# Best Mh bulb fo plants!



## faltaren (Apr 30, 2010)

Which is the best 150w MH bulb? Gisseman looks nice. Im new to metal halide.


----------



## Jason Baliban (Feb 21, 2005)

The ADA bulbs are about as nice as you can get as far as color. They are just, like most ADA, over priced!

jB


----------



## faltaren (Apr 30, 2010)

Don´t know were to get them. Other brands then? Dont want to spend more then 50 euros a pice. Gisseman, osram, aquamedic aqualine?


----------



## ashappard (Jun 3, 2006)

best bulb and best price may not go hand-in-hand.
I use really cheap ones and I'm very happy with those, but my happy may not equal another person's happy. Try a bulb or two that is within your price range if you cannot afford the most expensive. In my experience the ballast driving the bulb is as important as the bulb itself.


----------



## faltaren (Apr 30, 2010)

Im buying philips dimmable ballast . Do you use ebay lamps?


----------



## ashappard (Jun 3, 2006)

I use fishneedit.com (cant recall the actual brand) bulbs driven by icecap ballast


----------



## TAB (Feb 7, 2009)

do you have a electronic of magnetic ballest? 

electronic ballest tend to cool colors and magnetic tend to warm them.


----------



## faltaren (Apr 30, 2010)

Electronic


----------



## Elohim_Meth (Nov 4, 2007)

I use Osram Powerball HCI-TS 150/942 NDL, which gives good luminous flux (14000 lm) and has color rendering index Ra90...100.
HCI-TS 150/830 WDL has better luminous flux (14800 lm) but worse CRI (Ra80...89).


----------



## faltaren (Apr 30, 2010)

I ordered from watergrass.net heard rumors that its the same manufacturer and same specs as ADA . 6500 K


----------



## wet (Nov 24, 2008)

ashappard's and TAB's posts here and in the archives talked me into the fishneedit.com MH pendant as some sort of starting point with a bit of an upgrade path with a better ballast later. Unfortunately, their site does not have many bulbs available. I thought the rest of you folks might like this one, which has ~$25 bulbs (after shipping) in a variety of K values: http://www.lightexports.com/servlet/the-Metal-Halide/

(search for 70, 150, or 250w. They are double ended and appear to be the same type as ADA/ fishneedit.com/ etc's start type.)

Please correct me. I too am getting my first MH fixture and appreciate this info.


----------



## ashappard (Jun 3, 2006)

the link gives me a 404; but to me - color temp is a personal preference. I didnt care for the 6700K or 8000K from any manufacturer. My eyes like the 10000K bulbs. Every color temp I've tried from 6500K to 10000K has grown plants well.


----------



## wet (Nov 24, 2008)

Whoops. Start at lightexports.com, then search for 150w (or 70w or 250w). You'll find they have ~5000K, 6000K, 8000K, then 10000K-20000K in 1000K increments, which I thought pretty cool in terms of selection vs price. I think you're right, ashappard, about the importance of bulb temperature, but this is also the first time since forever that I'll be using a tank with one bulb and I tend to get OCD about this type of thing (color) when I start playing with and staring at my tank. 

I ended up ordering 8000K, 10000K, and 12000K from them in addition to the 6700K bulb I'm getting with the fishneedit.com fixture. So, it came out to about $225 (including shipping) for MH with 4 bulbs (say, a 4 year supply), which to me justified doing it instead of diy LED (and figuring out its mix of colors I would like). Also I am lazy and this was relatively cheap with the upgrade path 

Downside for lightexports.com is I still have not received a tracking number from them.

Praise for fishneedit.com, who answered my question about bulb availability and sent tracking information promptly. If anyone's interested, they expect all bulb types (8000K, 10000K, 14000K) available end of May.

Just more FWIW for other folks shopping.

Thanks!


----------

