Lighting

[oafie2244]

I noticed that Home Depot sells metal hallide bulbs for $30-$40 and ballasts for like $25-$50. Wondering if those types of lights and ballasts are cool for a reef tank? If so is it hard to DIY lighting like that?

Brett

 

[wnfaknd]

are you sure you are not confusing hallogen with metal hallide?

 

[mtellin]

I think you may find that DIY'ing a metal halide wont save you all that much money as compared to buying a PFO retro, but if you want to HERE is a link to a DIY metal halide.

Mike

 

[davelin315]

The MH lights they sell are the ones that you also see in parking lots of old. It's a basic street light, which means you have a large one piece unit that has no plug, so you need to install one (you probably also need to install some other equipment on it) and also, it's not very functionally shaped for a reef. It has a large frosted dome on it, and the bulb is a very different color temperature than you would want on a reef. I think they actually sell 2 kinds, the other being the same one as they hang from their ceilings, and it's not the best bulb for the aquarium. I also think those might be 1000W, which does not translate well to reefs as far as I've heard as the bulbs leave a lot to be desired as far as PAR and color temp.