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Re: DIY MH?


 <<  I am guessing you are planning on building your own hood. I recommend
   carefully planning the hood design to allow for easy access to the tank. On
   my 125 setup I have a track system design that will allow me to slide three
   MH fixtures around so that I can move them completely (4 feet or so) to the
   side and out of the way. >>
 
 Well, I for one would certainly like to hear more on how this was 
accomplished.
 
 I mean, I love A&H Supply and the PC's I have - but for tanks of 150 gal and 
up  I just can't picture a practical way to use them or even a hood of any 
type for that matter. Too deep. 

I guess a sort of suspended "light tray" is one possibility and Champion 
shows a set up with a PC and MH in a combo unit on their site, but the price 
and Kelvin are both too high. Salt stuff.
 
 Pendant MH, either bell shaped or the other rectangular type, would allow 
you to stick your arm in the tank whenever you want. I like that idea a lot.  
Ascetics aside, not having to build a hood is worth something too, but all 
this talk about being blinded by these hanging fixtures has me worried.
 
 Plus, the price of a Pendant from Champion or Hamilton with an Iwasaki 6500 
is about $240.00 each -- up from $199.00 for a regular 5500K rig with an 
American bulb. Speaking of being cheap, on a six foot tank, I wonder if one 
could effectively use just two pendants with a larger (and cheaper) 250 watt 
MH in each fixture?  Anyone try this set up?
 
 Because now that I admit to being "cheap" -- if one were to shop around a 
bit, I think one could probably find a good, plain old tar ballast and the 
Iwasaki 6500 bulb somewhere for between $100.00 to $130.00 for both. How hard 
would it be to come up with a decent hanging fixture for this? IOW, is one of 
their pendants really worth an extra 120.00 each? What qualities must a DIY 
pendant fixture have safety wise and how do you focus the light beam 
effectively if you tried making one yourself?
 
 I'm a big fan of DIY but I've never done MH. It certainly doesn't look any 
harder than wiring NO fluorescent, PC or any other project I've attempted, 
except for the part about coming up with a decent looking/functioning 
pendant. There must be some alternative to a galvanized bucket. OTHO, if I 
had some reasonable expectation that a bucket might work, I probably wouldn't 
hesitate to try one.

I've read everything on the Krib site -- is there somewhere I can find more 
info than this on DIY MH?

Thanks to any who help.
 
 Bob Olesen