Another ODno light question.

[leslr]

Hello again
I've been folowing the OD of NO bulbs threads but still seem to be a bit confused about a couple of points.
i have ordred an Eclipse1 (twin tube) hood and 10gal AGA for my Nano upgrade and will be putting in 2-50/50 15w T8 bulbs and plan on OD the bulbs until I could get a 2x28 PC retro kit. Am I right in thinking I will have to get a 2F32T8 Ballast in order to get =60w output from the 50/50 bulbs? or is there a WH ballast that will do this?. If I planned on doing a dawn/dusk light system is there a small Ballast that I can use for each light separtly to accomplish this?.
I'm sorry if I may have missed someones thread if they have already done this or have tried, but most of the posts are about the T12's etc.
leslr.

[StirCrazy]

you are not going to get 60 watts from a 15 watt bulb, at best you will probably get about 20 to 25 watts from a 15 watt bulb and that is only if you use a 3 or 4 bulb ballast.

the principls are the same as if you were using a T12 they are both NO tubs just different sizes.

if you have two ballasts yes you could run one bulb for each ballast and stager there start times to act as a dimming .. but make sure you use one ballast for one bulb.

Steve

[leslr]

Hi StirCrazy
I wish I could get 60w from a 15w bulb, but I will be using the "2" -15w bulbs which is 30w and OD them 2x which is =60w. The 60 is approx for 2x OD of the bulbs from everything I have read in the forum. The main question is what balast would I use to accomplish this? A WH or what? Would it be cheaper to get 2 ballasts and OD each bulb separtly or one ballast for both? The wiring pic in the other post pertaining to T8 bulbs shows a 2 bulb setup would this be the same?

leslr.

[reefburnaby]

Hi,

15W T8s overdriven to 4x levels...shoud do about 30W to 40W of light. Its really hard to say since the loss start to go up quite quickly at anything above 2x. A quick measurement with a multimeter can determine how much power you will actually get. But definitely...at least 25W. The overdrive gain is much higher with T8s than with T12s.

WH5 and F32T8s are the same ballast. I prefer WH5 since they have a better waranty and they are easier for me to explain to other reefers.

For your case, if you truely want a dawn/dusk operation, then I would experiment with F32T8 ballasts that are dimable. I haven't done it before, but they are a safe way to do the dawn/dusk. However, these ballasts are expensive. The other way is the Icecap.

If you think the dawn/dusk think is too much work, then I would just hook up a WH5 with two lamps in series and be done with it. When lamps are hooked up in series, two 18" tubes looks like one 36" tube. You can chose between 2x or 4x overdrive....its up to you. 2x gives you most the bang with good tube life and low heat. 4x give you the most light, but shorter tube life (around 6 months) and more heat.

Hope that helps.

- Victor.

[StirCrazy]

that is the problem though, by doubling the wires (overdriving them 2X)
you do not get 2X the wattage.. in my experaments by going to 3X overdriving I only got 1.8X the power consumed, but I did get twice the light. I would say you are looking at 25 watts at best out of a 15 watt bulb.

now for your main question.. it depends on what you want to do.. if you just want the most bang for the buck, get a WH 5 and use 2 wires for each bulb,

if you want a dimming effect, get two ballast that are made to run 3 t8's and use all 3 sets of wires for 1 bulb. this way each bulb has it's own ballast and you can stager the starts on them. I think if you go back to my original test post I mention the ballast I use which is a 3 bulb T8 ballast.

http://www.canreef.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=1829&start=0

I mention it in the first post.

Steve

[leslr]

Thanks.
I'll probably get the WH5 and double the leads for a 2x. It'll be cheaper in the long run till I get the $'s to get a 2x 28PC kit.
leslr.

[reefburnaby]

Hi,

I am not sure if the PCs will give that much more light given how much a PC bulb costs. Maybe 10% to 20% more light....at best. Worse case...the OD are brighter.

- Victor.