DIY Icecap...its not what you think

[Canadian Man]

Sparky
The end caps are from HD as well. They are standard flourescent fixture end caps. What you would see in a shop light configuration. Cheep and work very well.

I assume when you say power cable you mean the part of the setup that plugs into the wall? well if that's what you mean then they are also availiable at HD as well. prices range from 3 to 10 dollars. you buy them with out one end and they come with the end to plug into the wall attached allready. they are basically a 3 prong ext cord with one end cut off, but shorter. i go with the 8f ones

 

[Sparky]

Thats what I meant.

But shouldnt we use a waterproof endcap? Whole thing is no good if it aint safe.

And are we rigging in a switch on this anywhere? Or are we just unplugging it to turn it off?

Thanks

 

[Canadian Man]

Well i have had these end caps on my tank since beginning 7 months ago and my bulbs are about 3" from water. i dont see any problems cause i dont have water splashing up that high.
As well you can not to my knowledge get wp end caps for t8 bulbs, only t12.
I run my plugs (3prong) to heavy duty Air Cond timer. but i suppose you could just unplug and plug in but you should for your corals sake make this consistant

 

[dattack]

Well i have had these end caps on my tank since beginning 7 months ago and my bulbs are about 3" from water. i dont see any problems cause i dont have water splashing up that high.
As well you can not to my knowledge get wp end caps for t8 bulbs, only t12.
I run my plugs (3prong) to heavy duty Air Cond timer. but i suppose you could just unplug and plug in but you should for your corals sake make this consistant

Sure you can use T8 waterproofs. I was looking into getting some.

http://www.fishsupply.com/cgi-bin/common/art_viewer.cgi?item_no=SLETI

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_Display.cfm?siteid=6&pCatId=3784

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_Display.cfm?siteid=6&pCatId=3887

 

[Canadian Man]

Cool
I did not know you could get those!
Very happy but i live in Canada so for me to buy 6 sets of end caps that would cost me.....hummmmmm,......about $135.00:eek2: :eek2:
So for me unless i could get them in canada i would not bother. cause it is dam expensive. but many thanks for the link

 

[reefburnaby]

Hi,

Water proof existing endcaps are nice to have, but they are quite expensive. It really doesn't save your tank if you drop the entire light fixture in to the tank. You can use a foam sleve to cover the endcaps and the end of the tube to prevent salt creep and water spashes.

- Victor.

 

[ahlstorm]

Made setup with sylvania quicktronics ballastand love it

Made setup with sylvania quicktronics ballastand love it

I went ahead and tried this idea with a sylvania quicktronics QT 4x32/120IS ballast that I bought at LOWES and a shoplight that I bought at walmart I tore the shoplight apart and screwed the reflector flat to the top of my canopy wired it up and put in sylavania daylight delux 6500 K bulbs and wow it is bright I will be adding 2 more to my system I tried running all of the wires down to one bulb and I didnt see that much excess light coming off just one compared to two so I wired up the ballast down to the two bulbs on the shoplight. I dont know how many watts are running through them but it is bright if you stare at it more than a second you will see light lines in your visionI know I see them right now lol I have just two of these runnng on a 90G and even at 24" the sand is very bright

total cost
28.00 for ballast
7.00 for shoplight
7.00 for bulbs
---------------------
42.00 TOTAL


PS: if you buy a shoplight at walmart make sure that it has the endclips that are separate from the ballast some are not they will not work the one I bought had a regular tar balast in it it was a cheapy but it worked

ahlstorm

 

[StirCrazy]

I am using the coralife waterproof endcaps for my T12's. they come in both T12 and T8 sizes and both are 24.99 cdn for two endcaps with 8 foot wires and the clip on bulbholders. I figured sence I was saving a lot in ballast I could splurge a bit on the endcaps to prevent salt creap from shorting out my bulbs, not that it would hurt the bulb but you could sure get a hell of a shock off the tube it the salt creap grounded the pins to whare you bump it

steve

 

[Big Worm]

more questions...

more questions...

I have a coralife electronic ballast... the one that comes w/ the h2o proof endcaps (t12). I think it is called a "wizard ballast" or some crap like that. Could i use this ballast to overdrive a 14" NO bulb. I think the ballast is designed to power a 20, 30 or 40 watt NO bulb.

Let me know what you think

 

[odenwell]

I seem to remember the wizzard ballast was recalled at some point due to a fire hazzard. This was some time ago, and I guess I could be wrong.

 

[Adam]

Reefburnaby and Stircrazy,


I have seen comparisons done with a light meter between NO and VHO driven on an Icecap. The output of the NO was about 90% of the VHO. From a purely anectdotal observation, I could not see any visible difference when I switched from VHO's to NO with my Icecap ballast, and the caulerpa didn't seem to mind either <VBG>!

