Cheap lighting - ODNO

[ridns]

I just wanted to be sure to avoid the yellowish cast that accompanys the lower numbers. Most of the bulbs I found were 3000k or 3500k.... ugh! Then I found some 4100k, not bad but not as good as 5000k.

[GulfCoastAquarian]

Piccolo, you can use wire to extend the short wires that come out of the ballast. Anything from speaker wire to an extra lamp cord lying around will do. The way you splice two connections to one bulb is splice them all together. Take the two outputs from the ballast and splice them together, and then take the two wires going to the endcap and splice them together, then just connect the ends with a piece of wire and a wire nut.

Be careful, you don't want to wire the ballast incorrectly and fry the internals. Take your time and make sure every connection is sure before plugging it in. I won't be able to check with the site until tomorrow AM so it might have to wait until then.

Maybe ridns can talk you through some of it until then. How much did you pay for those 5000k bulbs at the lighting supply store? Glad you found something that looks good. It would suck to get this great affordable intense lighting system and then have lame yellowish light.

[ridns]

Sorry, I forgot to say what those bulbs cost. I bought 2 bulbs for a whoppin $3.61! I think I was still laughing when I got home, thinking how the LFS wanted $25 for T12 plant & aquarium bulbs.:hehe:

[SNPiccolo5]

So, that is like $1.75 a piece (before tax)!. Wow... now there is no reason to complain about having to change bulbs more often for ODNO's, I just need to figure the electrics, and then I'll be set!

-Tim

[GulfCoastAquarian]

Yep, that's why I asked - these T8 bulbs are the single most common fluorescent bulb produced in the world. They manufacture millions of them for office complexes. THink of every high rise office building with drop ceiling tile and those four foot fluorescent tubes (looking up, I see no less than a hundred such tubes withing my line of sight right now).

This DIY tip really is a godsend!

Tim, did you figure out the wiring? Email me at sponjican@oreck.com if you get stuck.

[SNPiccolo5]

Yeah, when I told the guy at the LFS about ODNO's, he said you still have to replace the bulb more. I explained how it would still cost less if you had to replace the bulbes every 2 months! This kind of thing is definitely a weekend thing for me...so hopefully I will be able to get it done before thanksgiving (that is my goal, I have to find time!). Thanks for all the help, this forum rocks!

-Tim

[rdracer66]

HI all been awhile since my last post but, i saw that link on myfishtank for the od bulbs and did a 29g but my problem is i can't find anything local higher than3500k
in the 24in size my plants are decent in there but not exactly thriving like they should, I thought it might be lack of co2 so i did teh diy co2 but 4 days now and they seem to have perked up a little but should be doing better so i went hunting again !! for bulbs

i found this at bulbs.com
I found one bulb by phillips
that is a 24in T8 5000k I even called them and they said there not aware of anything h igher than 5000k in a 24in T8 so this bulb is 5000k at 7.44$ each with 98cri & 850 lumens
or go to 5000k 1400 lumens but 86cri at 2.50$ each
what do u guys think i should do there ?
or what i could do is this move the end caps down to 18in and get 4 18in and stagger them because they do make a 18in bulb at 6500k 79cri and 660 lumens

What do you guys think i should do ??

[GulfCoastAquarian]

When you say you "did a 29g", do you mean you have two 24 inch T8 bulbs in series on a 2-F32T8 ballast? What is your current setup? Switching to a bluer bulb will make things look a lot better, but I doubt your plants will start growing significantly faster. CO2 is more likely lacking. Post on the main forum about your CO2 system and maybe that will bring something to light.

As far as your bulb selection, those Phillips bulbs sound great! I'm not sure what is the dilemma, though.

$7.44 98 CRI, 850 lumens
$2.50 86 CRI, 1400 lumens
(both 5000K)

I'd go for the second bulb. CRI is so very subjective and what they consider to be a good Color Rendering in one application will be deplorable in another application. I'd go for the lower cost and higher output of the second, 1400 lumen bulb.

I've never tried two 24" bulbs in series (if you're even using them in this manner) so I can't be certain of the actual output. I'm going to be doing some experimentation this weekend, though, so I'll let you guys know what I find.

Let us know some more details about your setup and we can help you decide which might be the best way to go.

