Need Electrical Advice . . . MH Cord Length

[Tangman]

Originally Posted by chwkreefer

I am thinking of moving my MH ballasts from beside my tank on the second floor to my crawlspace. Is there any problem in running about 25' length of cord? I would run either 18 or 14 gauge wire.

Second question, because the existing cords going to and from my ballasts just use regular grounded cord ends, could I just make extension cords to lengthen my setup, or do I need to basically re-hard wire them? I'm not sure if there is any problems or power lost which could damage the ballast if I have additional connections.

Bill

Hey Bill, first off ,the corals I got from you are doing great! Nice polyp extension.
As for your question ,if you are talking about the cord between the ballast and the lamp, the length should be fine at 25' , IMO, the 250watt Hamilton HQI's that I have came stock with 25' of cord, but I would replace the whole cord ( hard wire, not use extension cords) , because every connection (IE: extra plugs ) causes resistance which is more load on the ballast (remember the situation that I was talking about with my lights)
Hope that helps ... thanks again for the corals