lighting from home depot

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iwantareef16

Aquarium Advice Regular
Joined
Dec 22, 2004
Messages
78
Location
eagan minnesota
i was at hd today and found these 300 watt spotlights that use a hqi bulb. Can i buy new bulbs that are the right color and use it in that spotlight
 
Are you sure they aren't Halogen bulbs? The halogen bulbs resemble a MH HQI bulb. Halogens aren't much good for aquariums.
 
you can buy power compact bulbs at home depot. ive made a pc lighting fixture from parts from homedepot for cheep. im trying to make a metal hylide from homedepot parts. tell me how it goes.
 
i looked at the homedepot cataloge, and it looks like they sell a 100w metel hilide bulb for $36.87 they also sell several metal hilide flood lights.
 
I think those bulbs are still too warm spectrally -- somewhere around 6k

They would probably create ripe conditions for algae blooms .
 
I am no expert on MH I dont even have any at this time. My opinion would be if you have the proper ballast and the socket is correct it will work. It would likely be a large setup for minimal light. Most tank MH are positioned parallel to the tank to provide optimum light. these flood light setups would be giving reflected light not the direct light that is best. Once again this is JMO
 
the ones that i saw at home depot were farly expencive, ide just go get an actual mh retrofit kit. i dont think that you can put a 150 watt bulb in a 300 watt fixture.
 
No, you can not. The halogen bulbs don't use a ballast...they use line voltage. The halogen fixture will not fire a MH bulb. Retro kits are the best way to go for an easy solution to inexpensive MH. You can order all the parts separately, but I'd be suprised if you saved much by doing that. Going with a core/coil ballast is a less expensive alternative, but IMO, electronics are better in the long run.
 
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