MH pendant purchased from HD

[Tonyscoots84]

i got a question for you guys. if i purchased a few pendents like the ones you hang up outside from the Home depot and put in the 14000k bulbs would that work well. so i wouldnt need the ballast cause its already built in. any suggestions would be great.

im trying different lights to see whats my best option for my 75 gallon. currently i have 2 48inch floures. one 40w flour. and one 40 wat actnic. looks great with those 2 but i want much more light in there. thanks in advance

 

[gforce6]

It is not going to work, you will need MH ballast for MH bulb. You can only use thoes HD Pendants as housing for double ended bulb.

You can stop by some of our member's house who has MH on their tank, and You can compare the color of each different bulb. I would suggest to you get some info before you purchase the lighting.

 

[Tonyscoots84]

i dont no there just so expensive.. the one that i was thinking about getting has the ballast or whatever it has built in to it. why wouldnt that work?

 

[bad coffee]

different ballasts are made to run different bulbs. Those ballast/fixtures from HD will run your bulb, but not correctly.

There's lots of info out there on DIY if you're looking to save money. For the money you save buying the HD fixture, you'll probably spend it in time retro fitting that light.

BC

 

[aaron]

Most HD lights are sodium vapor or mercury vapor lights not metal halide. Running MH bulbs in these fixtures could lead to the bulbs exploding . Believe me i have looked at those things 1000 times and wished that they would work.
The cheapest soluton is probably to by a magnetic ballast from someone on this site which should only set you back $50 or so.