Quick MH ballast question.

[Stangman]

Thinking of picking up a used dual 175w MH ballast.

Now first, can I run a single 175w bulb in this? Will this be too much for my 29 gallon tank?

And if I can run just 1 bulb, do ballasts have a life that I should be concerned about?

Thanks!

 

[bjohanson1234]

Do you have specs for the ballast? Like a name and model number? I would bet it depends on the ballast if it can only run one bulb.

175w wouldnt be too much for a 29 gallon. There are several people on here that run 150 over their 29 gal tanks.

Ballasts like every other piece of equipment will die. It could be tommarow or 10 years from now. But you would have to look at the manufacture specs to see what they consider the life expectancy of that paticular ballast.

 

[Stangman]

Now the real dilemmas start. I found this guy..

Odyssea Metal Halide System

I know quality may be lacking, but I'm familiar with electronics.

But the only 30" they make is 350watts!! Surely that is too much for a 30" 29gallon aquarium?

I wanted their 24" kit that is 150watts, but they say it's no longer in stock, and I'm not sure that I could mount it on my 30"?

 

[BL1]

The track that the legs slide into goes the entire length of the fixture so you can slide the legs far enough in to fit your tank. I've got that fixture in a 48" and while it's not the highest quality I have nothing bad to say about it, it does exactly what it's supposed to.

 

[Stangman]

Sorry, what I meant was if I get the 24" one, could I slide the legs out to be 30" (Maybe a bit wider).

On your 48" fixture, do the legs slide out farther than 48"? That way I could tell if the 24" might slide out to 30".

 

[BL1]

Oh ok, hmmm they do but maybe only an inch on each side.

 

[BL1]

Here are pics of the room I have to play with, 48" fixture on a 48" tank

 

[Stangman]

Thanks tons man! Yup, looks like I would be an inch short on each side. Bummer!

So do you think the 380watt one is too much?

It wouldn't limit my ability to keep fish with 'overlighting' would it?

 

[BL1]

I've been told there's no such thing as too much light ... And if you really wanted to cut it down you could run the PCs just for the morning/dusk and just have the MH on during the day to cut it down to only 250w.