Guidence on compact power lighting fixtures

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flanque

Aquarium Advice FINatic
Joined
Jun 9, 2004
Messages
740
Hello,

How feasible would it be to create your own light fixture (inc balist) for compact power lighting? Obviously we don't make the balist, but surely it must be possible to create "a fixture" to install these tubes?

I only ask because I am facing $350 for power compacts here in AU and that is just too darn expensive.. plus it's a nice little project for fun.
 
its just simply a box with reflectors and bulbs in it.. you can wire the ballast remotely (outside of the box) or in the box its your call.. are you guys on a 240V system? do you know what ballasts it would take to fire up the number and wattage lamps you would like to use?
in other words.. how many and what wattage lights do you want? I dont know if I can find an austrailain link but Id give it a shot.. :D
 
i want 2x 96w tubes.. i want to power each tube independantly too.. balist must be seperate from light... heat of coarse.

i guess i wanted to know if you needed any 'special' balist for compacts... i thought as long as it had the right watt support it should be fine.
 
I am working on a custom canopy right now for my 46 gallon reef and it will have 2 55 watt SHO lights in it. This is the ballast that a "lighting technician" suggested t ome to use for both the SHO lights and my normal flourescents, only the wiring changes for the two.

http://www.atlantalightbulbs.com/ecart/10Browse.asp?search=120V+128W+MAX

Dont know if you cant get that particular one down under or not
 
yea.. the Workhorse 5's will work..
I got (4) F32T8's for cheaper off ebay.. they would work as well..
florecents pretty much use the same types of electronic ballasts assuming you have enought watts the wiring might be a little diffent with a big ballast but you want to use 2 smaller ones.. just make sure the ballast you get supports your Voltage you need (ebay sells alot of 277V ballasts that are kinda useless for home use)
 
Yeah but at that voltage it would be fine to chuck a single 95w or even 2x95w light(s) on there.. or is there something special about fluros? I only ask because at my old job we had a lot of problems with fluros blowing when put onto our electronic timer we designed (I didn't - the engineers did).
 
the ballasts come with 4 power leads.. you would only need 3 of them to get normal output out of the 96watt CF lamp.. you can add the 4th one and it will make it a little brigher.. the timer was propibly falty..
just make sure the ballasts are at the proper voltage for your house wiring.. just checked with another sydney member.. the voltage is 240V..
 
Yeah I'll have to look into it further. My brother in law is an electrician so he's a great reference point for knowledge.
 
some of the wiring isnt exactly standard... your brother could wire up a CF ballast no problem.. but getting the (4)T8 ballast wired up you or him might want a wiring diagram.. HTH
 
the T8 ballasts work for CF bulbs and can be found for far cheaper over hear (I got mine for about 16 bucks each with shipping off ebay) the workhorse is also not exactly a CF ballast its a muti use ballast therefore it wires up more like a T8 ballast.. Fulhams website has wiring diagrams for their ballasts (wich would work for the T8 ballast of = size)
 

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Hmmm... I'm tempted to just purchase a pre-made PC fixture. I'll have to drop $350 on it so something keeps telling me that's just too expensive for what essentially are just lights at higher wattages.

Finding the ballasts are the hardest bit.
 
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