It lives!!!! (previously shot VHO ballast :P)

[christyf5]

Woot! I just got my new VHO ballast back from IceCap and immediately got to work on it. Man if I had known what a rats nest of wiring this was gonna be I would have gone PFO for sure. Anyhoo, money spent..wiring done...yada yada. On to the results!

So I've got two NO bulbs in there for now. Previously I had NO actinics running on a "Home Depot" ballast which got the job done but lately I've been getting sick of the yellow and figured I should really see what else is out there. At the time it was either go VHO or upgrade my ballasts to run higher K bulbs (currently running 6500ks). A used VHO ballast came up and I snapped it up. It came with a dimmer and due to a screw loose in the operator, the ballast blew and I had to send it in to Ice Cap for repair. Three weeks later minus dimmer (due to the ineptness on my part) the VHOs are up and running and WHAT A DIFFERENCE. I mean whats a few watts right? The VHOs light my tank all on their own compared to a few glowy things in the dark before. Its just awesome.

And then the moment of truth. I turned the MH's back on.

Ah 'tis a thing of beauty I tells ya. Crisp bluey whiteness. Screw the new ballasts! (heh just kidding, gotta wait a few more paychecks for that ).







Gotta love that big purple blotch at the back eh? And the "purple" tang Ya ya I'm working on it.

Oh and if you can't see the difference in the photos, take a gander at this pic. My refugium didn't look like such a pile of crap (well for lighting anyways) before the change. Now it definitely could use a little something (besides rock ).