Can't beat a $7.44 halogen fixture that you can ALMOST pop a 70W halide into stock or with a little modification a 150W bulb.
You need to grind/cut/snap some of the metal so that the bulb fits in, but it's a super quick mod once you figure it out.
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printthread.php?t=1546&pp=40Can't beat a $7.44 halogen fixture that you can ALMOST pop a 70W halide into stock or with a little modification a 150W bulb.
You need to grind/cut/snap some of the metal so that the bulb fits in, but it's a super quick mod once you figure it out.
Got it... same thing I did with that knock off halogen -> 70w MH hack. BTW did you attach the ballast to the fixture or remotely?
Initially I was thinking you were hacking on the Brinks MV fixtures, they've been taunting me for a while now to grab one just to take it apart to see if the ballast was good for anything else.
I have the ballast remotely mounted. The thing gets pretty darn hot the way it is. I haven't looked at the MV fixture. I don't know enough about the ballasts to see what the difference is. I might try to get my 150W up tonight after work because the few things that I have in my bowfront have already shown signs of fading because they miss the halide light and the PC bulbs that are over the tank are good enough to light things up to see, just not good enough for much else.
I got my 150W pendant up last night. I need to get some more chain so I can lower it a bit as it's about 12" or more off the water right now, but at least I have some decent light over the tank again. It's amazing how much brighter the 150W 14,000K bulb is than the 250W 14,000K bulb. The 250W seemed to fluoresce stuff better though. I moved a couple frags around in the tank to see if they brighten up more.
Oh yeah, I brought another bulb home from work and tried that in the 250W pendant and that didn't fire up either. Something is causing the SE bulbs to not fire. I might just leave the 150W pendant up if the corals like it. :)
Hmmm wonder what you've got going on there with that ballast... was the bulb you brought home a MH or something else? HPS, MV need a higher surge of power to fire the probe to actually start the bulb, hance the bigger caps.
It was an M58 metal halide bulb made by Sylvania.
Maybe the ballast has just given up the ghost and will no longer push enough current to fire the bulb(s), of course that is the only thing we didn't test for was max load being output, think the Fluke meter you had could measure it without burning up, but I'd need to double check both the ballast outputs and the meter...