DIY 70watt or 150w MH HQI pendant

[birdman204]

Done. A part was missing from my shipment! Working great. Lexan cover in place, only thing getting melted is one batch of zoos! Gotta burn em in slow

[Celestin]

was just wondering if you were going to sell your DIY 150W pendant. and if so how much are you looking for to part with it

 

-christopher

[T?@7]

Hey Liquid, it looks like you mounted yours backwards, with the lip towards the back. I guess this has no ill effect on directing the lighting at all?

I tried to find a pendant at my HD that had no lip but they all did (300w'ers anyways). Just wondering

[Reefer_Buddha]

i checked out the regents today at HD and there's basically the same one but it says "3 year warranty" and its a little bit smaller i think its a EF300 number, is that the same light?

[USFnano]

The one I got from my HD had is the same one Liquid has. It only said 2 yr warranty, model number EQ300WL

 

Jon

[Reefer_Buddha]

usfnano are you using 70 or 150w in that?

[USFnano]

I'm going to be using a 70 watt for my 5.5 gallon. I might do the same with a 150 watt for my 20 gallon at home later on.

 

Jon

[KrackerG]

HEY ALL!! OH MANNNN, this is gotta be one HOTTTT setup! Can all of you'll who are running this setup post some updates.... how's it doin'?

 

I was planning on using the 1 for my 10 and 2 for my 20L ...do you guys think I should run 150w? If so, what all needs to be "replaced"?? thanks reefriot for the break through!!

[reefriot]

if going with a 70w then just buy a bulb and ballast, if your going with 150w then you need to buy the ballast bulb and endcaps as the bulbs are to fat to fit in the endcaps that come with the pendant. still got mine after a year and a half!

if you want a 150w over a 10 gal then make sure its an open water tank. personally i would go 70w over the ten and a single 150w over the 20l should be fine

[unsped]

just picked up a regent pendant, one thing i will add. the pictures i saw in this thread led me to believe it was plastic and cheap, given the price.

 

i couldn't be more wrong, this unit is SOLID metal and thick, very well made, and has a great powercoat type finish. very very slick looking light, definitely not ghetto.

[Whitten]

Well now I have a newb question. I would like to see how ya'll have your ballast wired. I am thinking of doing this for my friends 10 gallon nano, as it will save him tons of money, and he won't have the huge rediculous hood on top of it. Any pics to help a visual learner along would be greatly appreciated.

[unsped]

are you guys satisfied with just the 70w and no actinic, this is what im debating currently.

 

i know the aqualine bulbs are supposed to be more blue than the ushio, any comments?

[wetworx101]

Heres one...The ushio bulb I have doesnt fit in the socket...and I got the biggest one I could (regent)...a 500watt halogen....the 300 having an even smaller holder than the 500. I have since figured out the problem...with another fixture that has spring loaded bulb contacts (and even then I had to still do some modifications). What's the secret guys? Is there a larger 300watt halogen out there that allows 70wattDE to fit right in...or are you guys also doing some modifications? Any info...?

[Von digity]

300watt is way to short right? Thats what I was thinking. I mean, all the 300 watters ive seen are like tiny... But the 300 watters have way cooler looking housings. Anyways, the sockets that the regent pendants come with suck, I ended up breaking one of my bulbs, eventually. I like the spring loaded ones way better.

[unsped]

i just opened mine up to see what you were talking about. i imagine if you dremeled some material off of the lips on the sockets, the bulb would go in with alot less force.

[wetworx101]

I will take a pic and show what I did on the one I bought. It confuses me however how reefriot was able to find a fixture that appears to handle the bulb without modification. And it isnt just length, it's the glass edge, or lip, if you will that runs between the actual bulb and the ceramic mount that is too big for the typical holder that consists of that "C" piece of metal with the two ceramic clips that hold the bulb at each end...the bulb simply is too bulky to fit in that groove. I'll post a bunch of pics tomarrow...and a few tricks I discovered. As for now, it is too late to go and start taking pictures!

[wetworx101]

ok, here goes. First, the old socket...how do you fit a halide in there anyways? First, the bulb was too long to fit in even the 500watt bracket...and 300watt halogens are about 1/2" shorter...I cant imagine how they could fit a halide in them. So I extended the bracket first with a #6x1" machine screw and a few nuts to make sure it held in place.

[wetworx101]

So I tried again...and WTF!!!! The bulb sockets arent long enough (or the bulb jacket isnt slender enough) to even allow the connection. The top pic below shows it with with the bulb flat, but even from the top (top pic), and the bulb mounted vertical the bulb just wont fit. Again, WTF!!!! That scrapped that project. That pendant is in the attic now!

[wetworx101]

So I went on a hunt for a fixture with a different mounting bracket...one that wouldnt interfere with the larger the glass jacket of the halide. I found this one...

[wetworx101]

The HQ500WL. It doesnt have the usual metal 'C' shaped bracket...it has two sockets...one stationary, and one spring loaded. $10. First, I will show the vent holes...drilled three holes in the top and four on the bottom edge with a 1/2" carbide hole saw.

[wetworx101]

here is a pic of the spring loaded setup. I did drill a small hole in the top of the reflector...the small nub on the side of the bulb came very close to touching the metal behind it...I didnt want to take a chance on the contact possibly blowing the bulb, so I drilled it out...adding a vent hole in the process.

[wetworx101]

The bulb was even too big at the ends to fit in between the metal slots on this large fixture. Simple enough...I simply took a pliers and snapped out the metal. Now you can see the wider and deeper area that the bulb can fit in easier.

[wetworx101]

So the bulb fit in the metal, but what you cant see now (cuz I have already taken care of it) is the bulb ceramic was hitting the socket ceramic before it hit the metal contact (just like the previous type I was trying above). That ceramic BTW is near impossible to cut back. You cant sand it, cant cut it without cracking the whole socket, it sucked. So then I noticed that the metal contacts in the ceramic ends were loose. I tried pulling them out...not gonna happen. Then I pushed them in...ok. I pushed them in far enough to get a paperclip twisted around the metal behind the cap...pushing the contact part out of the ceramic end far enough to actually touch the bulb's contacts. I also opened up the fixture to shorten the spring behind the spring loaded socket. It was a little too strong, and considering how far I had to push the socket in to fit the DE bulb in...I just decided to cut it before it crushed a bulb.

[unsped]

nice pics, making me rethink using my regent

[wetworx101]

Well, that was it. BTW, I still ordered the endcaps from hellolights in case this fixture created more problems than I care to deal with. Should get speakeraddict's fulham ballast in the mail any day now, so we'll see how it works out. I just cant see how anyone can fit a bulb in those brackets like the first one I showed. The bulb just keeps hitting the ceramic, the bracket isnt even long enough, etc. The fixture I used may be a little bit bigger, but it was only $10 and it seems to be easier to modify thanks to it's non-typical socket design.