help me understand VHO ballasts

[jacksonpt]

I want to add some actinic VHOs to supplement my 250w 6500k Iwasaki. Right now, I've just barely got enough room to run two 24" tubes (75w each). So far so good. In the spring, I'll probably be upgrading to a larger tank, but I'm not sure how big. So here's what I want to do... tell me if it will work. I want to get the 4 bulb VHO ballast that's able to run four 4' tubes, up to 440w of light. For the time being, I only want to run two 24" bulbs on the ballast. Could I just tie off the extra endcaps for the time being, then use them as necessary when I upgrade my tank in the spring? That way I would only have to buy one ballast that would work for both my current tank, and my future tank.

Am I thinking about this right?

If so, is there any difference in quality or performance between the Hamilton ballasts, Icecaps, and the HelloLights setup?

[asmodeus]

you can do 2 ways buy a hagen glo mat to run 2x 40 w actinc or buy a IC 430 ballast to run 2 110 48" actinic in your tank.
or you can run 2 x 24" bulbs on your tank on the IC ballast the instructions tells you how to run 2,3,4 bulbs at a time ..

[jacksonpt]

I don't have enough room to run 48" bulbs on my current tank. 24" bulbs are the longest I can handle right now. I want to do this so I only have to buy one ballast.

[hdtran]

If you look at the Icecap wiring diagrams, they will show you how to wire 1, 2, 3, and 4 lamps to their ballast. So, run the wiring for 2. When you're ready for 4, just unclip the wires from the endcaps & rewire for 4. (Actually, I'm not sure about 1. I do know you can wire for 2, 3, & 4 bulbs).

You don't want to leave endcaps wired but no bulbs. Your bulbs won't turn on. The ballast essentially runs the bulbs in series (not quite, but you can think of it like that). If you suffer a bulb burnout, all bulbs (or 2 out of 4, I don't remember) stop turning on.