Anyone buy MH lamps from eBay?

[TheChad]

Hey all,

I was just curious if anyone else has purchased MH lamps from ebay? It will be time to replace my DE HQI MH's soon, and I have been looking on various websites, it looks like most are $50+ per lamp.

Ebay has several 10k, 14k, and 20k DE HQI MH's for under $20 per lamp. So even if the lamp burns out after 3 months, that's still cheaper than $50+ a lamp that you replace every 6 months anyway..

I just wanted to see if anyone had any experience with these no-name ebay lamps... Let me know..

Thanks,

-TheChad

 

[neilanh]

I know ziggy uses them and loves them. I'm sure he'll comment when he sees this thread.

 

[cmor1701d]

MH should be replaced every 12 months. I buy from a guy on eBay and replace every 6 months. The bulbs are $20 vs. $55+ for the name brand. The eBay store is Trust_Deals.

I wish I had a meter to measure PAR on these. Then I would buy the Coralife to check PAR vs these.

 

[ccCapt]

Sanjay did do a small test on the Ebay bulbs.
Product Review: Spectral Analysis of Aquarmckzo and Catalina Metal Halide Lamps
"When compared against other lamp and ballast combinations, these lamps tend to have lower output. However, this does not mean that the lamps are not useable. Given the low cost of the lamps, their use can be justified. Knowing that the output lies in the lower half to the lower third of comparable lamps, this information can be used to extract the most out of these lamps. For example, these lamps could be adequate if you could mount them lower and use them on shallower tanks, or with corals that require lower light levels."

I use Iwasaki 175w 15k bulbs on a magnetic ballast and get a PPFD of 71. The Ebay bulbs with the same ballast are 28 PPFD.

 

[cmor1701d]

Larry, do you think you can get Sanjay to test of the 150W-DE bulbs I got?
I'd like to know how it compares to the name brand bulbs.

 

[ccCapt]

I did ask Sanjay a while back about some of the other Ebay bulbs and the Ebay ballasts. He said he's done testing MH bulbs unless a new bulb comes out. He even took apart his light testing table and was using it as a snack table for the frag swap party...lol. He told me all the Chinese bulbs are basically the same. Low output and low par.
But, the cheap Ebay electronic ballasts are probably a good deal since he said there is very little difference in the performance of all electronic ballasts.

 

[cmor1701d]

Thanks. Good information.

 

[Ziggy953]

Until very recently (4 weeks ago) used the Ebay bulbs and most of you know what kind of growth I got from my tank. I know lighting is only one of many factors in growth but...

If you don't believe the ebay bulbs can work on your system reference my thread and have a look at some of the corals and the growth.

 

[TheChad]

Until very recently (4 weeks ago) used the Ebay bulbs and most of you know what kind of growth I got from my tank. I know lighting is only one of many factors in growth but...

If you don't believe the ebay bulbs can work on your system reference my thread and have a look at some of the corals and the growth.

Which bulbs do you have?

I think I am going to give some of these EBay bulbs a try, for the price I can't hurt to try em. I know that My corals use to grow like weeds under VHO lights, now I'm using MH/CF light with 5x the wattage, and my corals are growing, but not nearly as fast as with VHO's (Which is fine, they grew almost too fast before)

-TheChad

 

[ccCapt]

Here's the way I look at it. If I'm paying for the electricity to run my bulbs, I want to get my money's worth. Say I can get the Ebay bulbs for about $25 each shipped. So I'm using, as a ballpark figure, $20/month in electricity to run the bulbs and I'm getting 28 PPFD. Now I buy Iwasaki bulbs for $70 shipped. I'm using the same amount of electricity, but now I have 71 PPFD. My electric cost is the same, but my light output is about 2.5 times as much.
So.....are you really saving anything with the Ebay bulbs? Same electric cost but a huge difference in output. Even if you replace them every 6 months since they are so cheap, you are still only getting 28 PPFD.