Need help with my metal halide fixture.

[Jblunkall]

Hello everyone. I am a new reefer that has been in the hobby for about 6 months and a new member to mtrc. I started with a 75 gallon and now have upgraded to a 225. I bought the 225 set up used and it came with a 72" metal halide fixture. It has 3 x 250w ballasts plus T5's. My question is, I ordered new 250 watt bulbs but the ends are different than the bulbs I'm replacing. Doing more research, the bulbs that are in the fixture look like 150watt bulbs instead of 250watt from what I can tell in pictures online. They are double ended bulbs. I will try to get a pic posted of the old bulb and new bulb that is different. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Jblunkall]

Bulb on the bottom is what I took out. It is shorter with different ends than the new. The other bulb is the new 250 watt bulb with the box above it.

 

[bknapp]

Yes, it's a 150 watt bulb and not a 250. You also don't want to touch the bulbs with your bare hands and also make sure you're using UV shielded glass.

If you can't get those 250 watt bulbs exchanged I would be interested in getting them from you.

Welcome to R2R and MTRC!

 

[Reefing Madness]

Those bulbs might be the same wattage, but they are not the same bulb.
The top bulb is whats known as a FC2 DE Lamp
The bottom one is known as the HQI DE Lamp
They are not the same.

FC2 Lamp fits into these

 

[Jblunkall]

I bought them as HQI DE bulbs. Maybe they were just labeled wrong?

 

[bknapp]

You did order HQI bulbs, the fixture uses FC2 bulbs. Guess I never realized the difference until this thread, thanks to Madness.

 

[_sludgefactory]

I think the smaller ended lamps only go up to 150. That's the style my old ,150 mh clamp lamp took but when I upgraded to my current 250 it uses the fc2 socket. What fixture do you have?

 

[Reefing Madness]

250W 14k de HQI Metal Halide MH Bulb Lamp Current | eBay

 

[_sludgefactory]

How do you post like that so it resolves the url to a link like that? Sorry to thread jack.

 

[Jblunkall]

That looks like the bulb I need!! Thanks

 

[Dowtish]

Jblunkall, are you Dale's cousin? or relative?

 

[Reefing Madness]

How do you post like that so it resolves the url to a link like that? Sorry to thread jack.

Just copy and paste the link

 

[_sludgefactory]

I did that but it didn't work. I'm on tapatalk though so that might be the problem.

 

[Jblunkall]

Yes. Dale is my cousin. He told me to make sure I joined the mtrc and checked out the forum. He said there was a lot of great people on here. I've enjoyed reading through the threads.

 

[Reefing Madness]

I did that but it didn't work. I'm on tapatalk though so that might be the problem.

Try using the reg R2R app, ive gotten it to work on the one.

 

[Jblunkall]

Yes, it's a 150 watt bulb and not a 250. You also don't want to touch the bulbs with your bare hands and also make sure you're using UV shielded glass.

If you can't get those 250 watt bulbs exchanged I would be interested in getting them from you.

Welcome to R2R and MTRC!

I can return them but if you wanted them I would pass them along at what I paid for them. $45 each and I got free shipping. I have 3 of them at $135. Or I will send them back to amazon.

 

[Dowtish]

Yes. Dale is my cousin. He told me to make sure I joined the mtrc and checked out the forum. He said there was a lot of great people on here. I've enjoyed reading through the threads.

Right on! Dale is a good dude! Glad you joined. Come check out a meeting soon.

 

[Jblunkall]

Right on! Dale is a good dude! Glad you joined. Come check out a meeting soon.

I will be looking out for the next meeting date and come check it out. Thanks!