ok so i got the on clearance $5 bulbs and...
$10 worth of bulbs and an $8 ballast and i gots 60w of actinics lol. now it may not actually be pushing a full 60, or it may be pushing more (70w ballast could have those bulbs going at 35w each). im not an electrician... but you guys know i dont mind screwing stuff up! if there is some catastrophic failure, hopefully the plate glass between the hood and my fishies will protect them.
as you can see in the pic, i havent yet cut down the hood. its still at 48 inches. im gonna go do the cuttin right now.
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Originally Posted by mps9506  Just an FYI. I used a similar lighting setup when I first got into the hobby. It lasted about a month before rust started showing up all over it. Also the lack of water proof endcaps proved to become troublesome as the pins on the bulbs became corroded from the moisture.
I ended up trashing everything and going with a pendant system designed for use over marine tanks and have been happy ever since.
You may want to consider throwing a few coats of rustoleum over it before using it. and maybe seing about switching out endcaps. |
i agree it is prone to screwing up pretty fast, specially since its made of such flimsy metal. i plan to have a sheet of plate glass covering most of the top of that tank (my gas exchange takes place in my completely open sump). taht should reduce exposure to saltwater. also, it will be sitting about 6 inches over the tank, not right on top of it. i think it will slowly deteriorate anyway, but for an $8 hood? i could just buy like 10 of em and swap em out yearly lol
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Originally Posted by sasquatch How did you figure out that ballast will run shorter bulbs? |
no EXACT science... just figured. i can tell ya this, it wont run with jsut 1 bulb in. you have to have both, otherwise it shorts the second out in a hurry. anyways, part of my understanding of the function of a ballast is that it determines how much juice to send to the lights. electircal ballasts are more effective at knowing how much to send and when, which is why they save energy over magnetic ballasts (which use a mechanical means instead of electronic). it does this by first charging the lights (ya know probe or pulse ballast) and then based on the electrical return, it adjusts the amount of juice it sends out. thats why ballasts get hot. theyre dissapating wasted energy. anyways, i figure this ballast was smart enough to adjust for teh short bulb length. once again, it was merely a guess, but since it was so inexpensive, if i had been wrong (or am proven wrong in the future) im not out much money.
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Originally Posted by lcstorc Interresting project.
Please don't hurt yourself too badly. We like you here in one piece and know your reputation for injuries. j/k 
Good luck. I can't wait to see the final product. |
so far so good!