Metal Halides

[Phang]

Hi All,

Anyone out there interested in MHS or have DIY..ed MHs...

Care to share your experience and know-hows so all of us can benefit..

Myself will be checking out the pricing of e ballast.

found the availability of 150w e-ballast (Iwasaki).

will post results of search....

Any body with comments on MH bulbs... any reviews and how they have affected your aquarium and coral growth???

Thanks

[Phang]

Okay,

Pricing of 150W e-ballast (Iwasakis) around $180.00 - $200.00.

250W 6500k Iwasaki Bulbs RA 90 ...$ 78.00..

150W normal ballast $90.00

Are these pricings expensive??

[BarraCudaTM]

I'm thinking of DIY MH

a normal hood with 2x 150watts 10000K cost $1700!

looks like DIY can reduce the cost at least by half

[Phang]

Hi Barracuda,

Yup, you are right... those lights marketed as aquarium MHs are very expensive... think you could get the components and bulbs at a fraction of the price quoted...

Myself thinking of DIY-ing MHs... of course with a little help ... with friends I known thru forums....

Phang

[robe]

I used DIY Iwasaki lamps myself for the past one year after finding that buying those AB or Ushio bulbs burns a hole in my pocket.

U can buy ballast and ignitor from the lighting shop along Balestier. Around $40 bucks for a 150 MH baalst , ignitor and capacitor. If u use 250 Iwasaki u just need a mercury lamp ballast costing around $25. One thing though is that E40 base ceramic lamp holders are not easy to find but E27 base are plentiful.

[Phang]

Hi Robe,

What's the diff between the E 40 and E 27....

I presume you are using the 6500Ks ...

and you keep acroporas....So how's the effect these bulbs have on your acros?????

I have been thinking of either a 3 x 250W 0r a combo of 1 x 250W and 2 x 150W HQI... hope to run the 150ws with e ballast....

Any recommendations????

[spiff]

edwin

E 40 and E 27 r the different holders for the bulbs. E40 is for single ended bulbs while E27 r for double ended bulbs.

[robe]

E27 & E40 are used to denote the screw thread diameter of the bulb holder. USA uses E26 & E39 while the above mentioned is European standard. I use 2 x 150 and 1x250 6500k bulb on my 52 x 20 x20 tank. growth rates can be very high especially u have a calc reactor. 1/2 to 3/4 inch a month is typical.

[BarraCudaTM]

any idea if its possible to fit double end MH bulbs in those aluminium light hood?

I'm very afraid that the glass might explode

btw is 70watts bulb common?

[spiff]

u can do tt. but u hv to change the glass to tempered glass. normal float glass wont last long under the heat.

70w bulb is not very common but u can find them.

[Achilles Tang]

What if you use the film coating used on car windshields to reflect heat? Ahh.. what's it called... I forgot!!

Apply it on ordinary glass and it should work right?

[Phang]

HI Barracuda,

I'm thinking of using those aluminium light hood for my light chasis too..

Should work except now to look out for tempered glass ..thickness according to those acrylic sheets used for the hood..

Hi Achilles

and if there is such film coating available and it helps to reflect heat...maybe can try...

How much for them????

Robe,

So... is the E 27 for single or double end????

And the Iwasakis 6500k are single ended... Right??

And what holder would it required if the bulb is 250W in nature...

Your 150Ws are also Iwasakis???

Hey Spiff,

When can I meet you up... since you live nearby my place????

Would be great to see your acros "live"..

[kingpin]

E27 base is for single end lamps.

[anonymous]

hi there, im new in marine and wish to start one from scratch. i saw this thread pretty interesting and found out that its rather cheap to get from those lighting company and diy it.

but im quite confuse with some of the term like, warm white, daylight white etc, anyone here can advice on which type of light for the marine or even planted tank. i also know that there is one so called night light, which is a blue color tube right? Where to get those.

As you guys are more experiences in diy and all sources for getting the materials to get thing started, may i know where to get those material for MH. E.g company name etc.

One more last question, what is the different between HQI and AQI, notice got 2 type of MH.

Any kind soul like to enlighten? Many thanks in advance.

[Tanzy]

but im quite confuse with some of the term like, warm white, daylight white etc, anyone here can advice on which type of light for the marine or even planted tank. i also know that there is one so called night light, which is a blue color tube right? Where to get those.

One more last question, what is the different between HQI and AQI, notice got 2 type of MH.

Terms like warm white and daylight and so on and so forth don't really mean a thing except give you a rough guideline as to what colour temperature you will get when you throw the switch on. In other words if you are using a daylight bulb you can be quite sure the light produced will not be blood red in colour that's all!

