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

[StirCrazy]

Originally Posted by Tangman

,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) ,

are you saying the hamilton HQI ballast has 25' of cord between the ballast and the bulb??? Wow, I am wondering how it lights as the max balast to cord distance on a M80 ballast is about 5'. are you talking about a electronic ballast? Or maybe hamilton has found a new long distance starter for there set up, if thats the case I would love to know what starter they are using.

Steve

[chwkreefer]

Originally Posted by Tangman

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

Thanks for the confirmation, btw, because I don't have any plugs in the crawlspace I'll be running about 20' from the outlet to the ballasts also.

Bill

ps glad to hear your frags are doing well!