6' metal halide/VHO lighting set up value?

Triggerfngr

Triggerfngr

Copepod
#1
#1
I'm just getting back into the hobby and am acquiring equipment. I've decided to go with a 180 gallon 5x2 set up ( which I'm still looking for if anyone knows of one available, tank only or would buy entire set up). Anyways, I'm going to go with led's so I don't have a need for this set up and it's longer than I want. It runs 2 vho's and 3 metal halides (250 w 140000k blue). Was told all bulbs have two months use and have 2 extra halides with no use. My question is what is fair market value for something like this? I don't want to offend anyone by asking to much but don't want to be ripped of either.


Thanks,
James
 
S

sadams

Amphipod
M.A.S.C Club Member
#2
#2
Trigger,
not sure if this will help but, I recently purchased my 200 gallon (maybe 2 months ago) and the person I purchased it from, threw in the 6 foot Coralife (3x250 MH, 4x96 PC, led moonlights) for additional $75.00. The bulbs are suppose to be brand new. Not sure if that was a steal, or just no one buying MH's these days (beside me) :)
 
sethsolomon

sethsolomon

Hammerhead Shark
M.A.S.C Club Member
#3
#3
Here are the Halides I have picked up lately with prices I paid to help give you an idea:

250w DE Giesemann reflector pendant with icecap ballast $80
2x 250w DE halide reflectors (Mid grade reflectors) with lumatek ballasts $120 for the pair
2x 400w SE halides with awesome reflectors and icecap ballasts $250 for the pair


Any idea what brand the ballast is?
 
J

jda123

Dolphin
M.A.S.C Club Member
#5
#5
Keep the VHOs. If you ever want them, then you will be glad that you have them. No LED can light a tank like VHO Super Actinics can. You can probably get 25-40 for each MH setup. The reflectors are not great and are hood-only - people pay the big money for the Lumenarc, or similar, reflectors. Used bulbs are worthless.

...or you could just keep them so that you can use them when LED don't end up to be all that you thought that they would be. If you had MH for any kind of time before, you will come to this faster than some.
 
J

jda123

Dolphin
M.A.S.C Club Member
#7
#7
Short: No, not for us.

Long: they were looked at to be phased out in General Purpose lighting applications, and might be still. Turns out that a T12 in a good fixture (reflector in our hobby) is as efficient as 2 T5s at twice the wattage, so they are the same, only with half the bulbs to buy and destroy. The fixtures and reflecting of the light was what made T5 nice, not the bulbs themselves. There is still the issue of people having more than they need, so they might get phased out anyway... buying 2 or 4 bulb fixtures where one might do. In specialty lighting (important for us), the phosphors don't work the same in the skinny bulbs, so there might always be a T12 application for tanning beds, horticulture, xray machines and lots of other places. There is also significant investment in the old stuff by some major players. All proposed legislation and industry studies are for GP lighting only.

...sorry for the novel. A good friend from College is an engineer at Phillips and works on this stuff all day.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top