Lighting Q for a beginner

[shanersnyder]

Okay this may be a dumb question but I need to know if I'm going to get metal halides eventually.

Does one ballast run one MH bulb? I have a 55 gal and was thinking that 2 175W MHs would do the job.

So that would obviously be two 175W MH bulbs, reflectors, fans, etc. but does it require 2 ballast?

thanks

shanersnyder

[Fishbulb2]

Typically, yes you will need one ballast per bulb. It's very rare to have ballasts that can run multiple MH bulbs. So unless it is bodly stated that whatever ballast you buy can run two bulbs, don't do it. If you have technical lighting questions and such about the wiring too, the IceCap forum should be helpful as well.
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[shanersnyder]

thanks fishbulb

Mr. Sparkle! Mr. Sparkle!

[hahnmeister]

For a 55g, T5s would be a better choice than halides. A 55g is a long, tall, narrow tank. T5s are long, narrow, and penetrate better than halides do. If you were to go halide, I would go with either 150wattDE or 250wattDE bulbs (150s often have higher outputs than 175s). Double ended bulbs are just better (more output, longer life, etc). Due to a 55g height, a 150 might not be large enough. I know many people with dual 250s over their 55g tanks. But this is 500watts!, and even though they might be needed for a tank this tall, dual 250s can run a 75g, or even a 120g easily. Most of the light with the dual 250s is lost because the tank is so narrow.

But this is where T5s come in. You can get a 4x54wattT5 setup and have more light coverage, less heat, etc than with halides. 55g tanks are like poster children for T5 use. You can easily get away with just 216 watts of T5 lighting what would take you 500watts of halide to do... it has to do with how the reflector/bulb gets the light into the tank... T5s just do a better job, esp on a 55g. Hey, dont get me wrong... if you were talking about a 60g/2' cube, then by all means, I would be suggesting a single 400watt bulb in a lumenarc reflector, because thats what the dimensions of that tank lend itself to.

[jag1979]

I second the t5's