Ballasting questions

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QCppg

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May 4, 2004
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This may not be the best place to ask about this, but here I go.

I am planning on building a 20-gallon nano-reef and I want corals but don't want to spend a fortune on lighting. Now, standard 48" shop lights run about $8 locally. Can I use that ballast to drive a 24" bulb or will I blow up the bulb? I want to have a variety of corals, and I plan on using 2-4 standard GE 6500k bulbs and two blue bulbs (actinic and/or 20,000k). 24" shop lights are too expensive, and I don't want to pay too much for something that I could just as easialy build myself. Thank you.

EDIT: I do need to check the cost of bare ballasts, if I can find the parts to build my own fixture without using shop light parts this question will be irrelevant.
 
Hi,

There is not much you can keep in terms of corals with standard lighting, but I guess you can keep a few algae and some soft corals, such as muchrooms...

The ballast you need to drive a 24" is super-cheap. I think they cost 10 or less. The other thing you will probably need is a starter, because the smaller ballast for the 24 inch bulbs are not selfstarting. The starter costs less than a dollar and the housing for it costs probably a few bucks.

However, you will need a few ballasts to drive that many lights.

You could shell a little bit more and buy an electronic quick-start ballast.

The other expensive item could be the endcaps. But this will depend on how you are going to place the lights over the tank. If you use a glass cover, you can use cheaper endcaps....

What about buying a twin-bulb fixture from perfecto?

If you are going to go DIY, why not try a couple of cheap power compacts (the 10W screw-on types). You will not get the same amount of lighting, but it will be close to what you are planning and it will be even more simple....

Just some thoughts...........................
 
Complexity is not an issue. I would rather have a greater volume of light, plus I am not too impressed with compact flourescents. Power compact fixtures are far too expensive. Cost is my primary concern, and I know I can build something cheaper than Prefecto can.
 
Buy one of the workhorse ballasts, either the 5 or the 7 depending on how much light you want.

The 5 does 128 watts, and the 7 does 220.

You can overdrive NO bulbs. So pick up a bunch of endcaps, wire them in, and run an array of overdriven 24" bulbs.

The ballasts are like $30 for the 5 and $45 for the 7. And NO 24" bulbs are $10-$15 each, and when overdriven you will get VHO like intensity, at the expense of bulb life. The overdriven NO bulbs, depending on how hard their overdriven, will only last ~4-6 months.

Or if you like, you can run 24" VHO bulbs. They cost $20 each, and are 75 watts. So you can run two on each workhorse 7 and one on each workhorse 5. The bulbs should last at least 8 months.
 
Could you please explain what NO bulbs are? I am only familiar with standard, HO and VHO bulbs in a standard gas-flourescent setup.
 
Thank you. But I'd rather run bulbs at their intended output and save on bulb life.

I figured the cost for a 24-inch glowbottle start fixture is about $10 per lamp minus the bulbs. Thank you.
 
Okay, the issue with overdriving is mainly that of it eating bulbs every six months. I could honestly care less about the GE bulbs (they're only about $4 apiece) but the actinic and 20k lamps aren't quite as cheap.

I may consider metal halide if I can find a used one for cheap.
 
So why not use VHO instead of NO bulbs?

You can setup a 175 watt MH system for under $200.
 
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