mrg02d
Aquarium Advice FINatic
Hello,
I have a wavepoint T5 light (4bulbs, 24in). Its ballast failed a long time ago and I got one of those URI A4 ballasts made by IceCap. The problem is, is that it overdrives the bulbs a good bit. Claims to drive them at 40W each instead of 24W. I know that URI bulbs are meant to be "overdriven", but the white bulbs have a red component and that makes for a nasty look!
I was considering using their Actinic White bulb as my "white" bulb. It is actually a 50/50 bulb and the resulting color temp. is 12000k or so they say.
I have a 20g tank with alot of corals as well as some new Acroporas. I figure they would like the increase in light, but would it be too much? There would be potentially 160W over the 20g tank by doing this. I took the ends off the T5 enclosure and plan to direct some tank fans through the enclosure to cool the bulbs.
Will I wind up coolking the tank? I plan to use those Actinic White along with some of their 460nm blue bulbs. Does this sound like a good idea? Im going for a very crisp white that tends to the blue side rather than to the yellow side.
Or, should I just stick to my 96W T5 setup and just change the bulbs and sell the modified wavepoint? (2-12000k and 2-460nm)
Matt
I have a wavepoint T5 light (4bulbs, 24in). Its ballast failed a long time ago and I got one of those URI A4 ballasts made by IceCap. The problem is, is that it overdrives the bulbs a good bit. Claims to drive them at 40W each instead of 24W. I know that URI bulbs are meant to be "overdriven", but the white bulbs have a red component and that makes for a nasty look!
I was considering using their Actinic White bulb as my "white" bulb. It is actually a 50/50 bulb and the resulting color temp. is 12000k or so they say.
I have a 20g tank with alot of corals as well as some new Acroporas. I figure they would like the increase in light, but would it be too much? There would be potentially 160W over the 20g tank by doing this. I took the ends off the T5 enclosure and plan to direct some tank fans through the enclosure to cool the bulbs.
Will I wind up coolking the tank? I plan to use those Actinic White along with some of their 460nm blue bulbs. Does this sound like a good idea? Im going for a very crisp white that tends to the blue side rather than to the yellow side.
Or, should I just stick to my 96W T5 setup and just change the bulbs and sell the modified wavepoint? (2-12000k and 2-460nm)
Matt
