hi can you use metal halide setups etc say from the switched on gardner?and change the bulbs to suit or are they not the best to use,anyone got any comments on this.

Yes you can, but look into what type of bulbs you want first because the bulbs make up a huge part of the cost i.e. 250w DE or SE, 400w SE.

thanks suphew, what would the most common 6500k metal halide bulbs be?any help would be great

i dont kno alot,but have been thinking exactly what you are lol,hopefully someone might know...

yeah ive wondered this for awhile now, hopefully someone can help us

I rung them up and the (*&(* didn't even know what kinda kelvin bulbs they had.

You'll just need to change the bulbs, that's it. Otherwise they'll work fine. PM Reef or jetskisteve, either one can get you good SE MHs, I think.

All switched on growers have though is 400 watters which may be overkill.

thanks ira, whats the difference between de and se?are there different bulbs for the 2 types?

Yeah. Totally different bulbs, differernt mountings, DE requires an additional UV blocking cover glass, SE doesn't. SE is bigger and is just a screw in mounting.

do you think that 2x 150w mh would be enough lighting on a 100x75x65cm tank?i think im going turn my tank for marine into a freshie, then when i get some proper room and money start on a new marine tank

i run 3 x 150W m/h's over a 1500x600x600 tank. to be honest i could do with a 4th. however im about to hook up 4 x T5's in addition to the current 3 x 150's, i believe this should be sufficient.

I have 3 x 250w DE on my tank just over 1500.

DE = double ended

SE = single ended

Anything over 6500k (which you might if you luckly get from the switch on gardener) is ok, marine keepers tend to like 10,000+k cause the colour looks better.

i have 3x 150w all-in-one MH lights that seem to have been shop-fittings, they were set up to run on an in-roof rail system. before that, i had one that was supposed to be mounted in roof or in wall. any halide fitting is fine as long as you can mount it and run the right bulbs.

i havent found any of the hydro shops to be useful with tank lighting. half of their staff cant even spell bulb, let alone know what a kelvin rating is......