T5 lighting questions

Pescador · #1 09-20-2010, 09:14 PM

My Workhorse 33's use 18 awg solid as well. I second the motion for separate circuits for more dawn-dusk options.
But I'll have to go with Geismann as well but I was looking for the purple fluorescing look not the CF kind of blue.

Delphinus · #2 09-21-2010, 04:02 AM

Ok so I guess it helps if I get my facts straight. Just looked at the ballast and it's 4 leads not 6. So to wire up 8 lamps I could go with one lead to each set of 2 lamps, or do them all in series with all 4 lamps leads wired together. Would there be a difference? I'm leaning towards doing 4 sets of two.

I see what you're saying about doing 4 lamps on 2 ballasts but this is just to get me going for now. I might add more ballasts down the road and/or more lamps depending on how tight it is up there with everything. It bears mention that this is supplemental lighting anyhow, the main lights are 3 * 400w Radiums. I am going for a dusk/dawn effect with the t5's and hoping for a wee bit of coral fluorescing much like what I had when I had my old 75g going. Back then I ran 110w URI VHO actinics and I really liked those. I've heard that t5 actinics aren't as good as the old VHO actinics and so far when I ran t5's on my smaller tanks I haven't found an actinic that was as strong as those, but there are more choices available.

Anyhow I don't know if I want to go with all actinics or even super blues for that matter seeing as the Radiums are already pretty blue and I don't really want to go for a discotheque blue theme on the tank, so I might go for a mixture of lamps with maybe half of them being either blue or actinic and then something else for the other 4.

As for the starts .. I bought these sockets that are shunted which I thought were better for the Workhorse ballasts with whatever starting mechanism those ballasts use? I don't really understand the nitty-gritty details but if it's better to replace the ballast down the road with something else, I can look at that, but for now I'm sort of mandated of using what I already have in my packrat pile and making it work.

fishytime · #3 09-21-2010, 04:23 AM

Im a carpenter not an electrician so I wont even attempt to claim to know anything about that sort of stuff,..... but I have used a lot of different T5s.....Im using the KZ superblues ATM and I really like the color they produce(although not a true actinic bulb)

Fish Head · #4 09-21-2010, 04:52 AM

Im running 24" bulbs 1 actiniic and 1 fiji pink, also have 2 wh 7s that i would like to run when i build my cube. running uri bulbs now

Delphinus · #5 09-21-2010, 05:54 AM

Is it better to run 2 T5's in series, in this case 2X24w; or is it better to shunt one socket over to the second? Darn it, I think I'm going to have draw a diagram. Stay tuned for some mad MSPaint drawing skillz!

Delphinus · #6 09-21-2010, 06:31 AM

Ok so what I'm referring to as "in series" is "option A" and "shunted" is "option B."

I'm trying to find some wiring diagrams online but not finding anything on Fulham's website that seems to give blessings to the idea of doubling up a lamp of any size per lead. But I know people have done this but if it shortens lamp life then I'm not sure if it's a good idea or not..

wiring.jpg

Delphinus · #7 09-21-2010, 06:36 AM

This ancient thread from aquaria.ca seems to suggest you just twist the 4 red wires together and run the lights in series if you want 2x110 out of 2 lamps. Would the same principle apply to 8x24w? The lights might actually be overdriven slightly.

http://aquariacanada.com/forums/showthread.php?t=244

Argh, my head is swimming.

Need me an electrician to chime in methinks!