OP
OP
Super_Blueberry
Aquarium Advice FINatic
Well the first retro-lights worked perfectly this weekend. No false starts, no flickers, and most importantly, no overheating of the ballasts. I went ahead and did the second hood light. Talk about bright. I'm surprised though. According to that PAR chart, a t5 with no reflector, 22" above the substrate is only 10 PAR. With 4 bulbs, thats 40 PAR..... still on the low end of 'medium' light. I can't imagine how bright a 'high' light tank must be!
As far as how it is wired, I'll boil it down as best as I can:
*I bought 4 fixtures that came with one ballast each capable of running either A) two 14-watt bulbs in series for a total of 28-watts, or B) one 28-watt bulb.
*I took 2 fixtures apart and took out the ballast of those and threw the fixture itself away.
*So now I have two 2-bulb fixtures with four 28-watt ballasts.
*Each fixture got 2 ballasts, one for each bulb.
*Once wired where each bulb got its own 28-watt ballast, I inserted a 24-watt t5ho bulb in each bulb socket.
*Then I mounted each fixture into its hood and plugged it in.
As I said before, the only difference I could find between a NO bulb and an HO bulb is the total amount of watts it puts out in that size. Which makes sense, an HO bulb puts out more watts for the same size bulb. I could call a standard 40watt table lamp light bulb a NO bulb, and a 100watt bulb of the same size an HO because it puts out more wattage in the same sized bulb. You just have to make sure that the table lamp is capable of running that 100watt bulb without causing problems. I may be way off base, and please correct me if I am, but I asked around, researched the heck out of this, and I couldn't find any reason why this wouldn't work. The numbers worked out every time. Now I could see where using one of my purchased fixtures with its single 28-watt ballast would not be capable of running two 24-watt bulbs (48-watts total). Thats obvious. If I tried to do that without changing anything, then yes, I would have problems and would need to purchase an HO fixture which would come with a HO (higher wattage) ballast capable of running two HO bulbs....I just found a different way.
Sorry for the long post. I'll let keep you all posted as to how my plants like it!
As far as how it is wired, I'll boil it down as best as I can:
*I bought 4 fixtures that came with one ballast each capable of running either A) two 14-watt bulbs in series for a total of 28-watts, or B) one 28-watt bulb.
*I took 2 fixtures apart and took out the ballast of those and threw the fixture itself away.
*So now I have two 2-bulb fixtures with four 28-watt ballasts.
*Each fixture got 2 ballasts, one for each bulb.
*Once wired where each bulb got its own 28-watt ballast, I inserted a 24-watt t5ho bulb in each bulb socket.
*Then I mounted each fixture into its hood and plugged it in.
As I said before, the only difference I could find between a NO bulb and an HO bulb is the total amount of watts it puts out in that size. Which makes sense, an HO bulb puts out more watts for the same size bulb. I could call a standard 40watt table lamp light bulb a NO bulb, and a 100watt bulb of the same size an HO because it puts out more wattage in the same sized bulb. You just have to make sure that the table lamp is capable of running that 100watt bulb without causing problems. I may be way off base, and please correct me if I am, but I asked around, researched the heck out of this, and I couldn't find any reason why this wouldn't work. The numbers worked out every time. Now I could see where using one of my purchased fixtures with its single 28-watt ballast would not be capable of running two 24-watt bulbs (48-watts total). Thats obvious. If I tried to do that without changing anything, then yes, I would have problems and would need to purchase an HO fixture which would come with a HO (higher wattage) ballast capable of running two HO bulbs....I just found a different way.
Sorry for the long post. I'll let keep you all posted as to how my plants like it!
