I need wiring help!!

[Spine-E]

My 120g tank is 48x24x24 and I have four, 48x54w T5 bulbs with Tek II reflectors. I picked up 2 IceCap 430 ballast at swap meet and I want to use them to power the four bulbs. The problem that I have is the wiring diagram on the ballast only shows how to wire for 2 bulbs. Do I have to use a ballast for each two bulbs or can I use one ballast for all 4. If one ballast is possible how do I wire it? I appreciate all your help thanks.

 

[Brack-Man]

You can run all four off of 1 ballast, just have to tie two lamps together with the blue wires on 1 end, two lamps together with the red wire on one end, then jumper the yellow wire across all four lamps at the other end. Basically the same as what the diagram on the ballast shows, just adding the extra bulbs, 1 for the red wire, 1 for the blue wire.

HTH
BM

 

[Spine-E]

Thanks Brack-Man,
I wasn't sure if the Ice Cap 430 ballast could run four 48" T5 bulbs. All the post I have been able to find so far were using a 660 ballast .

Thanks agian

 

[DarG]

The 430 is able to run 4 bulbs but if running 4 bulbs the total length is suppose to only be 8 feet. So they can run four 2 foot long bulbs. I posted this on another thread yesterday from memory and dug up the paperwork for Ice Cap ballast that I bought 6 months ago. The paperwork confirms what I posted. for the 430 running 4 lamps, they can oly be 2 feet each. So, if you do it anyway, who knows what will happen. The 430 is supposed to output a total of 330 watts. Four 48" T5 overdriven with IC ballast is normally 80 or 85 watts each for 320 - 340 watts. So I guess it will either not work at all, work fine, work ok but not at the full 85 watts but somewhere less, work for a while then die prematurely ... I would contact Ice Cap or an Ice Cap guru first because my Ice Cap paperwork says 8 feet total bulb length with the 430 driving 4 lamps.

 

[Spine-E]

Thanks for the info DarG. Since I have two ballast I think I'll just play it safe and use one for each set of bulbs.

 

[DarG]

That's what I'd do. As a bonus, using 2 ballasts, you can set it up so your blue bulbs come on seperate from the whiter lamps on timers. Get somehwat of the dawn / dusk effect.