The Planted Tank Forum - View Single Post - Cheap lighting

**GulfCoastAquarian** · 02-18-2005, 01:31 PM

Raf's advice is good. Read through everyone's experiences and try to decide which way to go. Not to influence you, or anything, but if it were me setting up ODNO for a 55g tank right now, here's the setup I'd use.

Ballast
Workhorse 5
I know you can use the Advance ballasts from Home Depot, but the Fulham Workhorse is far more flexible and has a higher power factor (=more light). It's the most popular ballast for powering 55w Power Compact bulbs.
I'd buy two, and then use them each to drive a pair of 48" tubes 2x. (Like the diagram Raf posted above)

Then I'd use two different bulbs. One pair of Sylvania Gro-Lux (regular, not wide spectrum) F40T12 bulbs. They usually run about $5 a bulb at Lowe's.
For the other pair, I'd find a pair of F32T8 daylight bulbs. I saw some at Home Depot the other day on clearance for $5 a pair. They were 6500K so they should provide a brilliant white light that will balance well with the pinkish color-enhancing hues of the Gro-Lux.
You should end up with about 3.9wpg with this setup, and have an incredible amount of flexibility for future upgrades/changes.
I calculated the estimates wpg as such:
50% increase (2xODNO) on 40w tube -> ~60w, times 2 bulbs = 120w
50% inceease (2xODNO) on 32w tube -> ~48w, times 2 bulbs = 96w
Note: This is a very general estimate since most ODNO users have actually found overdriven T8 bulbs to be brighter than T12 bulbs.

Congrats on your successful setup, Raf!

02-18-2005, 01:31 PM	#249
GulfCoastAquarian Planted Tank VIP (View User Tanks) PTrader: (6/100%) Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Winston-Salem, NC Posts: 3,577	Raf's advice is good. Read through everyone's experiences and try to decide which way to go. Not to influence you, or anything, but if it were me setting up ODNO for a 55g tank right now, here's the setup I'd use. Ballast Workhorse 5 I know you can use the Advance ballasts from Home Depot, but the Fulham Workhorse is far more flexible and has a higher power factor (=more light). It's the most popular ballast for powering 55w Power Compact bulbs. I'd buy two, and then use them each to drive a pair of 48" tubes 2x. (Like the diagram Raf posted above) Then I'd use two different bulbs. One pair of Sylvania Gro-Lux (regular, not wide spectrum) F40T12 bulbs. They usually run about $5 a bulb at Lowe's. For the other pair, I'd find a pair of F32T8 daylight bulbs. I saw some at Home Depot the other day on clearance for $5 a pair. They were 6500K so they should provide a brilliant white light that will balance well with the pinkish color-enhancing hues of the Gro-Lux. You should end up with about 3.9wpg with this setup, and have an incredible amount of flexibility for future upgrades/changes. I calculated the estimates wpg as such: 50% increase (2xODNO) on 40w tube -> ~60w, times 2 bulbs = 120w 50% inceease (2xODNO) on 32w tube -> ~48w, times 2 bulbs = 96w Note: This is a very general estimate since most ODNO users have actually found overdriven T8 bulbs to be brighter than T12 bulbs. Congrats on your successful setup, Raf!