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EyeCandy
06/19/2007, 07:36 PM
I bought new T5 lighting and the instructions say to ground it. The fish store said grounding the ground wire to the reflector or a piece of metal on the aquarium was fine, but that didn't sound right to me. What would anyone recommend attaching the ground wire to???

EyeCandy
06/19/2007, 08:06 PM
Oh and it's just sorta an emergency because I took my old lights off and am setting up these lights now, lol. I am just concern if the lights shorted and I touch the reflector that I would get shocked becasue the grounding would be on the reflector.

Mchava
06/20/2007, 12:20 AM
that sound right. When you buy a wired pendent its grounded to the lighting housing and since this is a retro kit (I assume) then the only place to ground is the reflector. Now if your main plug has a red/white/green wire use the green wire as your ground and the is it. Hope the help you out

EyeCandy
06/20/2007, 01:09 AM
Ok, well I installed the lights and connected the green grounding wire to the reflector. Thank you.

jdieck
06/20/2007, 01:44 AM
Actualy you need to ground not only the reflector but also the ballast if it is not mounted in the reflector.
In other words run a grond wire from the relector to the ground screw in the ballast (of the mouning screw in the ballast metal base) and from there to the green wire of the three prung conection plug/cord, that way you ground both the ballast and the reflector if their metal pieces are not touching each other.

EyeCandy
06/20/2007, 02:00 AM
You lost me jdieck....the ballast came with a white black and green wire. The green being the grounding wire. I grounded it to the top of the reflector. Can you explain again? I think you are saying run a second wire from the reflector back to a screw on the basllast.

BeanAnimal
06/20/2007, 05:41 AM
The POWER CORD for the ballast should have a ground (round center prong). That connects that ballast chassis to the equipment grounding conductor of your house. That would be the GREEN WIRE.

The reflector should be electrically connected to the chassis of the ballast, and therefore to the equipment grounding conductor of the house. In other words another piece of wire must connect the metal case of the ballast to the metal portion of the reflector.

This "extra wire" may already be in the wiring harness for the reflectors... it may not.

SO:

WALL OUTLET WHITE (neutral)-------> BALLAST
WALL OUTLET BLACK (hot)--------> BALLAST
WALL OUTLET GREEN (ground)-------> BALLAST

BALLAST LAMP WIRE ---------> BULB SOCKET
BALLAST LAMP WIRE ---------> BULB SOCKET
BALLAST GROUND WIRE------> REFLECTOR

As Jdieck said, if there is no specific ground lug on the ballast or ground wire in the bulb connection cord, then you need to run your own ground wire and attach it to both the REFLECTOR and to the BALLAST or the ground wire feeding the ballast. In that way both the ballast and reflectors metal parts are connected to the ground wire for your house (the center prong on the wall receptacle).

I hope that is clearer... sadly I fear I may have confused you more.

jdieck
06/20/2007, 06:05 AM
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10176692#post10176692 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by EyeCandy
You lost me jdieck....the ballast came with a white black and green wire. The green being the grounding wire. I grounded it to the top of the reflector. Can you explain again? I think you are saying run a second wire from the reflector back to a screw on the basllast.
Besides connecting the ballast groundi wire to the reflector it must also be connected to the green ground wire of the power cord.
The power cord has to have a three prong plug and three wires also, black whie and green. and the outlet (a GFCI) has to have three holes.

DarG
06/20/2007, 07:23 AM
Are we talking about grounding the clip on reflectors, like the SLR's? Or a large single reflector?

EyeCandy
06/20/2007, 08:59 AM
Ok ok.........Thank you for clarifying Beananimal. As I said, it does have a "green" grounding wire. I will draw a picture of how my step dad and I set it up. tell me if this is right. I am following you guys, just want to reinsure this is right. my step dad had never heard of grounding something to itself, but then again, he is no reefer. I hope this helps.

http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e103/Alspecht85/tanksetup.jpg

EyeCandy
06/20/2007, 09:00 AM
If you can't see that I'll try it again...

<a href="http://photobucket.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e103/Alspecht85/tanksetup.jpg" border="0" alt="Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket"></a>

jdieck
06/20/2007, 09:03 AM
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10177732#post10177732 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by EyeCandy
Ok ok.........Thank you for clarifying Beananimal. As I said, it does have a "green" grounding wire. I will draw a picture of how my step dad and I set it up. tell me if this is right. I am following you guys, just want to reinsure this is right. my step dad had never heard of grounding something to itself, but then again, he is no reefer. I hope this helps.

http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e103/Alspecht85/tanksetup.jpg

As shown you only grounded the reflector of one light, I do not see in the drawing the green wire from the ballast you mentioned earlier.

jdieck
06/20/2007, 09:08 AM
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10177230#post10177230 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by DarG
Are we talking about grounding the clip on reflectors, like the SLR's? Or a large single reflector?
Both.
In T5 clip on reflectors do not really touch anything that may potentially be energized but if they are not grounded, the magnetic field generated by the bulb creates some voltage in the reflector, you might feel some tickling or small shocks if you touch the reflector with your arm while working in the tank. Also that voltage induced by the magnetic field tends to also generate voltage across the water which then may trip your GFCI.
Grounding them is easy, just connect the ground wire to any of the two screws holding the clip.

