Mama Bear wrote:

Ok, well if I want to just go on ebay than, and put it all together
myself, can I just look for any new 175 watt ballast, get a lamp and a
socket for it, wire it all up, make my own reflector and I'm in
business? Will the components all work together without having to be
specially designed for each other?

Yes, with in reason. Putting a 250 w lamp in my 4 foot (meant for
1000w) reflector meant a little bit of fiddling to get it to fit right.

You can't run a MH bulb on a HPS ballast for example, you can but it
requires a special conversion bulb. The size of bulb and ballast has to
match. The voltage used to start the bulbs is high, so the wiring and
socket have to be special high voltage.

175 and 250 watt light integrated units can be found, check your local
big box store. The specialty stores don't carry them anymore.

And you can find special MH lamps at pet shops that specialize in
sal****er reef tanks, which can use lamps with very (10K, 15K) ratings.


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If I had something to say, this is where I'd say it.