MH light re-wiring questions

[clearerphish]

I just got a sweet 48" light fixture on ebay:
2x175w metal halides (20K bulbs)
2x54w T5 tubes
30 moonlights

OK, fixture arrives, and the T5 bulbs and moonlights are on the same circuit. This means that I cannot run T5's and moons on timer because if the T5s are on, so are the moonlights. Pretty dumb, eh?

Anyways, the fixture showed three power cords in the auction, and the fixture I got is as described but not the same as pictured in the auction. I wrote the seller back (especially since nowhere in the auction did it say "item pictured not actual item").

They shipped me 4 actinic T5 bulbs as a way to make it right, and I accepted, but I keep thinking about the difficulty of integrating other moonlights. I thought perhaps I could, without much effort, take the moonlight circuit off the T5 circuit and install another plug going straight to the moonlights, completely fixing my problem and allowing me to use timers for my whole system.

So DIY lighters, how difficult would it be to perform this operation, in your opinion?

Here's the auction:
link

 

[dskidmore]

Shouldn't be too bad. Don't suppose you could give us a picture or diagram of the wiring? I'm guessing the power cord comes in, and then each wire is joined to 3 more wires, one to each of the ballasts, and one to the moonlight power supply. Ground probably goes to the housing, or one wire to each ballast. All you have to do is pull of the wire nuts, pull out the moonlights, and put the wire nuts back on. (May need smaller wire nuts, depending on the diameter of the wires and what was in place before.) Then get a new plug, and wire nut that to the moonlights, and you're done.

The only way it would be a problem is if the moonlights are somehow powered off one of the other ballasts instead of having it's own power supply.

 

[greenmaji]

snap a pic of the sticker on the ballast..

or if you can find the same one online a link would do just fine.