[psmith133]

I have a friend who built her own hood for a 125gallon reef tank. She used $9.99 (x3) Lithonia lighting fixtures from Home Depot. They are a 150 watt Quartz Halogen weatherproof security lights. She just replaced the bulbs with 150watt Coralife double ended metal halide bulbs and so far everything seems to be working great. Ok, now my question. These units are way to small to have a built in ballast. How come they work without a ballast? Should a ballast be installed? How come MH lights are so expensive if you can actually go to Home Depot and get them for 10 bucks + the cost of the proper spectrum bulb?
I purchased 2 of these, attached a cord and they seem to work fine, I just need to order the bulbs, but this all seems to good to be true so I thought I would ask around.
Any answers would be greatly appreciated. I have scoured the intenet and been unable to get a real answer.