balast

[bryon0508]

does any one know where i can get a cheap ballast for a
4 foot
54 watt
high output
t-5 system

im going to need 4 bubls but im having trouble getting the money together to make the purchase... quality is not a big facter to me right now... i can always up grade later if need be. i only plan on having the system up for a few years the way it is right now. my ultimate is going to be a in wall setupin a house we will building in the near futur 3-5 years. all i need is the balast i can get the other stuff.

[Travis L. Stevens]

BallastWise 4xF54T5HO: $49.99
http://ballastwise.com/item.asp?PID=24&FID=15&level=1

[nIx_tank]

Originally posted by Travis L. Stevens
BallastWise 4xF54T5HO: $49.99
http://ballastwise.com/item.asp?PID=24&FID=15&level=1

Huh, that looks vaguely familar.

lol

Bryon, it is the ballast that both Travis and I use on our tanks.

[bryon0508]

does that hold all 4 lights, with out dropping wattage to each individual bulb

[JimmyS]

Hey guys, what reflectors are you using?

[TulsaReefer]

IceCap SLR reflectors are what I'm using. I'm pretty happy with them. I'm also using IceCap ballasts as well, but that's a different story.

[Travis L. Stevens]

Bryon: Yes, it is designed to power all four bulbs at their wattage. With all ballasts, anything less will not be enough to fire the bulbs at all.

Jimmy: Mine is a flat VHO reflector for now, but I will most likely be upgrading to the IceCap parabolics eventually depending on price.

[bryon0508]

so in all you have 1 ballast per 4 bulbs and each bulb gets the required amount of wattage that is needed to run all 4 bulbs correctly?

[Travis L. Stevens]

Exactly. The only bad part is if your ballast goes out, then all four bulbs go out. On the other hand, the good part about the BallastWise ballast is the wiring is set up that if one bulb goes out only the other bulb tied to it goes out. So, if you got a bad bulb, you can at least run at 50% capacity with two bulbs until you get a replacement for the bad one. WorkHorse Ballasts are set up to loop to each bulb so if a single bulb goes out, all go out.

[2ras]

Originally posted by Travis L. Stevens
WorkHorse Ballasts are set up to loop to each bulb so if a single bulb goes out, all go out.

Travis,
I use workHorse 7 ballasts and they have 1 neutral and 4 hot lines.
So if one bulb burns out the others will stay on. I don't know if your statement is true for the other WorkHorse ballasts, but for the WH7 it's not.
However, if you don't jumper the endcap pins (Hot-Hot) and (Neut-Neut) to pass through the voltage, then I agree with your statement. The endcap pins are seperate on the type I have, so they need to be jumpered.


example: http://www.fulham.com/Find_Process.php

At the site select the following;
T5 Linear HO
2xF80HO
120vac

[Travis L. Stevens]

Oh, I see now. Thanks for that information Ray. I was doing the latter that you explained.