High lighting and a 10 gallon tank

[Tong]

Does anyone know where I can buy an electronic ballast to fire smaller bulbs (18" and less)? All the electronic ballast I find only fire 24" and up bulbs while the smaller sizes are fired by magnetic ballasts. I want to build a DIY hood for a 10 gallon with 3 18" T8 bulbs but can not find a ballast. I know they exist because I see a lot of small hoods and under cabinet lights with them.

If I can not find any then I am left with three options. Please give me experience/opinions about each.

1) Buy under cabinet lights and rip out the electronic ballast. Build a hood with 3 electronic ballast. This might be rather expensive.

2) Buy a ballast rated for 36" bulbs. Split the hot wire into two wires to run two 18" bulbs. I do not know if this will work, but seeing as how it is the opposite of overdriving lights...it should work...shouldn't it?

3) Suck it up and buy a compact fluorescent fixture. Grrr. Is there one around the 45 watt range and 20" or shorter?

Thanks.

 

[JRagg]

Keep in mind you're going to want something that doesn't sit right on the aquarium and has cooling fans because it will end up getting very hot. I've got 26 W of CF over my 10 gallon and after about 4 hours of continuous running, one of my thermally protected ballasts turns off.

Here's a coralife fixture that would do what you're looking for. With a 50/50 bulb it would be right at the wattage you're looking for. They have a cheaper one that is only 28 watts as well (about $35).
http://www.hellolights.com/201xcoaqpcho.html

The cheapest option (which I'm sure others will chime in here) is to get an incandescent hood and get 2x20 W screw in CF bulbs from Wal-Mart. Plenty of light, and it's a lot cheaper than the other options. Not sure about heat though. I know LBW has these over his 10 gal.

 

[Tong]

I plan to have 3 3" cooling fans on the hood. I also plan to have with on/off switches for fans and lights. We'll see if I can wire it all.

I do have an incandecent hood and have thought about the CF option but decided agaisnt it for no better reason than I want to build my own hood.

Its funny how the 10 gallon tank is probably the most sold tank (probably due to ignorance) yet it has so little support.

 

[greenmaji]

an electronic floresent ballast fires 12"-48" bulbs, auto-sensing.

I would suggest a F32T8 you can pick one up at your local home improvement store in the lighting department

the F32T8's have a number before them for the number of lamps they can fire (you can also wire you lamps in series to save money on extra ballasts )


someone might interject about T-12's needing more wattage just stay within the max wattage of the ballast and you will be fine with any floresent bulb (including CF )

 

[Tong]

an electronic floresent ballast fires 12"-48" bulbs

This wasn't true for the two electronic ballast that I have tried. They were both rated for F17T8 - F40T8 but when I tried to fire my F15T8 bulb it did two things: The first ballast worked for about a week...although sometimes when it started the bulb was very dim and I had to turn it off and then on again util it was normally bright. The second ballast caused the bulb to flicker a few times and then simply died. My wiring was correct on both occasions. Electronic ballast have a max AND a min wattage. I just can't find an electronic ballast with a low enough wattage.

you can also wire you lamps in series

I've been doing a little reading today and this is the solution I am leaning towards. I think doing 2 F15T8s with 2x overdrive or 3 F13T8s normal drive should work well and give me enough wattage not to fry the thing.

Question for you greenmaji (I hear your somewhat of a local expert on this), to wire them in series, all I do is take the red return wire from the first bulb and place it in where the blue wire should go in the second buld correct?

 

[greenmaji]

Ive been somewhat absent.. I can be PM'ed or emailed BTW wizard_of_ozz and Steve run ODNO they should know how to do this. (in other words Im not the end all be all of the subject here, you probibly would have gotten more responces in the planted tank fourm)

there are examples of the wireing online and what color the wire is depends on the ballast brand you have to be honest..

its your power leads that are carried over (red and blue most of the time) and the return (yellow most of the time) is shared..

I would have to search for a picture.. I think it was Steve that posted how he did it at a diffent forum..

and F17T8 - F40T8 sounds like an odd modle to me, the F32T8 is 12-48" that one looks to be able to power up to a 60" lamp and the lower limit is higher as a result (I havn't seen it otherwise I would have understood were you were coming from when you said it wasn't working) I thought you were trying magnetic ballasts..
In series your lamps would get you over the lower limit of that ballast though.

lol.. I just noticed you just posted this today LOL

 

[czcz]

(Moved to Planted.)

and F17T8 - F40T8 sounds like an odd modle to me, the F32T8 is 12-48" that one looks to be able to power up to a 60" lamp and the lower limit is higher as a result...
In series your lamps would get you over the lower limit of that ballast though.

Lets say one uses a ballast (GE-432-MAX-N/Ultra) that says "4 F32T8 and U" and "4 F32T8WMN." You're saying one could use 3 17w T8 bulbs in series (for <60w T8 ) and then overdrive it 4x?

Or is F32 the max watts of one bulb, and therefore one cannot use two F17 in series? Or can they if they overdrive?

Thank you.

 

[greenmaji]

czcz.. The start up load can be a bit much for quad bulbs (regardless of wattage). Anything over two would be an experiment in my book, but I wouldn't be supprised if three 12"ers fired right up.

the FXX number is the max wattage for the bulb that the ballast would normaly start (bla im in edit mode at this point ) so your max wattage would be the mulitple (the number up front) multipled by the XX number the ballast is rated for..

so a (4) F32T8's max Wattage is 128 you could theorticly 4X any combination of bulbs that added up to 32watts, but the more bulbs that are in series the more start up amps they need thus unsucessfull starts (unsucessfull fixtures basicly) in some cases.

I still have four (4) F32T8's sitting around, I should do something

btw.. I hope this post wasnt too confusing



OK.. I think I get the intent of your question now

I think your on to the correct answer with the 32W being the max for one bulb, or combination of bulbs (this would be the max for 4X ODNO) with the (4) F32T8 ballasts