I am not a diehard Icecap fan, and I am not trying to down play your idea, I think it is great!

I am just curious if the long term cost benefit is really there. Lamp life has to be taken into consideration, as does the amount of light produced for the cost (initial and operating).


I would like to see the comparison of an Icecap driving NO and VHO, your system driving various lamps and standard ballast configurations with NO lamps. Compare them all for initial cost, one year electrical cost, lamp replacement costs, total lumens, W/lumen, and all of the above costs/lumen.

I would also be a little concerned about the safety of overdriving any lamp to such a high degree.

If all that information was on the table, then we could make a good decision.

Thanks for sharing the great idea, and please keep sharing information. I will be looking forward to hearing about your experience after a year, especially how much life you get out of the lamps.

Adam

 

[lifestudent]

Where can I find the F32T8 Bulbs?

Where can I find the F32T8 Bulbs?

In Atlanta, I am having a hard time finding the F32T8 bulbs! The highest K rating I've able to locate was 4100 K at ACE Hardware. Neither 2 Home Depots nor Lowes carries anything higher. Neither Wal-Mart nor K-Mart carries T8s at all. Petsmart only carried T8 in 24" or smaller.

Will I have to buy the 48 " T8s from an online source? If so, which and for how much? Can anyone recommend a good MO source or another source in Atlanta?

Thanks for your help and for this great idea!

Bob

 

[johnny]

hey guys,

for the endcaps and mounting brackets check out www.reefsplendor.com They have some nice brackets!

I may try this with two 4-6' actinics... definitely am interested

Nick

 

[GROSSR]

I may have missed it with so many posts,

but,

could someone tell me how to wire up the ballast to the endcaps?

I did see someone say all yellow to one side and red and blue to the other.

Is that all yellow to one pin, and all red+blue to a pin on the other side? What about the other pin on that same side, what gets wired to that?

thanks

 

[Canadian Man]

GROSSR
Both pins on the bulbs need to contact the wire from the ballast.
If you are using the cheep endcaps like i and many others are than you have two options.
1-This is what i did to have less wires going into my hood. i took both yellow wires and attached another wire that was going to go to the end cap together with a wirenut. put the end of the attached wire into one of the outside 4 holes on the endcaps. i then put a jumper wire inbetween the 2 inside holes and left the other outside one empty. make sense? did the same for blue and red wires. wired into one and same setup on endcap.

2- the other option i have seen done on this post is running the wires individually to the endcap. so 1 yellow on either 2 holes on one side of the end cap and the other yellow on either of the other two holes. with the blue and red wires each 1 of 4 would have it's own hole
hope this helps and makes sense?

 

[reefburnaby]

lifestudent,


Try looking up in the Yellow pages for electrical lighting suppliers (most likely, industrial lighting...not home lamp fixture lighting). Give them a call and see if you can get F32T8 6500K. They should be readily available from the lighting suppliers. If you are not sure, ask the HD guys where you can get these lights. They should know where to direct you to. To make your life simpler, ask the guy with +10 years of experience as a electrical contractor or the guy that knows the building code -- most of the other guys don't know what you are talking about. They should be about $3 each.

Adam,

Stay tuned....we will have some results very soon.


- Victor.

 

[GROSSR]

Canadian Man,

So I understand, I don't want to fry myself. I would do this in the garage and see if they light. I might leave them on for a few hours and see what happens.

Wiring - I like your idea with 1 wire.

Take all the yellow wires and wire nut them up. Include an additional wire that will run to the endcap. At the endcap put the single yellow wire into one of the endcap holes. Next take a small piece of wire (yellow) and jump over to the other pin on the same endcap. In effect all the yellow wires touch both pins.

Do the same for the red and blue.

If so, I am off to HD to buy a 3x ballast and 2 endcaps and a 3.00 T8 bulb. I will test it out.

If I fry it, I am off to HD to return the ballast.

thanks

 

[Canadian Man]

Grossr
you got it correct
dont forget a cord to plug it into the wall if you dont have one allready.

 

[2hi4u2c]

GROSSR,
Don't want anyone to fry, here is a pic of how I test wired a 4 bulb ballast.
Alan

 

[2hi4u2c]

By the way for those of us with smaller tanks, we can run a couple smaller bulb in series off of one ballast. I am currently building a 20g canopy that has 2 24" Marine Glos wired in series overdriven 2X, and 3 18" Daylight T-8s wired in series overdriven 4X.. I'll post progress.
Alan