home depot metal halide

[lawnboy]

Just built canopy & ordered VHO retro. Was at Home Depot and saw Phillips Metal Halides (175w) in fixtures with ballast for $80. Can I add these to my canopy or are they the wrong Kelvin? What about scrapping the bulbs? If the bulbs are wrong will the fixtures/ballasts work with the bulbs I need? Thanx to anyone who has answers for me.

 

[mr . salty]

You are right,the bulbs will be the wrong kelvin.But if the socket is the same(it should be) you can order the correct bulbs for it onlune....

 

[lawnboy]

Thanx for the reply Mr Salty. If I can get bulbs with a color temp of 5000k can I up vho bulbs to make up for the low kelvin of the halide or will I be better off to get 10000k Halide and lower vho's.
Just upped my tank from 55 to 125. built oak stand and canopy(14" tall ok for halide?)only lights I have are a 48" csl smart-lite and 40w actinic. 320w 72" vho kit on the way. Want sufficient light for hard corals.

 

[johnnysalt]

Lawnboy,
Was it a different brand of fixture? I'll be at HD tomorrow and would like to already know what name to look for. Thanks!

 

[lawnboy]

Can't reccomend the Home Depot version for now. fixture takes med. base bulb and the hamiltons that my LFS use are mogul base(large) I have not found bulbs over 4500K for med base 175w fixture. I'm going to look for ballasts and fixtures that I can put together or just shell out the bucks for a retro kit. Know any cheap sites? Thanx

 

[bruins14]

<a href="http://www.aquaticlight.com" target="_blank">www.aquaticlight.com</a> has MH 175w lit for $75

 

[lawnboy]

Thanx for the link. I already ordered Icecap 175 and a 10k bulb. Thats it for me on light for this one.
125gal
2 24" pc's @ 65w(smartlite)
2 72" vho @ 160w (icecap)
1 AB 10K halide @175w
1 48" actinic 40w
Think I'll put halide in center and smart pc on each end. As you can see I couldn't decide what type of lights to use so I'll go with all of them. Thanks for all the pointers. you guys have a great forum.

 

[coralfishg2]

they sell mh ballasts from 1000bulbs.com, that run 1 250w bulb for 37.50$. they offer many more than just that one though. I am in the process of figuring everything out about a ballast from home depot that I found that runs your vho, the cost on them is 16-30$. if anyone has any info on them help whould be great, I have a 75 gallon tank that I am wanting two add two 48" vho attinic bulbs. the thing that I can't figure out is what ballast I need and if it will actually run the vho, or if it will only run no