new lights

harvester51

harvester51

New Member
hey everybody i was just wondering why instead of paying a lot of money for the expensive halide light fixtures. Why cant you just buy some of the work lights they use on some construction sights and buy some fixtures to hold blue bulbs to make it look good. Is their some reason this will not work or do they just get to hot
 
nikesb

nikesb

Active Member
different ballasts types wont run bulbs to proper spec or may not even fire them. if money is a concern you may want to rethink about the hobby because the cheap way is not a good thing in this hobby. spend the money up front instead of spending small and eventually paying up for the better fixtures
 
harvester51

harvester51

New Member
no i already have a tank i was wanting to make it into a reef tank because i have a small reef tank and i was wanting to make my 100 gallon into a reef tank but the lights were really expensive and i meant the entire work fixtures not just the bulbs
 
nikesb

nikesb

Active Member
exactly. the work fixtures you're talking about most likely wont have the proper ballasts to fire the bulbs or run them to spec. spend money on a quality fixture or look for a used one. why not look into t5s also
 
nikesb

nikesb

Active Member
as i've stated twice already, some dont even have ballasts while others have ballasts that wont fire or run the bulbs we use in the hobby.
you can use the bulbs that come with the work light fixture and itll grow corals. but im sure it will be horrible looking
 
harvester51

harvester51

New Member
but as i said in my first post i would buy some fixtures to hold bulbs i already have a fixture i would probably use for that i would buy the work lights and just put straight blue lights in my fixture i have now to make it look better
 
nikesb

nikesb

Active Member
the work light fixtures have a reflector and some kind of ballast. what component are you talking about? you can just buy urself a reflector and ballast and itll hold the light
 
harvester51

harvester51

New Member
okay i can buy the light fixture and get a differ net bulb if i buy a different ballast for it and just get a reflector.
 
nikesb

nikesb

Active Member
then why wouldnt you just buy a reflector and ballast? you dont need to have it cased in something.
good reflectors like lumenmax, lumenbright, etc
ballasts like hamilton, sunlight supply (galaxy), aquamedic, etc
 
scsinet

scsinet

Active Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by harvester51 http:///forum/thread/384783/new-lights#post_3373024
okay i can buy the light fixture and get a differ net bulb if i buy a different ballast for it and just get a reflector.
If you buy a high-bay (as they are called in the industry), and replace the ballast, lamp, and refelctor, then you really aren't using any parts from the high-bay.

Generally speaking, most high-bay fixtures are 400w probe start systems. As long as you use a 400w probe start lamp such as Hamilton or XM, then you are fine.
However, the better lamps are going to be pulse start or HQI, neither of which works with most high bay ballasts.
The other thing you have to be careful of is the ballast tapping. A good portion (I dare say the majority) are designed to run off 277 or 480 volts. Many fixtures are equipped with a multi-tap ballast that will run off 120, 208/230, 277, and 480, so those are the ones to look for.
So if you need 400w, and you can live with the limitations of a probe start system, then there is no reason why you cannot pick a couple up and just gank the ballast. The ballast is about the only useful part in them, you still need to get a lamp and reflector, but it sounds like you already understand that.
Keep in mind that if your tank doesn't NEED 400w lamps, then you are going to waste so much money in heat and electricity in a short period of time, it will quickly eat up any "savings" you got when you first set everything up.
I've got a wiki article on this site that goes over MH technology, you may want to give it a read.
 
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