Quote:
Originally posted by ChrisB
...our brains are becoming anoxic, we need another installment!!!
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I warned you Chris about eating all those Slim-Jims; they're loaded with nitrates and nitrites.
Let's add just a little more here and talk about VIP--I mean VHO lighting. Now VHO or Very High Output is just a NO fluorescent on steroids. There is also HO, high output, but unless your going to use T5 tubes there is not a lot in its favor.
You can go to the LFS where they will gladly sell you VHO tubes at any popular K value, up to 20,000K, for your tank. You then rush them home and replace the NO tubes that came with your tank with the VHO, turn them on, and....nothing happens. Well in some cases they may glow at the ends or light very faintly but the blinding light you anticipated just isn't there.
Remember up above when we defined a ballast I said it was a current limiting devise? Well try to run a VHO on a NO ballast and it
really will limit that current. An NO ballast limits current to a VHO to about a third of what it really needs to run. To get a VHO to "to do its thing" you need a ballast that is made to run VHO tubes. This means two options. Buy a canopy already setup for VHO or, two, buy a retrofit kit. Many people op for a retrofit kit but I wish to warn you--
Some assembly is required!
If those words scare you then
right there!!! We are dealing with electricity and salt water here, a potentially lethal combination. You want to know what you are doing.
Having given you fair warning, the wiring is not very complex and most ballasts come with wiring diagrams. Your big choice is which flavor of ballast to get. The NOs usually come with magnetic ballasts, aka "tar ballasts" (you find out why they are called that if you wire them wrong and they melt down
). These are cheap ballasts only costing a few bucks. That is a few bucks for the NO. When you buy them for VHO the price goes up about 8 fold. For the life of me I have no idea why that is. They should cost more but not
that much more. The other option is an electronic ballast. WK does not recommend brands but Icecap electronic ballasts are so widely talked about in Reef circles that it has almost become a generic term.
Electronic ballasts are a big step up in both $$$ and features. Where magnetic ballasts need to be matched with the lighting used, electronics can run just about any fluorescent up to their rated capacity. Magnetic ballasts limit current by turning it into heat. Not so with an electronic. They run much cooler and are more energy efficient. They also allow dimming circuits to be used, which is not the case with magnetic.
Are they worth the extra bucks? Well if you are the type that likes to change things around a lot then you want electronic as they are so much more versatile. If you are the type that pretty much knows that the lights they have now will be the same in the future, then the cheaper magnetic may be the best. An exception to that rule is on very large tanks. Here the energy savings from the electronics may pay off in the long run.
When purchasing a ballast it is best if it can be placed in a location remote from the canopy. This helps prevent buildup of heat in tank. Since not all ballasts allow remote mounting you need to ask before you buy. Remote mounting of a ballast not designed for such a purpose can cause meltdown, or worse, a fire.
There is another type of fluorescent used in the Hobby. You've probably seen them where they are sold as energy saving substitutes for home incandescent bulbs. Many looking like an ice cream cone they are called Power Compacts or PCs for short. For a tank they are usually U-shaped tubes looking more like the neon tubes of the local beer sign than there bigger brothers. PCs come in different sizes, from little 6" nine watters to 34" ninety-six watters. Recently they have shown up in higher and higher K values. They also claim to have "true actinic" tubes these days a claim PC actinics could not make in the past. They have a special socket which comes in two styles. A 4 pin in-line and a 4 pin square design. Make sure you get the bulbs that match your sockets when ordering. Ballasts run either type.
Advantages of the PC are, of course, they take up less space and claim more light per watt than the T12 tubes. Some people, like me, find their light less pleasing than a VHO and prefer the latter. Again these need special magnetic ballasts and not too many people go that route, choosing electronic instead. In their favor there are lower cost electronic ballasts available to run them. They are really god sent for those that have small nano tanks where a T12 would be far too large.
Just coming into vogue are the T5 lamps these are a cross between the T12 and PC. They look like a T12 but are only 5/8
ths of an inch, rather than an inch and a half. Their advantage again is that being thinner they take up less room and they claim to provide more illumination per watt used. Color rendition is also closer to a T12 than a PC, which may be an advantage. Unlike the T12 and T8, they use a smaller pin connector and cannot use the same sockets. There is considerable talk about them on the lighting forum. It would be worthwhile to read about them over there if you are considering them.
Well on to MH next session.