DIY Icecap...its not what you think
- Thread starter reefburnaby
- Start date
GROSSR said:
I have bought Sylvania or GE 850 32 watt lamps for $2 Canadian. I think they are generally more available in Canada as goverment intstitutions such as schools here are made to use T8 lamps as an energy saving measure. The CRI of the 765s is not that good compared to the 850s but for reef guys I am sure the 6500s are preferred.
Wayne
Canadian Man
New member
works fine but the t8 bulbs are brighter.
Canadian Man
New member
well i never thought about it but i have a piece of 1x1 wood mounted around the edges holding my hood on the rim of the tank and these are mounted just under the endcaps of my lights so i guess this prevents any salt creep. i have heard other put a piece of duct tape on the endcaps and bulbs. i have had mine set up now for i guess about 2 months and no problems here as well.
Yeah, I would think that anything in the way would prevent or at least help with salt creep. Checking them once a week wouldn't hurt either. Since I haven't actually built my hood yet, I haven't really put a lot of time into how to prevent salt creep, but will probably use either a piece of wood or better yet a small piece of acrylic or plexiglass over where the endcaps would be exposed.
Fred
Fred
BORECKI
New member
I'v been reading this thread with a LOT of interest and have one question about placing foil tape on the flourecent tubes.
Someone mentioned placing the foil about 180 degrees over the top of the tubes and lenthwise almost to the ends of the tubes, stopping about a half centemeter from the end pieces of the bulbs proper.
Question
Why not touch the end pieces and complete the connection?
AND
What about grounding the foil via the supporting clips?
Also; I must have missed something because I only saw a link to a schematic for wireing powercompacts and not for regular flourecents.
Boris.
Someone mentioned placing the foil about 180 degrees over the top of the tubes and lenthwise almost to the ends of the tubes, stopping about a half centemeter from the end pieces of the bulbs proper.
Question
Why not touch the end pieces and complete the connection?
AND
What about grounding the foil via the supporting clips?
Also; I must have missed something because I only saw a link to a schematic for wireing powercompacts and not for regular flourecents.
Boris.
I would think it would be detrimental to make a connection outside the lamp, since your light comes from the arc within the glass tube. What would be the purpose of diverting power away from the internals of the light??
I had a good idea tonight too, simple, but good. In order to try and deter salt creep as well as lessen any chances of bulbs falling out, I'm going to simply add a piece of wood to each side and mount the end caps so the entry point is from above. That way, the wood is in the way of any potential salt creep, and the bulbs have to be put in and taken out from above, away from the water.
Fred
I had a good idea tonight too, simple, but good. In order to try and deter salt creep as well as lessen any chances of bulbs falling out, I'm going to simply add a piece of wood to each side and mount the end caps so the entry point is from above. That way, the wood is in the way of any potential salt creep, and the bulbs have to be put in and taken out from above, away from the water.
Fred
Fish_Freek
Cheese Head
Fred, your idea with flipping the endcaps would work great for the salt creep and the chance of lamps falling out would not be a problem any more. 
In doing this the light will be further from the surface of the water. That is the only downfall i can see with your idea. I just may try it myself when i get a chance, if i can figure out how to get the fxture close enough to the water surface. Are you runnig over driven bulbs?
In doing this the light will be further from the surface of the water. That is the only downfall i can see with your idea. I just may try it myself when i get a chance, if i can figure out how to get the fxture close enough to the water surface. Are you runnig over driven bulbs?I would think the difference would be minimal. I have some slide-in type endcaps from Home Depot, so we're talking a difference of about a 1/2" at most.
Right now, I'm running a single 36" marineglo running off two outputs from the ballast (it's a 4x32watt ballast), so I'm figuring somewhere in the 60 watt range or so...maybe a bit less or more, I'm not sure. I suppose I could measure the power going through it with my multimeter sometime when I have a chance.
It was a simple enough idea, sometimes it just depends on your perspective.
Fred
Right now, I'm running a single 36" marineglo running off two outputs from the ballast (it's a 4x32watt ballast), so I'm figuring somewhere in the 60 watt range or so...maybe a bit less or more, I'm not sure. I suppose I could measure the power going through it with my multimeter sometime when I have a chance.
It was a simple enough idea, sometimes it just depends on your perspective.
Fred
Fish_Freek
Cheese Head
I just bought a 3x32w ballast from HD last week but didn't get a chance to hook it up yet. I plan trying to run my 36" t-8 actinic using all three outputs. How long have you have you been over driving your lights? Any problems yet??
Killer topic! I'm eating it up!!!
Killer topic! I'm eating it up!!!
Quick and hopefully not stupid question.
Has anyone overdriven a couple VHOs with the IC 660?
I bought the lights, ballast, endcaps, etc... over a year ago for a dual tank setup I was building (one tank 36" and one 48"). Since then I've been through being laidoff, moved, got new job and new house (much smaller). Since the double tank wont fit in the new house, I've designed a smaller 36" display tank and planned to use the 2 36" VHOs driven by half the 660... but with all this OD discussion it made me wonder about OD the 2 VHOs 2* with the 660...
Is this a bad idea, or no different than OD NO the way it's been discussed in this thread?
I am still interested in using this cheaper idea for a 2nd set of bulbs (or maybe just one) for a sunrise/sunset simulation...
Thx again for the killer post - I know you've enticed quiet a few hobbyists!
Scott
Killer topic! I'm eating it up!!!
Quick and hopefully not stupid question.
Has anyone overdriven a couple VHOs with the IC 660?
I bought the lights, ballast, endcaps, etc... over a year ago for a dual tank setup I was building (one tank 36" and one 48"). Since then I've been through being laidoff, moved, got new job and new house (much smaller). Since the double tank wont fit in the new house, I've designed a smaller 36" display tank and planned to use the 2 36" VHOs driven by half the 660... but with all this OD discussion it made me wonder about OD the 2 VHOs 2* with the 660...
Is this a bad idea, or no different than OD NO the way it's been discussed in this thread?
I am still interested in using this cheaper idea for a 2nd set of bulbs (or maybe just one) for a sunrise/sunset simulation...
Thx again for the killer post - I know you've enticed quiet a few hobbyists!
Scott
Only reason I didn't respond was cause I don't know
Only thing you can really do is try it and see how it works. I would think it would be fine, as long as you stay within reasonable wattage for the lamps. I'm only overdriving my 30w 36" bulbs to about 55-60 watts or so, and they don't even get that warm. My 32w 20" PC gets hotter than them right now. As long as the Icecap doesn't go a whole lot higher than 3x the recommended wattage, you should be fine. I would think that VHO lamps are instant-start (I've never had one!), and the IC ballast would be as well. Theoretically, I don't see any problems, but I'm not an electrician, so take this with that as a caution.
Fred
Only thing you can really do is try it and see how it works. I would think it would be fine, as long as you stay within reasonable wattage for the lamps. I'm only overdriving my 30w 36" bulbs to about 55-60 watts or so, and they don't even get that warm. My 32w 20" PC gets hotter than them right now. As long as the Icecap doesn't go a whole lot higher than 3x the recommended wattage, you should be fine. I would think that VHO lamps are instant-start (I've never had one!), and the IC ballast would be as well. Theoretically, I don't see any problems, but I'm not an electrician, so take this with that as a caution.
Fred
