Mobile Bay Reef Keepers

Does anyone have any dual 150 or 175 metal halide setups they want to sell or does anyone know where I should look to buy one for a decent price?

if you want a core and coil ballast go to grainger ir even home depot and get one of the lobay lights (like the street lights) or even ebay i have an extra mogal socket i can give you -- no reflector or check out online fish places i think pet solutions.com has some cheap single core and coil ballast with reflector and socket

if you want an electronic ballast your better off gitting it online

hth

chad

Do you have to have a company id, or tax number to shop at Grainger, where is it?

Brandon, You have to work for a company that has an account at grainger in order to buy from them. At least that is how it used to be.

hell i thought you could waltz right in there and buy the stuff you want i had gotten a couple of wall jacks for in install that i had to do about a year ago and they didnt ask me for any acct number or tax stuff

hth

chad

ask andy4499 here he just bought some float valves from them he can tell you what the deal it

chad

110chadman wrote:if you want a core and coil ballast go to grainger ir even home depot and get one of the lobay lights (like the street lights) or even ebay i have an extra mogal socket i can give you -- no reflector or check out online fish places i think pet solutions.com has some cheap single core and coil ballast with reflector and socket

if you want an electronic ballast your better off gitting it online

hth

chad

Will the core and coil ballast run a regular aquarium bulb or does it have to be a Special kind of bulb. I work like 2 minutes from grainger so I will go check them out at around noon. Do I just as for a 175 watt (or 250w)MH core and coil ballast or would it be call something else?

Brandon wrote:Do you have to have a company id, or tax number to shop at Grainger, where is it?

Yes when you get something from them you have to tell them a company name and they add your name under that company in the computer. Even though you have to tell them you company name you can still pay them with you personal credit card. You don't have to send the bill to your company. If someone needs something from up there I can buy it and you can pay me back later.

ask andy4499 here he just bought some float valves from them he can tell you what the deal it

Yeah and they will be going back as soon as I can take them up there.

I am curious also if the core and coil ballast will run a normal mogul base bulb 175 10K bulb?

Here is what grainger has, there are 4 pages of them which would work and the prices are kind of high.

http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/searchresults.jsp

yes i think its the m57 or m58 ballast iv had 3 of them its a little finiky on an ushuio 10k i think that bulb needs a pulse start then just the core and coil there is an extra little white or any color for that mater dongle box that is the pulsing starter for those ballast/ bulb combo

the starter just eleminites the bright burst from your bulb when you turn it on and it will extend the life of the bulb

from my experience the magnitek ballast will burn a 10k bulb a little bluer than an advanced ballast ive had bothe running at the same time on the same bulb ( think it was a coralife 175 10 or 12k bulb) i did see a difference between the to ballast!!!!

ill look tonight at what numbers i have on mine

hth

chad

M57's are for 175w... M58's are for 250w's.. the Mxx are for probe starts... you have to get a different magnetic ballast for pulse starts... browse on the link below... I got my M58's for $40 each here, they've since gone up to about $45 each.

I run 250w 10k Ushios, and they requlre the "regular" M58 ballast... if your bulb says probe start, that's the regular ANSI Mxx ballast, otherwise you're looking at a pulse start ballast.

If you don't want to have worry about which type of ballast to buy, then you want to get electronic ballasts, they'll fire anything.

http://www.1000bulbs.com/category.php?category=26

If you are going with 175's get a M57. There are very few bulbs that it won't light. If you are going with 250's get a M58 I am pretty sure that it won'tfire a few bulbs and none of the DE bulbs. For those you would need a M138 (?) which is a HQI ballast. If you are going with 400's use a M59. It will not fire Ushio bulbs but Iwasaki's, Radiums, XM20k, XM10k and many other quality bulbs can be used. Not sure of the ANSI number on a HQI 400 watt ballast.