Light question t10- t8

Jay-Stew

Jay-Stew

AC Members
Jan 18, 2006
149
0
0
26 miles North of Lake Erie
Hi just wondering.. It is now time to replace my bulbs and I am currently usng 3 , T 10 aqua glo's . I see they now make a T8 bulb and i am wondering if these will fire in a normal "shop" ballast light strip. What is the diffence in bubs ? Does anyone have any expierience with these types? Thanks!!
 
It will depend on your ballast. I have a T8 ballast that will fire T12 bulbs. I have no idea if they are as bright or brighter than they should be though.
 
If it were me, I would buy the T8s and give them a try in your current setup. If they don't fire, head over to Home Depot and pick up a couple of their 2 bulb shop-lights. Take the ballasts out and use them in your setup.

I just purchased 2 of them yesterday at HD for under $8 a piece. They had just the ballasts on the shelf next to the whole fixture. The ballasts were nearly $30 by themselves!

Beware though, not all 2 bulb ballasts will run only one bulb. One of mine will and the other will not. I thought this was odd considering they are from the same manufacturer and are the exact same model. (I only mention this because you said you run a 3 bulb setup.)

Hope it helps!
 
I have 1, single strip and another double strip 36" each. I am going to try to run a t8 in one of them and see what happens .
 
loaches r cool said:
I havent come across a T12 or T8 ballast that wouldnt fire T6,8,10,12 bulbs. Not to say there arent some out there, but I havent had a problem yet using different size bulbs.
Click to expand...
Hello loaches r cool. That was my thought too. That a ballast should run any of those bulbs so long as one doesnt try to run, say a 96w bulb in a 40w fixture. If the wattages are compatible, how would the ballast know which bulb is in it? They're all the pretty much the same except for diameter.

However much sense this makes, I still had it in my head earlier this week that I could possibly have issues using my older ballasts with T8s. I opted to get new ballasts for two reasons. 1) Peace of mind knowing they would run the T8s. 2) Peace of mind knowing that the new ones should last a few years. My old ones are just that. Old. I have no idea how old but I havent seen a shop light like these anywhere else for a very long time.

On a side note:
How's the weather in Gahanna? I'm in Reynoldsburg where the suns getting ready to come up any month now. And I hear we are due for warmer temperatures sometime around June. But you know how rumors are!:rolleyes:
 
I believe the ballasts are Rapid fire Magnetic . I put one in lats night and it fired right up. It looked nice and bright. I can only assume they should work but not sure. They are 30 watt bulbs so it is good there. I will say that is running in a double strip with a t 12 right now , no problems........... yet? I read somewhere that doing this may cause them to burn out prematurely or over power the t8 bulbs . Any more thoughts?
 
Sure it may affect the bulbs some what. There are slight differences between bulbs, even the same size but different models or manufacturers. There are differences in how the bulbs start so some bulbs are optomized for one ballast verses the other, due to things like higher voltages and such. But usually its not a big deal. Overdrive - it depends, I havent recorded any data on putting a 30W or 32W(usually they are 32W) bulb into a magnetic ballast, I have given up magnetics a while ago and just focus on electronics now. I wouldnt worry about it, if they burn out any quicker the difference is probably not any different then the natural difference from one bulb to another (meaning you may get 9 months out of one bulb, 13 months from another, they dont all burn out at exactly the same time anyhow so would you even notice if it burned out 1 month sooner?). I have been overderiving bulbs for a while now(32W bulbs at 50-54W) and the batch I have now is past what others have claimed thier life expectancy (a year) and so far I havent seen any problems with my plants pearling so I havent replaced them yet.

DeMonZ - Wether is crappy in ohio terms but I am from Upstate NY originally (perhaps you have heard about them on the news lately?) so this kinda wether is really nothing. Everyon here is saying how horrible the roads are but I say how horrible the traffic was lol. I am working nightshift this week, work for AEP in a 'mission critical' position so it has to be manned 24/7. Atleast working nightshift I am going opposite the main flow of traffic - into downtown at 6pm and out of downtown at 6am... that lightens up traffic alot! Last week there were several days my folks got over a foot in about a half days time, and schools and businesses dont close like they do here. I bet Jay-Stew gets some snow up there too.
 
Last edited:
Jay-Stew said:
I read somewhere that doing this may cause them to burn out prematurely or over power the t8 bulbs . Any more thoughts?
Click to expand...
I suppose it's possible for it to burn out premamturely. I have been searching the web for info on bulbs and ballasts over the last week and havent seen anything said about it. Not saying that information isnt out there. Just that I havent seen it.

As for over powering the T8, not likely. More and more people are "overdriving" their lights. This is basically running a bulb with twice as much power by taking both leads from a 2 bulb ballast and connecting them to one bulb. Thus, a 40w bulb has 80w running through it. This sounds dangerous to me and I wont recommend it until I know more about it.

OH! And while I am thinking about it. You didn't say what type and color the bulbs you are using are. But, just for your information, Home Depot has a Phillips 2 pack of 48" 32w T8 6500K bulbs for about $7. Not sure that they have the 36" that you need, but would be worth a look when you get a chance. That is, of course, if you have a Home Depot around you.

loaches r cool - The weather didnt have that much of an impact on everything when I was a kid. I remember riding the bus to school in over a foot of new fallen snow. They had chains on the tires back then. About the only times I can remember missing school on account of weather, it was due to ice.

Seems like everyone is terrified of 2 inches of snow anymore. My boss called me and said to not come in today. Not supposed to show up tomorrow either. This doesnt help the wallet a bit. I was out all over the place today getting different things for the tank (incl. a Filstar Xp3! Weeee!) and didn't see one accident. I was quite impressed with everyone. It was very much unlike Columbus. Usually, when we get 2 or 3 drops of rain, our insurance rates go up from all the accidents everywhere.:eek:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
AquariaCentral.com
Top Bottom