to fit 150s too. The ballast are about the same price.
The lamp can pivit almost any direction you would wan't.

 

[jj_harrison]

I got my bulb, here are some pics. Its a 14k and it seams really bright the ballast dosn't make a sound. I dont have any fans for it yet but so far it only raised my tank by 1deg. I think its cool it was a bit tricky to get the bulb in the socket probably cause i was useing a paper towel to hold it but it fits good and all is well.

 

[achilles101]

that looks sweet,color is awesome,any chance to get parts list and parts sourcing.thanks achilles-101@hotmail.com

 

[jj_harrison]

yea no prob you can get a 150 for almost the same price. look at doing a clamp for it or hanging it also but i think the clamp would work.

 

[achilles101]

thanks again looks good hope you keep us posted on if corals and tank do good with new light. Am going to order parts to biuld halide for tank.

 

[nietzsche]

Originally Posted by jj_harrison
yea no prob you can get a 150 for almost the same price. look at doing a clamp for it or hanging it also but i think the clamp would work.
wow that's nice could you hook me up too? rubensaurus at gmail.com

 

[davanti]

yea me too, if you would please send me the list at kymcmill@iupui.edu
--thanks

 

[autofreak44]

mee 3 i dono how to turn my email into a link, so heres my email:
autofreak44@aol.com
thanks

 

[autofreak44]

do you think that and a 36W t-5 coralife would be good enough to care for high light corals?

 

[stash]

if you would send to me too , much thanks
stashfx@aol.com

 

[1journeyman]

Umm, why not just post the parts info here? :notsure:
Nicely done. I'm interested in how your corals do. I'm not 100% sold on the ballast working at peak efficiency, but I'm horrible at DIY stuff so don't let my trepidation mean anything to you. All in all, I'm staring at my thousands of dollars worth of lights and feeling quite stupid right now

 

[jj_harrison]

Search the name of the ballast in Google and go to there web site, then click on HID. the 150w's are not that much more and you have a better selection of bulbs. $30
You can get the bulbs off that auction site for dirt cheap $14
And the pendant is from any home improvement store $10
So total about $65 $70 and the 150's would be $10 more.
So far I have no corals but I can say while my rock was under the crappy light all my green coralline turned white. Just 2 or 3 days with this it has started turning green again. On payday I think I’m going to get some frags and a frogspawn maybe a maxim clam we will see how it dose.
Maybe some one has one of those PAR meters they could loan me?

 

[jj_harrison]

Mail sent also if any one wants i can build these and sell them to you for a small fee. or trade of some corals

 

[reefkprz]

nice job!

just a thought.
you may want to make some sort of splash sheild for your balast since it sits directly behind the tank.

 

[jj_harrison]

actually its on a 5ft cord and its well off to the side. I took it off the base of the lamp thing i had to do some cutting to that to get it to even fit behind my tank. so its well away from water spills.
Thanks for the input though

 

[jj_harrison]

One more idea I had with this…
I found some of those pendants that have two sockets in one pendant the same size as the one I used. So if some one wanted to they could have both a 150 and a 70w or what ever in the same pendant. See pic….

 

[bambam_250r]

according to the wiring diagram you're supposed to use the other style bulb. Is it ok to run the HQI style?

 

[bambam_250r]

I can't find those pendants. What home improvement store carried it?