MH Lighting Tips and Sources

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I'm a reefkeeper and I have 4 250W DE MH bulbs over my reef tanks. I thought I would share some good sources I've found from that hobby. One is: Hello Lights

They have 250W electronic ballasts for 109 that run great (what I use) . They also have the DE brackets with a bar on the bottom so they are spaced correctly. DE means Double Ended by the way and is not the same thing as HQI, which is a type of ballast! All high quality stuff and the best prices I've found.

When it comes to bulbs, most reefers toss them after 6-12 months due to intensity loss and spectrum shift. We also use Kelvin ratinggs from 5K-20K so you could probably get some good bulbs from people for cheap by just asking on one of the reef boards. There are some 10K bulbs that are a crisp white, and I think would do great in a projector. The 5-6K range still has a lot of yellow, IMO.

The two main ones are reefcentral.org and reefs.org . You may have to become a member to see the trading and selling forums. Anyway, I hope this helps some of you.
 
Yea,

Now imagine replacing 4 of them every 6 months, not to mention my $350 electric bill! No the 20K's are very blue/purple. They really make the corals flouressce. (Corals use blue light since everything else gets flitered out as it pass through water)

The IWASAKI 6500K are pretty standard, and you can get them with 6-12 Months on them for <10 bucks from a reefkeeper. You could even try out different color temps. One may work better for you., but I wouldn't try anything over 10K.

I was surprised when I saw the 5-6K recomendation. Based on my reefkeeping experience I was thinking something in the 7-8K range.

Championlighting.com is antoher good one. Champion Lighting
 
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