Light help

I was given 3 lights along with my aquarium when I bought it. No lights were included and no info was given to me about these lights. I just now decided to research them. This is what I found Reef Aquarium Metal Halide and HQI Lighting - Reflectors : Aquatic Connection

Its the first set of lights on that page. So I realize now I have been given metal halides. First I dont even know what bulbs I should get. Second I dont know what to plug them into or even how. Third I have 2 36 inch powercompacts 96w 10k and blue act over my 125 now. Can I still incorporate them when I use the metal halides? How should I set this up? Thanks!

 

Anybody??

 

Halides require a ballast to work..... well all our lights do actually.... but I digress. If they were given to you, they should be fairly big and heavy. They will say what wattage of bulbs they will run.

 

I cannot make out most of the writing on the fixtures. The most I can read is "something something 600w" something 4kv

 

Sorry I meant to post 600v not 600w

 

Judging by the link you provided
what you have is
the reflector, the lamp holder and some wiring

the lamp - will be a Single ended screw in Halide lamp
and you will need to buy a ballast that is compatible with the lamp

the writing you can see, possibly stated Max 600 Watt? a safety label indicating the maximum load the fixture is capable of handling

so look around for MH SE (single ended) lamps of your desired color temp
of for example 250 watt, and then you need a ballast capable of running a 250 watt lamp

you wire the unit to the ballast and then the ballast to the mains

Steve

 

Okay....so what would you recomend for me to run? My tank is in cycle....but I do intend to keep corals. As stated above I currently have coralife 2 36 inch 192w cf over my 125. Each unit contains a 96w 10k bulb and a 96w blue act bulb. Any ideas on how I should set this up?

 

the best option IMO
Would be to build a canopy and then take the coralife fixture apart

MH lamps are good for 2 square feet

so I would retro fit the new canopy as follows

PC MH PCPC MH PC
my reasons for this are because
1) it spreads the MH light better through the set up
2) it puts PC lamps and not MH lamps above any bracing glass (the heat can crack glass)

I would probably go 14k MH lamps
and would be tempted to have actinic lamps in the 2 central spots
with 10K PC lamps or actinics in the slots at either end

Steve

 

I have 3 of these lights and my tank is 6 ft long. I thought I would use all 3. Do I still need to use the 10k bulb in the powercompacts or should I switch it out with a blue act bulb? This way I would have 192w of blue act out of each pc unit.

 

From what I have been reading these units require a blue wave ballast. Can I plug all three into 1 ballast or do I have to buy a ballast for all 3 lights? Hope that isnt a stupid question.