Not stupid at all... I'm assuming by the normal bulb you mean the original bulb that was in there, it was a 500w Halogen, way too inneffficient (heat) and the wrong color spectrum for our uses, the halogens burn around 2900K if memory serves me right. The new halide burns at 14000K. I hacked the Halide into the halogen fixture because I didn't want to purchase a fixture and quite frankly, because I could

Cheapest route for halides will almost always be a DIY, magnetic ballasts can be found for cheap, best as far as type and color is a matter of perspective, appearance versus growing power. But that is beyond the scope of this thread.


Quote Originally Posted by Brimstone
mb im stupid but why the new ballast and not the normal bulb Im going to add some metal halide to my tank and looking for the best and cheapest way