How to make my own light fixture??

Well I've been thinking... Instead of buying a $1300 light fixture for my 150g can I just make my own light fixture by buying bulbs a a store and just placing them over my tank.. So the 1300 goes down to maybe 300 or so?

If there is a way to do this can you explain how to do it? I'm no electrician so I'll need some detail with small words lol

Also if you could give me the pros and cons of doing it this way will be apreciated.

 

are you going with t5, MH, or both for this... or LED?

 

well I want be able to go to the LFS and buy any coral I see without any buts because of lights.
Any recomendations will be accepted..

 

Stick with either T5HO or MH. If you go with T5's you will just ned more bulbs over your tank, Probably the best setup is T5HO Actinics, and then MH

 

How much money do you think they will be running for?

 

agreed... for this you will have to get:
1. a separate ballast for every MH bulb you use
2. a mogul/E39 socket for the bulb or a double ended one if you go with HQI bulbs
3. reflectors (can be homemade to save $)
4. a ballast for your actinic t5's (one ballast will usually run multiple t5 bulbs)
5. and a retrofit wiring kit for t5 bulbs

dont forget to include bulbs into your calculations because they can be expensive!

 

Look up DIY aquarium lighting. You are not going to meet your goal of $300 for your 150 and have enough to put any coral you's like in it. You can probably do it for $600-700.

 

For 700? Well that's reasonable.. Much better than 1300.. Well I think I'll go slow on this one.. Still don't have 700 yet...

 

$1300 is pretty expensive, I'm guessing you were looking at fixtures? You can do it cheaper if you use a retrofit kit. Depending on your exact dimensions check some of the options out out here, you will need a canopy or some sort of structure to fix the bulbs to but it's much cheaper.

http://www.reefgeek.com/lighting/T5_Fluorescent/AquaIllumination/Miro-4_Retrofit_Kits/

 

This is what I did. I can keep SPS on the sand with this setup.

You can use 150W halides to keep temps and power consumption down. Hellolights has HQI kits pretty cheap.
150W HL MH Retrofit Kit (HQI) - 15035

I used 36" t5 because I already had them. You can use 72" and save on ballasts and bulbs in the long run.

You could also replace the T5s with T12 actinics and usually pick up the ballast extremely cheap.