Why not halogen lights?

trainfever

trainfever

Active Member
I was reading the local home centers sale paper and they had a halogen light fixture on sale for 20.00. It was for the fixture and bulb. It was a 500 watt fixture. I hear so much talk that corals need more wattage. Flourescents give off a cool light and MH give off a hot light as does halogen. So why couldnt halogen be used for an aquarium? 500 watts for 20 bucks is an inexpensive way to go, even if it was placed into a home made canopy.
 
mudplayerx

mudplayerx

Active Member
It probably will have parts of the spectrum that encourage massive growth of microalgae, while not providing the parts of the spectrum conducive to good invert and macroalgae growth.
 
darknes

darknes

Active Member
I agree.
Although, I think it would be interesting if someone tried an experiment using these bulbs.
I know BangGuy did one a while back using blacklights to see if they had any effect.
 
bang guy

bang guy

Moderator
Originally Posted by trainfever
So why couldnt halogen be used for an aquarium? 500 watts for 20 bucks is an inexpensive way to go, even if it was placed into a home made canopy.
Halogen produce too much heat and very little light. A 500 watt Halogen puts out about the same amount of light as a 65 watt PC and as much heat as a 1000 watt MH.
 
snipe

snipe

Active Member
I know of a few places if you buy the right fixture you can just put a DE MH bulb in it and boom you have a metal halide fixture for $30.
 
fishieness

fishieness

Active Member
i know they can be hot. i have a 500 watt lamp in my room that heats the entire place up. Everyonce in a while we smell burning protein from a bug of some kind getting caught in the lamp and burning. not pleasent.
dont use it so much cause no i have 200 watts of pc and 40 watts NO in my room. :)
 
bang guy

bang guy

Moderator
Originally Posted by Snipe
I know of a few places if you buy the right fixture you can just put a DE MH bulb in it and boom you have a metal halide fixture for $30.
That's $30 plus the cost of a MH ballast.
 
reefnut

reefnut

Active Member
Originally Posted by Snipe
I know of a few places if you buy the right fixture you can just put a DE MH bulb in it and boom you have a metal halide fixture for $30.
From my understanding that only works with the 70w DE MH... but a great idea for a cheap light housing that could be used on smaller tanks and refuges!! as Guy said you still need a ballast.
 
snipe

snipe

Active Member
Not intirely true. I know one or two ppl who have bought them and they had metal halide ballasts in them. All they bought was a metal halide bulb. I know most of the time a MH ballast "wont" be included but it has happend.
 
bang guy

bang guy

Moderator
I would be very interested in a model #. That makes no sense to me but I'd scarf some up if I could find them.
 
snipe

snipe

Active Member
I dont know the model # but one of the guys was on another forum and you know I cant post that here lol. It was lucky he bought 2 of them and was gonna put ballasts in them but they already had them in there. Pretty cool mabey they sold them as the wrong thing.
 
1journeyman

1journeyman

Active Member
Originally Posted by Snipe
Pretty cool mabey they sold them as the wrong thing.
With the cost of ballasts I'd say that is a pretty good guess..
 
mudplayerx

mudplayerx

Active Member
I hate to be the party pooper, but I really want to discourage you from buying anything but lights made for aquarium use. You are most likely going to run into heartache as your ballasts constantly blow out the lights, or you don't get the results you want.
 
reefnut

reefnut

Active Member
Originally Posted by Snipe
Not intirely true. I know one or two ppl who have bought them and they had metal halide ballasts in them. All they bought was a metal halide bulb. I know most of the time a MH ballast "wont" be included but it has happend.
It is VERY true!! Lighting doesn't work like that... if you buy a halogen it will NOT come with a ballast that will run a MH. If you buy a MH it will come with a MH ballast... :D
 
snipe

snipe

Active Member
They used it. Im pretty sure all they did was replaced the bulb. Even if it was a MH bulb it wastn for aquarium use so it needed to be replaced.
 
reefnut

reefnut

Active Member
Sounds like they just got a commercial MH that needed the bulb replaced?? The halogen is differant... it doesn't even use a ballast.
 
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