BeanAnimal
06/20/2007, 09:11 AM
The GREEN WIRES from the WALL CORD should attach to EACH OTHER and then BOTH BALLASTS and ALL of the REFLECTORS.

In other words the metal reflectors and metal cases of the ballasts should all share a common connection (or potential) with the center pin (green wire) from the wall receptacle.

That should be simple enough :)

BeanAnimal
06/20/2007, 09:13 AM
You will find that MOST people do not bother to ground the reflectors. Not a great idea, but not many people do not understand the real dangers of electricity.

EyeCandy
06/20/2007, 09:18 AM
So, I have to ground EACH reflector?? There is only one ground wire per ballast. I think what I wasn't understanding is that you wanted me to ground each of the reflectors.

jdieck
06/20/2007, 09:18 AM
EyeCandy:

This is what the ground wiring looks like. From the powercord to the ballast and to each reflector fed by the ballast.
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/18470Lightsetup.jpg

EyeCandy
06/20/2007, 09:22 AM
Thank you thank you...I'll see about grounding the other three reflectors. Just wondering why I would have to ground the reflectors, they are not "touching anything, not even the lights. I thoguht the grounding wires were for the ballasts, that it would go to the reflector incase of a short.

jdieck
06/20/2007, 09:29 AM
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10177875#post10177875 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by EyeCandy
Thank you thank you...I'll see about grounding the other three reflectors. Just wondering why I would have to ground the reflectors, they are not "touching anything, not even the lights. I thoguht the grounding wires were for the ballasts, that it would go to the reflector incase of a short.

In T5 reflectors either with clip or mounted on the canopy (or any metalic reflector mounted on the wood canopy) do not really touch anything that may potentially be energized but if they are not grounded, the magnetic field generated by the bulb creates some voltage in the reflector, you might feel some tickling or small shocks if you touch the reflector with your arm while working in the tank. Also that voltage induced by the magnetic field tends to also generate voltage across the water which then may trip your GFCI.
Grounding them is easy, just connect the ground wire to any of the screws holding the clip or the reflector to the canpoy.
In other words the reflectors are connected to the circuit not by a direct wire but via a variable magnetic field that works like a transformer (not exaclty but a way of putting it) generating induced voltage on the reflector which in turn creates an amplification effect on the magnetic field reflecting it to the water the same way it reflects the light and inducing voltages on your tank water. Grounding the reflector will get rid of that voltage.

EyeCandy
06/20/2007, 09:34 AM
Ah ok. I understand.

jdieck
06/20/2007, 09:35 AM
:thumbsup:

EyeCandy
06/20/2007, 09:37 AM
So, when I bought this setup, why didn't it come with more grounding wires to connect to the reflectors if that what I was suppose to do...

jdieck
06/20/2007, 10:05 AM
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10177978#post10177978 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by EyeCandy
So, when I bought this setup, why didn't it come with more grounding wires to connect to the reflectors if that what I was suppose to do...
Be happy if it merely came with instructions! j/k
I guess it was a DIY kit were you are supposed to provide your wiring.
One thing I usually complain about those kits is the lack of proper instructions as well as the lack of proper safety measures that you usually get when buying a finished product.

EyeCandy
06/20/2007, 10:11 AM
Yeah basically the instructions said that the ballast must to be grounded, that all. They were very confusing. It came with everything, except mutliply grounding wires :-P Thank you sooo much, I guess I wished I didn't get this t5 setup now. It not very clean looking.

jdieck
06/20/2007, 10:33 AM
Good Luck!
Enjoy!

DarG
06/20/2007, 11:14 AM
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10177781#post10177781 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jdieck
Both.
In T5 clip on reflectors do not really touch anything that may potentially be energized but if they are not grounded, the magnetic field generated by the bulb creates some voltage in the reflector, you might feel some tickling or small shocks if you touch the reflector with your arm while working in the tank. Also that voltage induced by the magnetic field tends to also generate voltage across the water which then may trip your GFCI.
Grounding them is easy, just connect the ground wire to any of the two screws holding the clip.

Thanks, however, I was just trying to get clarification of what Eyecandy was wanting to do.

With that said, I usually do not ground the clip-on reflectors if the GFCI isn't tripping. It doesnt take much voltage to trip the circuit, in fact, it takes very, very minimal amount so if not grounding the clip-on reflectors doesnt cause it to trip, I leave it alone. It's much easier to be able to remove the reflectors for cleaning without a wire attached.
But that's just me, technically you should listen to the majority giving you advice here and ground the reflectors, all of them. However, I have used alligator clips in the past to ground clip-on reflectors. In my experience they make plenty good enough contact to keep the little micro voltage skin tingles away and any little bit of stray voltage that may make it to the tank. And they make it easy to remove the reflectors for cleaning, bulb changes or other maint. Im not sure this would be an "approved" method either. But that's what I have done in the past.

If you implement all or any of my way of doing things, the usual you are solely responsible and proceed at your own risk stuff applies.

If I were using reflectors that were actually mounted to the canopy or hood such that they were in contact with anything that was also in contact with an electrical / electronic component, I would definitely attach a permanent ground to the reflector, with a screw or small bolt and nut.