A better indicator, but no less confusing one, will be the Kelvin rating for example 6500K, 10000K, 20000K etc. In a strict sense, these numbers represent the spectrum of light expected of a theoretical black body when heated to that temperature in Kelvins. The hotter it is the bluer it will be and the converse is true, the cooler it is the redder it will be. 6500K is the colour of daylight and 10000K is the colour of a overcast sky, since it is bluer underwater because most of the other colours are filtered out, some reefers use 20000K bulbs for the bluer undersea effect.

Just a side note, the bulbs never actually reach anywhere near 10000K so you don't have to worry about a fusion reaction or turning your tank into plasma.

Now to confuse you even more, not all 10000K bulbs are of the same colour. It's just a marketing gimick! They think reefers like 10000K so they slap on a 10000K label on every bulb they produce. Different ballast will also burn the same bulb with different colour and intensity.

So ultimately it boils down to personal preference and trial and error. It's largely hit or miss when choosing the right bulb that make eye-candy of your tank. If you want to know more about the blueness of different bulbs, just ask.

HQI and AQI refer to the ballast of the lamp. HQI stands for Halogen Quartz Iodide invented by Osram Sylvania and AQI is fancy name for normal magnetic ballasts from Arcadia, correct me if I am wrong. There are also pulse-start ballasts and electronic ballasts. Different bulbs need different ballasts to run at their optimum. Nearly all the ballast will fire any bulb of the correct wattage but the colour as mentioned before will vary.

The night lights are actually grey or blue incandesant bulbs or sometimes small blue PL tubes to simulate moonlight over the tank.

Hope I confused you even more!

[kingpin]

Nearly all the ballast will fire any bulb of the correct wattage but the colour as mentioned before will vary.

I agree with this statement. MH lamps usually have a number of ballasts recommended by the manufacturer in order to operate at optimum performance. Wrong ballast might cause your lamps to give another Kelvin that is different from manufacturer's specifications.

[Achilles Tang]

Good post Tanzy!

[anonymous]

many thanks tanzy. but back to the question: usu marine uses what type of light? e.g. warm white, daylight etc.

and: As you guys are more experiences in diy and all sources for getting the materials to get thing started, may i know where to get those material for MH. E.g company name etc.

thanks in advance

[Tanzy]

It really is hard to say what kind of light to use will be the best. People will kill each other over this kind of debate. The most commonly used bulbs are Iwaki 6500K, Ushio/BLV 10000K, AB 10000K, Radium 20000K. All these bulbs have been proven to give good growth and colouration in corals. Also it is the intensity of the light that really influence coral growth rate and not colour temperature. Ballast is an important part of the lighting system that must be considered too.

I source for my lighting parts in US but some of the reefers here source locally. Ask them!

I use Ushio/BLV 10kK bulbs with E-ballasts. I will be testing 400w Radiums, 250w Iwasaki and Ushio later this year. I like crisp white. What do you like?

[seahorse]

i know tat jurong west ave 1 (shop name A&K lighting - something like this...) selling MH 150w 9 (including built in transformer everything) at

S$150.00. Think this is rather cheap (or have even cheaper?)

[hongqixian]

I read on reefcentral a long and lengthy thread on overdriving bulbs. Apparently you can overdrive an NO fluorescent safely up to 4 times or maybe more although you shorten the lifespan somewhat and it is much cooler than PL lites. Saved the whole thread and am going to read it when i have time.

[Tanzy]

I've plugged NO FL tubes in my VHO ballast before. Of course when I switched on the lamps, I was far far away. They did not explode but were as hot as VHO tubes which are way hotter than NO. I'm worried about long term stability of the glass tube and especially UV because the phosphor coating is not as thick in NO lamps as VHO lamps which are rated for the wattage. If the phosphor is not converting the UV into visible light then it might be emitting UV.

[hongqixian]

Yikes! Maybe I might try those bulbs on ballasts that are just slightly higher rated.

[Phang]

Hi Guys...

After much consideration....

I'm gonna DIY a canopy for my 5 footer tank.... in that canopy will be all the lightings, exhaust fans and of course reflectors...

These are the main items in the canopy...

1) 3 x 250W or 1x 250 + 2 x 150Ws...

with reflectors

2) 4 x 36 W actinics

with reflectors....

3) 2 x heat exhaust fans...

All ballasts from the canopy setup would be placed in a cabinet external of the canopy....

Will update asap.

[ZeRoC00l]

For what i have found so far.. it maybe cheaper just to buy a MH complete set. I have got quotes rfom $150 - $200 complete with bulbs, iginter ++

Pendant types

I'm still looking ard, cos the bulb they have only 11K [at leat tt is what i remember] for 150W , and only 5K for 70W.