[rdracer66]

I'm glad i c hecked manually because i didint get my email updates, I have 2 of the ballasts i forget the name there the ones on that reef webpage for overdriving that u put in a earlier post
i'm over powering all 4X2
each 24in T8 is double power
i'm not sure how there run since a friend of mine good with wiring and such did it for me, were going to do 3 more canopies this week for the rest of my tanks but those will not be overdriven, once everything is settled, I plan on doing a 20g nano tank with a canopy i'll have to make with 4 18in T8's not sure what to put in that one either but ill worrry about that later its probably not going to come to life till Xmas time
Kurt

[rdracer66]

Here is my co2 setup

this past sunday i made a bactch of my first diy co2
i put 2cups sugar and 1 flieshmans packet and filled with luke warm water and then shaked
hooked up the line and then fed it into the tank with a airstone on the end, and its clogged twice so far
it puts out jjust tiny stream of tiny bubbles
and now it's every few seconds it puts out a bunch
in the beginning it was a steady flow, my problem now is that i see the bubbles at the top just sitting there
this is a 29g and i have a penguin 170 and a cheapo walmart filter about 20g one in there
so im dumbfounded as to why the little bubbles are just lying up top ??
any ideas ?

I want to just use a air stone if possible
1 because im just not that mechanicaly inclined 2 i dont want a ph crash
my ph out of the tap is 7.6 and gh and kh at 1 !!
i just checked the ph tonite and i'd say its around 7.0-7.2 so it must be working a tad, my plants do seem to perk up just a little lately and i increased the light to 10hrs from 7 I'll try to get a pic up tomorrow. as far as the bulbs go I think the 2nd cheaper one woudl be better to due to cost but i just checked that page again bulbs.com and the expensive one they sell one at a time the cheaper one is a case at a time, wonder if i can get them to change there rules ? or find it somewhere else maybe ? on a side note to the co2 setup i have shouldnt it be coming out the entire air stone not just a tiny tiny spot on the bottom ? maybe i have a leak ? i didnt glue the line going thru the cap, i made a really small hole enough for the tip go thru and used a pair of pliers to pull it thru and it was not easy to say the least so im preety sure its' air tight

[GulfCoastAquarian]

I'm still not sure how you are hooking up the ballasts. For 24 in bulbs, this is how I would hook them up. It would cause the ballast to think it is driving a 48" bulb, and raise the output considerably.

[GulfCoastAquarian]

As for your CO2 situation, let's take this discussion to the main thread where everyone can benefit...

Click here to go to the new thread

[rdracer66]

as i said im not sure how he wired it
but he read that link that u gave everyone earlier and we have 2 of those ballasts and each bulb is being overpowerd by 2X each bulb
for a total of 136w these bulbs tho are only 3500k not sure of lumens
or the cri since there from home depot and had no markings but im trying to find some good bulbs for this 29g tank with plants and also 2 125g tanks with my africian cichlids not sure what kinda bulb color for that tank so iill just have to go one step at a time
thanks for the help

[Flgatorguy]

I might have over-looked this but.......I went out and bought the f32t8 ballast and 2 48" 4100k bulbs which are quite yellow.....currently have the ballast driving one lamp......my question is will the ballast drive one/two of the plant and aquarium bulbs from home depot?....those bulbs are t12's.....or do i need a ballast designed for driving t12's? and another question that i dont quite understand.....on a earlier post it was mentioned that 4100k bulbs will do ok if you have "alota" light output or something along those lines.....is this true?.....or should i look around for 2 t8's with 6500-10000k range?.....sorry is the post seems a bit weird i am very tired....=(
Thankyou,
Chris

[GulfCoastAquarian]

You're correct in your assumption that a 4100K will provide a plant with enough of the spectrum it needs if it is intense enough. But the problem is that it is providing a whole lot of the wrong spectrum in the process and could fuel some pretty strong algal growth.

I definitely suggest the GE Plant & Aquarium bulbs or the Sylvania Aquarium Gro-Lux bulbs (Lowe's doesn't carry GE bulbs, only Sylvania/OSRAM). My favorite is actually the Sylvania Gro-Lux wide spectrum.

You can get either T12 or T8. The T8's will provide almost as much intensity with much less power consumption. The T12's will provide slightly more light, but will consume more power. Home Depot or Lowe's won't have the 5000k T8 bulbs. Find a local lighting supply store in your Yellow Pages if you want the T8 bulbs, but I'd just go with the T12 bulbs if I were you.

I'm actually thinking of selling my CSL Power Compact metal strip light and just sticking with two overdriven T12's.

But it doesn't matter if the ballast is for T8's, it will work with the T12's. Did you get a ballast for four bulbs or two?