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Re: Metal Halide bulbs cost



Steve Dixon said....

>I'm with you 100% Ed, but if you hunt for micronutrient mixes you might
>end up with "Chelated Secondary Mix" from Plantex from Ontario, Canada
>(this is the micronutrient mix originally used by Sears and Conlin)
>which has 7% iron which might just be quite a bit of iron.  While one
>could reduce the CSM amounts as compared to the other additives, one
>could not reduce the ratio of iron to other micronutrients.  Perhaps a
>small point, but so far as I know, no one is adding all the
>micronutrients element by element.

Did they not use the Chelated Micronutrient Mix made by Plant Products
of Brampton, Ontario?

There is a fellow, Shiao Y. Wang  of the University of Southern
Mississippi who mixes up his own mix. He posted its compostion to
this mailing list about two years ago.

Steve Pushak said....

>     Went in yesterday to get one of my ballasts repaired; a capacitor had 
>     gone. Our local liquidator (Always Lighting) was good enough to do the 
>     repair on warranty even though the system is close to 2 years old. I 
>     figure that's worth a plug. (pun intended) ;-)
>     
>     I inquired about replacement 5500K bulbs only to learn that the cost 
>     is now about $75 Cdn. After haggling, I could get the price to $65 ea. 
>     for a quantity of four but with tax that's still around $300 cash 
>     outlay. Ouch! The common 4500K bulbs are still available for about 
>     $30. The liquidator used to sell the 5500K bulbs for $25 but no more; 
>     their excuse was they were actually unintentionally selling below cost 
>     previously. I couldn't see how they could be unaware of the price of 
>     the item since it was a specialty item and had to be gotten into stock 
>     as ordered so how could they fail to notice the price?
>     
>     Is this a competitive price for the high spectrum bulbs?
>     
>     Is it worth the expense to use the 5500Ks?

I purchased three MH setups from them last year. One of the reasons that
I went with the 4000K lamps was the "below cost pricing" of their 5500K
lamps. I had trouble believing them to be the real McCoy. You got lucky
Steve. Actually $65 is still cheap. These fellows aren't Coralife.
They're nice guys just trying to make a living, not create an empire.

--
Dave Whittaker
ac554 at FreeNet_Carleton.ca