Ive been looking around for various metal halide lights for my new tank and they are all so expensive brand new and you rarely come across them second hand.

But when i was looking on ebay i come across these lights, they are not specific aquarium light but they are a damn sight cheaper than overtank luminaires and all i have to do is buy the bulbs and its ready to use and the starter ballast is built in so i wont have the trouble of unsightly external ballasts.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/New-Metal-Halide-150...id=p3286.c0.m14

heres the link to the lights.

I was thinking of buying 3 of these lights, would u say its best to go for 3 x 14k bulbs and then just get a LED moonlight kit for after lights out, would u reccomend using any blue lights along side these 3 metal halide lights or will i get a good enogun colour from the 3x150 watt 14k bulbs??

those light units don't look too bad but they will need to be wired up with a plug.

I wouldn't bother about adding any extra blue light if you run 14,000K globes, they have plenty of blue light in them.
If you want to run moonlights then they can be used after the halides are turned off at night. Most people turn the moonlights on a couple of minutes before the halides go off. Then the fish don't get stressed by going from bright light to dark and then to blue light.

3 x 150 watt halides should be fine on most tanks up to 6x2x2ft. If the tanks are taller than 2ft or if you want to keep lots of acropora corals then maybe increase the wattage to 200 or more.

I think ill go for just 2 to start with and see the kind of light spread i get from them and if needed i can always add another at a later stage.

The tank is 24" tall so i should get away with 150watt lights hopefully.

150w should be fine on a 2ft high tank. Most halides will give good light over a 2ft square area. So if the tank is 2ftx2ftx2ft then 1 x 150w halide would be fine.
A 4x2x2ft tank should have 2 x 150w halides and so on.
You can raise or lower the lights above the tank to spread the light out more. They should be at least 12 inches above the tank to prevent them warming the water up too much. I put my hand near the surface of the water under the lights. If my hand warms up then the water is going to warm up. Under this situation I would raise the lights to a point where my hand is no longer getting too warm from the light.

with crappy reflectors, 12" high would mean a DRASTIC reduction in light. Lumenarc and Lumenmax and Lumenbright are all great reflectors that are MEANT to be used up high.

Id say no to this light and get one specifically for aquarias. Metal halides are things that have set houses on fire, i wouldnt skimp on one, especially if its not made for aquaria and can fail and start a fire when used near water.

Or just take the ballast out of that unit and put it somewhere else

point taken about them not being for aquariums and causing problems near water. i found this one thats for aquarium use so let me know what u think of this.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/250-WATT-DE-COMPLETE...Q2em118Q2el1247

Thats a bit much considering you can get icecaps for the same price

Edit: Considering all electronics are dangerous near water, that first one you showed us should work fine as long as you place it correctly.

This post has been edited by Dorkhedeos: Jun 23 2008, 07:25 AM

Its called quality. Even one thats "made" for aquariums, but is real crappy can burn when used for aquariums. Ever heard of oddysea/jebo etc? Their MH lights are extremely cheap, very bad quality. Their old ones that ran magnetic ballasts were always in a risk to go up in flames, and even their newer electronic ones fail in flames all the time. If you want, shoot me a pm so i can send you the link.

Its your choice really.....

If i were you, id go for a lumenmax reflector, a high quality aquarium ballast (not some 5$ home depot one that was discontinued since 1980) and a reliable marine colored bulb (10k-20k).

Metal halides arent really the safest lights, and in this case, i wouldnt recommend one that looks just plain crappy.

And dont forget, these lights are to be run 8-12 hours a day until the ballast fails on it, wouldnt you want one that wont fail on you for at least a few years?

Why skimp?

Quality Quality Quality.

This post has been edited by Musho3210: Jun 23 2008, 08:14 PM

Haha, those brands always make me laugh

Craig, I guess since youre still new with this stuff, I guess mushos advice would be better. Might as well spend a little extra for one thats already set up than to have to learn a hard lesson with a house fire