Help! Should I get this lighting?

mell

mell

Member
I'm just gonna cut and paste the message on here...
I have a pair of retro-fit 250w halides. It includes 2 Spider reflectors in great shape and only a couple months old 2 Radium 20K bulbs about a week old (i paid $99 a piece for those). And a Dual magnetic ballast that had the capacitors replaced a week ago as well. Asking $250 Firm. This cost me $500.
I know nothing about retro-fits. Do you have to put them in a canopy? Cause I don't have one, and don't plan on building one. These would be for my 125 gallon. Help!!!
 
bang guy

bang guy

Moderator
I'm typically a skeptic so:
Yes, you need some type of canopy or fixture to hold these. They will not be very attractive above the tank on their own.
$250 for used bulbs, a couple sheets of aluminum and a questionable ballast = NO! for Bang Guy
 
mell

mell

Member
So, for my 125 gallon...should I get 2 30" fixtures, or 1 60" since my tank has the brace in the middle?
 
mell

mell

Member
Cool, that's what I was originally planning on getting, but then I saw where some dude had posted that he had to get 2 separate fixtures because he had the brace...so I figured I better check.
 
2quills

2quills

Well-Known Member
Nah...I'd just get the one fixture. The brace is an afterthought. One would be more astheticly pleasing, it's less stuff to have to plug in and when the time comes to change bulbs it will probably be cheaper to replace 4 longer bulbs than it would be to replace 8 shorter ones or which ever the case may be.
Well...unless you're getting a hood style light fixture, in that case you'd probably need to get 2 hoods. But hopefully you're not getting hoods.
 
mell

mell

Member
No, def not hoods. And it doesn't matter to me if people can see the brace. I'm not that vain.
 
acrylic51

acrylic51

Active Member
Which 60" fixture are you considering? For the price the person is asking I go along with the NO...You could buy brand new IceCap or CoralVue ballast and bulbs cheaper than that. You could do a nice setup with LumenBright reflectors and do a nice DIY setup and have awesome coverage that no spider reflector could touch.
 
mell

mell

Member
I'm not quite sure what I'm gonna go with yet, just shopping around...and keeping a close eye on craigs list.
 
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